The media adopted a more neutral tone during Saddam Hussein’s 1980-88 war on Iran, which he called a jihad and which the United States supported. The media became hostile when Israel and America were targeted — by the Hezbollah during the 1982-2000 Israeli occupation of Lebanon, by some Palestinians during the second intifadah, by al Qaeda on 9/11 and by various groups since in occupied Iraq and elsewhere.

Holy war is good when it suits the West but evil when it doesn’t.

THE QUR’AN AND JIHAD

What does the Qur’an say about jihad? It says a lot. It does so in the so-called sword verses, of which there are about a dozen. Both the critics of Islam and the likes of bin Laden quote these, selectively and out of context.

Take the injunction, Slay them wherever you come upon them. It is part of a passage that emphasizes self-defense when attacked:

Fight in the way of God with those who fight you, but do not initiate hostilities; God loves not the aggressors.

And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you; persecution is worse than slaying.

But if they cease, let there be no hostility except to those who practice oppression (2:190-93).

Another “sword” verse, Take them and slay them wherever you come on them, is part of an injunction revealed at a time when Muslims were being persecuted in Arabia:

If they leave you alone and do not fight you and offer you peace, then Allah allows you no way against them. [But] if they withdraw not from you nor offer you peace, then take them and slay them wherever you come on them (4:90).

Another oft-cited verse, Fight the leaders of unbelief, has a preceding qualifier, so that the full line reads:

If they break their pledges after their covenant and assail your religion, then fight the leaders of unbelief (9:12).

Similarly, when critics trot out the line, Leave is given to those who fight, they rarely quote the entire injunction:

Leave is given to those who fight, because they have been wronged...[and] expelled from their homes unjustly only for saying, “Our Lord is God.”

Had it not been for God repelling some men by means of others, cloisters, churches, oratories and mosques, wherein God’s name is oft mentioned, would surely have been pulled down (22:39-40).

There are two elements here — one of defensive jihad to counter the religious persecution that Muhammad and his followers were then facing, and the other of concern for the religious freedom of all believers, not just Muslims.

As for the Prophet being a warrior, the concept is not unique to Islam. What of Joshua, David and Solomon? Plus, Muhammad “only fought those who fought him, and his fighting had no other aims than repelling repression, warding off rebellion and aggression, and putting an end to persecution due to religion,” wrote the late Mahmud Shaltut, a former rector of the famed Al-Azhar Islamic academy in Cairo.3