No difference between the terrorists and jehadis at all. Jehadis are real terrorists and the whole mankind is their enemy. They believe in killing innocent people in the name of religion. They have changed the real meaning of Jihad.

[Quran 60:8]"GOD does not enjoin you from befriending those who do not fight you because of religion, and do not evict you from your homes. You may befriend them and be equitable towards them. GOD loves the equitable." This is Islam and Islam allows Jihad, fighting with eveils, not terrorism.

Jihad is not terrorism and some non-Muslims are trying to link Jihad with terrorism. Several terrorists groups have also used Islam to kill people. They are, not all Muslims, the real culprit, they have given others a chance to call all Muslims as terrorists. Christians or Jews are also terrorists but people talk about Islamic terrorists.

The western media is trying hard to label all Muslims as terrorists and Islam as the source of terrorism. But the fact is that people of all religion use terrorism as an act of violence. Christian terrorists are active in Bosnia, England, Ireland, Germany, Spain. Jewish terrorists are active in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. These terrorists groups are using their religious beliefs to legitimating the violence. And you are targeting Islam only?

@ Alan

It seems you have not even bothered to read the article before putting your comment. Your comment has all the elements to make those self-confessed Jihadis (read terrorists) more popular and legitimize their purpose (read terrorism in the name of jihad).

You say.. No difference between the terrorists and jihadis. Ironically, this was the same mistake that was done by the Bush administration when it started with the War on Terror.....

Terminology does matter because it was wrong terminology that made the situation as worse as it stands today, for Bush and for the world.

Further...

According to you, Jehadis are real terrorists..

Could you please explain who are the fake ones? Or what is the difference between a real terrorist and a fake terrorist?

Terminology does matter!

The liberal Muslim population should take responsibility to teach other non-Muslims about the religion, Islam. Several terrorists groups are using the name of religion to justify their activities of violence. But the fact is that the Islam is truly submissive, peaceful, and friendly to non-Muslims. This is nonsense to co-relate Jihad and terrorism anyway.

Hey Aneez, I really don't know how did u presume that I didn't go through the writing here, anyways.....Do you the meaning of Jihad, let me tell you.. Jihadies were best when they were battling against Russians in Afghanistan but after the battle Jihadies became terrorists and start fighting with each and everyone. They actually don't like democracies in Islamic countries. Jihad, the word, has become the synonyms of terrorism now.

Democarcy and Islam cannot co-exist together because Islam says that every aspect of daily life must be in submission in the name of Allah. What happens with the people and the country is said to be the will of Allah. and don't give me the example of Pakistan because elections do not automatically equate a government as Democratic, after all Pakistan is an Islamic country.

The meaning of Jihad is struggle, both externally and internally. Terrorists have given just another meaning to Jihad - terrorize people. When Islam followers come to war and jihad they tell the enemies to either Surrender and convert the laws to Islamic laws or become dead in a minute. Muslims are not allowed by the religion to kill civilians, they are not allowed to force their views on anyone, but they are doing it in the name of religion, Jihad. Suicide is forbidden in Islam but killing is okay.

Agreed with Alan and let me make it clear that as I know and have read in books and seen in practical life, Islam is not a peaceful religion and a true Muslim knows the truth better. Jihad is a military force and Islamic laws approve it. It allows to spread Islam by any mean, by the force of the sword and words or whatever.

#Alan, go and read about Islam first and then jump here to comment. Islam is the religion that teaches the system how to govern, it talks to spread the truth for everyone. The meaning of Jihad is to spread spreading the word of Allah to all. It doesn't talk about attacking people.

I want to add one more thing here that terrorists are not Muslims, They don't follow any religion, they know how to kill and for that purpose they can use any religion. All the terrorists will go to hell on judgement day but once an Islamic calipahte is re established.

Let me ask one question from Syaeful, Can you tell me how did Islam become the largest religion in the world in just 100 years? Muslims did it by using sword, Jihad and terrorism. I am not saying that Christianity was not spread without the use of sword, but Jesus didn't personally do it and Muhammad did it.

I am surprised Alan how can you talk like this. Don't you know Muslims everywhere are being killed brutally by other for forces. Muslims know how much suffering is going on in the Islamic world. In Kashmir- millions of Kashmiris dead, in Palestine-millions dead, In Afghanistan- thousands dead, In Iraq-1.2 million dead, and you are saying Muslims are killing others. Get some better knowledge man.

