Re: El Feo
BKM said:
Just curious: what is your understanding of the term "jihad"? I have read a lot of debate about the term and its meaning. The definition in this quiz is the softest, most "politically correct" answer, but I'm not sure its really "wrong" per se.
Well, I think you're right. My characterization of it as "wrong" may be less than nuanced, but then, you know I'm an arrogant American cowboy Republican (TM)

. Maybe I should say I think it's incomplete or a bit naive with respect to what the "spiritual struggle" actually entails. As I have been told by "lapsed Muslim" friends, "jihad" is the struggle between
dar al-Islam (The House of God or Peace) and
dar al-Harb (The House of War). It can be a personal, internal spiritual struggle between belief and doubt for an individual, but in the past 400 years has
also come to literally mean (to many "mainstream" Muslims, as well as more fundamentalist strains such a Wahhabism) the violent conflict between the world of believers (which comprise
dar al-Islam on Earth) and the infidels and unbelievers that constitute
dar al-Harb.
Therefore, it means
both a sort of touchy-feely individual struggle with the bigger questions of God, belief, the meaning of life & death, etc., and...the not-so touchy-feely conflict between Muslims and unbelievers, in which the options are (a) submission and conversion of the infidel, or (b) their death, if they are unwilling to submit.
Like all religious questions, this is obviously open to interpretation, and since I'm a non-Muslim I'm sure many Muslims would call me a biased, ignorant xenophobe and dismiss this out-of-hand. But I trust the friends who have explained this to me. I think this "fuller" definition is pretty darn far afield from the impression one would get from this little quiz.