Jihad, Don't be misled!

I was shocked to read the Discourse article in The Jakarta Post, Feb. 20, 1998, under the somewhat misleading heading Call for jihad 'may have caused riots'. Masdar E. Mas'udi, director of the Indonesian Society for Pesantren and Community Development, made a statement based only on suspicion. The statement was not supported by sound arguments following a careful survey and investigation. It's hard to understand how Masdar could have given such a reckless and irresponsible point of view.

I regret the Post had apparently misunderstood the true meaning of jihad, as evident from the question put forward to Masdar. And instead of correcting the question, Masdar's answer was totally absurd. So, this article serves nothing but only adds to the long-existing misunderstanding of Islam and may discredit it. It is like saying that Islam is identical to terrorism, a negative picture that is still reflected in the views of the majority of the West.

Masdar should have known the actual meaning of jihad. Jihad is derived from the letters J-H-D, which in any Arabic dictionary means "strive, struggle, fight" (vigorously or seriously or with enthusiasm) to achieve a certain goal. Not a single word refers to "war" or "battle" or "terrorism" or "guns and ammunition", let alone "holy war."

If a Moslem goes to work when there is a heavy snow storm to earn money for his family, it's jihad. A person is doing jihad if he or she donates a lot of money to the needy. Or if someone strives seriously in the path of God to act virtuous, we say that he is doing jihad. Defending one's country's freedom from the enemy is also jihad.

Upon returning from the battle of Badr, the Prophet Muhammad told his companion that "we just came back from a small war". The companion asked: "How come, O Prophet of Allah, it was a small war?" To this the Prophet gave a simple answer: "The war against our own passion or lustful desires is certainly much bigger." Now, could this war against oneself mean a battle fought with guns and ammunition? Only a fool will say "yes".

Jihad doesn't necessarily mean war or battle involving guns and ammunition. In most cases it has even nothing to do with them, let alone rioting and terrorism. The call for jihad from the Indonesian Ulemas Council, I believe, is a call to seriously fight any misconduct and greediness, like hoarding essential commodities in times of need hoping to reap huge profits, which only causes the have-nots to suffer even more.

These hungry people do not have many options to solve their problem and resort to rioting, making the ethnic Chinese their first target and destroying and looting their shops. Why ethnic Chinese? The people's logic is simple: they see them as the ones who dominate the country's economy.

My conclusion is that Masdar's suspicion that the call for jihad has triggered people to rioting is completely groundless.

H.W. PIENANDORO

Bogor, West Java