Peaceful Struggle or Violent Jihad : A comparison of three Islamic-inspired magazines of propaganda on the topic of Jihad

In the Islamic world, the term Jihad bears intricate meaning, and its rightful interpretation has occupied many scholars and Muslims across the globe. For some, it relates to the personal struggle that one may have to deal with on a regular basis. For others, the term operates on the basis of a willingness to fight. While the latter interpretation seems to be shared by extremist terrorists of organisations such as ISIS and Al Qaeda, the majority of Muslims have an entirely different interpretation of jihad. This essay wishes to delve deeper into this intricate term in order to come closer to an understanding of Jihad. This is done by conducting a qualitative and comparative analysis of three magazines of propaganda: the Ahmadiyya Community, the Islamic State and Al Qaeda respectively. The results of the study showed that the Ahmadiyya Community claim that a vital aspect of jihad is “jihad-of-the-pen”, a concept which aims to educate other people on the peaceful nature of Islam. Because of the wrongful interpretation of Jihad by extremist organisations, the Ahmadiyya Community take to the pen in order to battle these misinterpretations while also wanting to show that Islam is a peaceful religion. Furthermore, they claim that this wrongful interpretation affects the way ordinary law-abiding Muslim citizens are being viewed upon. Moreover, the findings also showed that ISIS and Al Qaeda interpret jihad as being the “jihad-of-the-sword”, whereby it is considered to be the sixth pillar. While ISIS use the concept of jihad to justify its fighting of the disbelievers, including Muslims who deal with ‘Crusader’ Western democracies, Al Qaeda aims their jihad towards the United States, whom they feel are the root to everything terror. The essay concludes with a the notion that research on this topic should focus more on peaceful jihad, the kind of personal and inner struggle that is being advocated by the Ahmadiyya communities. Literature, such as Understanding Jihad, Field of Blood, and The Secret History of Al Qaeda, has all too much tended to the violent-nature of jihad and left the peaceful, inner struggle out of the discussion. More research can be conducted on this topic to further paint the picture of peaceful struggle, which is a struggle that is felt for the absolute majority of Muslims throughout this world