Deconstructing Jihad

• Main Author: Martinez, Patricia
• Other Authors: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
• Format: Commentary
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Political science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82069; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/39781
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A few weeks ago, Osama bin Laden is purported to have issued yet another call for jihad – this time, in response to the possibility of a war waged on Iraq. In the White Paper issued by the Singapore government on the Jemaah Islamiyah arrests and the threat of terrorism, jihad was identified as both ideology and catalyst. It is significant that the rationalizations for jihad given by the JI were diverse, indicating its many applications. Although the Americans have since changed their mind, jihad became prolific and sanitized in media discourse in the 1980s when the USA referred to the struggle against the Russians in Afghanistan as a righteous jihad. However, Saddam Hussein also labeled the Gulf War a jihad against the West in the name of Islam.