Ideology of Jihad

Old school Muslims believe in two different states, Dar el Islam (The state under which Islam is the government, the law and the military) and Dar el Harb, (Parts of the world not under rule of Islam, but rather infidels).

Jihadist's are warriors that fight for the caliphate (The supreme leader of Dar el Islam) in times of Jihad. Now, the route of the word Jihad is Jihd, which means continuos struggle in Arabic. The definition of the word Jihad by its routes means continuing war. Jihadists fight their "holy war" until it is won.

As I mentioned Jihadists follow the orders of the caliphate (I am of course ignoring when the Ottoman Caliph waged Jihad against Muslims who followed the Allies during the WWI, which after the defeated of the axis, the Ottoman Empire collapsed, and since there has not been a Caliphate). Caliphs have the ability to wage Jihad as means as conquering, or defense. The best example of both of these are of course, the Crusades. Jihads are however, wars waged against infidels, against non followers of the prophet Mohammed.

In a speech he gave after the 9/11 attacks, bin Laden gave a speech describing the efforts of the Jihadists. One thing in particular that he said was "The problem the Muslim community has been facings is 87 years old." The problem he is referring to, is the year the caliphate collapsed. I briefly skimmed the importance the Caliph had on the muslim community. In all essence, he has the sole right to wage Jihad. Since the disestablishment of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, the right to wage Jihad went along with it. Since that time however, terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Wahibi have resumed the responsibility of the Caliph. No leaders of these terrorist organizations have claimed to be the Caliph, since they are not head of state and Dar el Islam is no longer.

In the book The Terrorist Watch, Ronald Kessler reports of an interaction between a terrorist being interrogated at G-bay and a CIA agent. The CIA agent asked the forward question of why he would die for Islam. His response came as a surprise to not just to me, but the author and he interrogator. He said "You Americans don't understand. All you think about is American. Well I think about Islam. The ummah, the Islamic community." This terrorist fights for others, he is willing to die for others. There is no coercing the Jihadists to stop their war. As long as Islam prevails and their ideology holds steadfast, there will always be terrorism, there will always be Jihad, they will not hinder, they will not stop until they have achieved victory.

Thats the ideology of Jihad in a nutshell