Jihad is not terrorism and terrorism is not Jihad. During jihad, women, children, and civilians are not be harmed by any Muslim. During jihad, property is not be destroyed or looted. We can find same words in the Qur'an. Jihad is a process to fight against evil within us. Don't link it with terrorism.

God is within every human being and we generally feel it at some point of time when we are in distress. Killing another in the name of religion is the killing of oneself. If you are ready to fight against evil, start the battle from within. This is a battle that gives love to everyone.

The terminology does not matter at all. The Islamic perspective of Jihad is meant to conquer lands to expand Islamic rule, to force non-Muslims to accept Islam, to accept the Divine Islamic laws, otherwise be ready to be killed in the name of Jihad.

No it doesn't matter as long as it is essentially terrorism. Whether you call it crusade or jihad or terrorism, if it spills the blood of the innocent with the objective of spreading terror terminology doesn't matter at all.

If it mattered would it have helped any one in any way or for that matter any cause in any way? What is terrorism for the rest of the world is jihad for the likes of bin Laden and co. What is crusade for Bush is terrorism for the rest of the world. Where does terminology come from and even if it does, how does it matter?

It matters a lot if the world can see things from the correct perspective. Why do Islamic militants are carrying out attacks against western targets and calling it jehad? The fact is that the west has always sided with the unjust that oppressed Islam like Israel is doing with Palestine. It matters a lot but the world must understand what actually it means and what the purpose is.

@ Aneez:

You said; "You say.. No difference between the terrorists and jihadis. Ironically, this was the same mistake that was done by the Bush administration when it started with the War on Terror....."

Buddy, I can understand where your comments are coming from. It is not very difficult to guess you are a Muslim and it is not very easy to guess why a majority of you are like that. I leave it there. You need to introspect.

Terrorists are terrorists and they do not belong to any religious group. They are a bunch of diabolical criminals who want to achieve their means through indiscriminate blood-letting and call the process the work of god. Islam is a big scandal in itself as exposed by many like Salman Rushdie.

@ Alan

Hey dude, you seem to be a confused soul. C’mon man, get a lifer. Jumping on your seat and changing your stance (read: comment box) in a debate serves no purpose, neither for the debater nor the debate!

Coming back to the point, the debate here is about the validity of terminology. You can keep your anti-Muslim sentiments for some future debates. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t belong to any of those outfits (call it terrorists or jihadis). I’m as noble a Muslim as you are a Christian, so your words don’t disturb me.

As Jesus said, Love Thy Neighbor. So, I have no ill-feelings towards you even if you continue the debate from your original side cuz the ’yes’ and ’no’ sections of the debate are nothing more than just two adjacent rows.

Exchange views, not hatred!

Anyway, If you say terminology is useless in the current issue, then I’m afraid cuz you’ll have to fight the entire Bush administration to make your point valid. And I don’t think you’ll have much of a say if this happens, or for that matter even 10 Downing Street will have to struggle a lot if it tries to support your views!!

Cheers!

It makes a lot of difference. I, personally, was not aware that Jihad can be for good causes (not ’good’ as defined by Osama, of course) too.

I am sure there must be many who equate Jihad with Osama Bin Laden’s interpretation of the concept. By doing so we are in fact drifting further away from Muslims, even moderate ones.

Such ignorance is unpardonable. It only strengthens the resentment of Muslims that ’others’ do not care for Islam or worse still, are against it.

The culprit is the western media, which does not do proper research. The media of the rest of the world just apes what the western media writes.

No wonder, Osama has succeeded so much! The need of the hour is to get all academics who know about Islam and listen to what they say.

Terminology matters a whole lot and I say this not because I believe that it will change the present but it will change future perception. By constantly using the term ’Jihad’ we are making sure that all those young minds in the orthodox Islamic world take up to it as if it is a great noble task. More than what the west perceive it as, it is important at this juncture that we try and tell the remainder of the Islamic world that violent acts are not ’Jihad’, but just pure nonsense that is unacceptable. That is exactly why we better label them as terrorists and that takes away the religious inspiration and drive from the moment.

This is a very clever and important step indeed as most people defend their own religion even above logic (as we have so often seen here itself) and by taking away the religious aspect from it all we make it a lot more sane.

While I have no in-depth knowledge about religion, the so called ’moderate Muslims’ really do need to speak out a lot more rather than just be meek a voice.