This image from Wikipedia was posted in 2012, with its caption being: “Gazan children display military tactics at a kindergarten graduation ceremony in Gaza City. After winning Palestinian legislative elections against Fatah in 2006, Hamas launched a successful coup in June 2007 to purge Gaza of remaining Fatah presence. Hamas security forces shot and tortured Palestinians who opposed Hamas rule in Gaza, and in one instance, threw a Fatah operative from the 15th floor of a Gaza building.”
Despite the fact that the Islamic term “Jihad” technically only means “to strive, endeavor, labor, take pains, and exhaust on behalf or for the sake of something,” in reality the term is almost always only used in connection with aggression towards non-Muslims, despite the Western media constantly attempting to claim otherwise.
An article on the website “Center for the Study of Political Islam” explains that in Islam there is a “greater jihad” which refers to “an inner spiritual struggle,” and a “lesser jihad” which refers to the “killing of others.” The article explains that 98% of the writings in the Hadith that refer to jihad do so by calling the “killing jihad” as the best action. [Note that some people claim that only the writings in the Quran should be considered to be legitimate instead of other writings such as the Hadith, however people who espouse that view (“Quranists”) are viewed as “heretics” by both Sunni and Shia Muslims who make up the vast majority of Muslims worldwide.]
A different article entitled “The Many Faces of Jihad” by Raymond Ibrahim explains that while the word “jihad” does technically only mean to “strive” for something with no connotation of violence, in reality the term has most significantly been used in connection with Islam’s history of aggression against non-Muslims, such as to “fight, battle, [and engage in] holy war against the infidels, as a religious duty.” Ibrahim explains that in modern times, Islam also often engages in other types of aggression against others such as the “jihad al-mal” which means “money jihad” where alms are contributed to hostile Islamic groups; “jihad al-wilada” meaning “demographic jihad” where Muslims strive to create as many offspring as possible as a strategy to outnumber non-Muslims; and “jihad al-kalam,” “jihad al-lissan,” and “jihad al-qalam”— meaning jihad of words, tongues, and pens, respectively, meaning “propaganda.”
About the “propaganda jihad” aspect, Ibrahim says:
“Whether in speaking or writing, here the Muslim’s chief purpose is to empower Islam and/or demoralize the West. This jihad usually appears as apologetics for Islam and polemics against the West—many of which consist of out-and-out lies; it emanates from Muslim academics, activists, journalists, politicians, and others.
For example, when writer Qasim Rashid used his “pen” to deceive the Washington Post’s infidel readership about the word jihad—saying it only pertains to defensive, never offensive, war—he himself was performing jihad.
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Today, many Muslims remain committed to the jihad against and subjugation of the West. But whereas they can not—they also need not—resort to conventional war. Words, words, and more words—twisted and false and yet still manipulating the West—are sufficient.
An enormous amount of disinformation articles exist which attempt to claim that Jihad is only a benign term, such as this one by the corrupt “Snopes” organization which makes claims that are easily provable as being fraudulent, such as the following:
“… jihad can be understood in at least two ways: the “greater jihad,” involving the struggle against the lower self (to purify one’s heart, do good, avoid evil, and make oneself a better person,) and the “lesser jihad,” involving the struggle against outside forces, or “any obstacle that stands in the way of the good.” This can involve fighting against oppressors and aggressors who commit injustice; however, Islamic tradition requires specific ethical conditions in place, such as the requirement ‘to protect non-combatants.’”
… Note for example the references to “fighting against oppressors and aggressors who ‘commit injustice’,” with “specific ethical conditions in place.” None of those claims have any truth, as the links at the end of this article demonstrate. The amount of harm that is caused by disinformation articles such as that one are incalculable, as they have been directly leading to naive Westerners throwing open the floodgates of Islam into their countries for years.
For some most relevant and accurate examples of what “jihad” most significantly means, see this link, this link, and this link. Also see the article “A Summary of Islam Issues.”