John Perazzo

The literal meaning of the Arabic word jihad is “struggle.” Some people have translated the word to mean “holy war” in order to expand Muslim territory and influence, and have argued that extremist Muslims are waging such a war against the United States and other non-Islamic countries. John Perazzo argues for such an understanding of jihad in the following viewpoint. He asserts that following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in which thousands of people were killed in New York and Washington, D.C., many church bodies and academics spread false notions of what jihad means in trying to argue that Islam is a “religion of peace.” He argues that such views amount to wishful thinking and that many people in the Middle East and the Islamic world have embraced...