I'm not sure how many of you know this, but I am currently a senior at CSU and will be graduating in December with a bachelors degree in history, one in Middle Eastern Studies and a minor in Religious Studies.

I had to take a class this semester called Ideology and Reform in Jihad. Basically it goes through the history of Jihad to the modern period and how it's changed. This course has taught me quite a bit and I thought I'd pass my final paper on to those that would be interested in learning more. I had to glaze over quite a bit but I would be more than happy to answer any questions anyone had. I understand we have a very large number of active members of the armed forces and also those that were incredibly interested in the death of Osama bin Laden last week.

Perhaps this will give some of you a more rounded view of modern Jihad ideology. It's attached, so enjoy!

BTW... the paper's like 9 pages long. So... have fun!

What's your career goal with that degree, and why choose Mideast Studies? Just curious. I started to read the paper, but got distracted. Cliffs?

I spent two months in Jakarta, Indonesia after I graduated high school. It's the largest Muslim country in the world and constantly being around Islam made me want to learn more about where it came from. I hope to become a professor if not some type of government worker. I'm applying to masters programs in Israel and hopefully I'll get accepted to one of those in order to be able to further my field of study.

The paper essentially discusses the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1900s, how they developed the ideology they did, the historical connections (particularly Quranic passages) that established the ideology of Jihad, modern jihads (including a cultural jihad being waged in America now) and the implications and meaning of the Battle for Fallujah in 2004. That's a very brief edition of the cliffnotes. There is a lot of information I had to include in this paper lol

Awesome! Thanks a lot for sharing this. Can't wait till later to read through it.

sweet, can't wait to read this

"Jihad" is interpreted literally and in the Islam context is correctly interpreted "struggle" and for the Muslim it would be for perfection.
So Lyssa, would it be safe to say that "Jihad" is NOT Holy War?

Based on the arabic root j-h-d is related to struggle. However the struggle is not for inner perfection. The struggle is more related to the world and how to survive in it, whatever that may mean. One must struggle to be a good and compliant Muslim, whether killing infidels, seizing them, enslaving them or simply following the basic five pillars as laid out by Muhammad in hadith literature. Being a pious Muslim doesn't come easily and it's meant to be a struggle.

Jihad is defined by extremists as a holy war which is incorrect. The arabic root q-t-l is related to warfare and is used seldomly in the Qur'an.

Here is not the true meaning of Jihad, but funny nonetheless XD

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-PiMUUZz3c"]YouTube - Eddie Izzard Jihad[/ame]