Reconsidering "holy war" (jihad) in Islam

‘Holy War’ does not exhaust, and often fails to explain, the semantic range of jihād in Arabic/Islamic contexts. A more fruitful approach to the culturally encoded nuances of jihād requires the prior delineation of ideology from religion. Only a few scholars, e.g., Michael Gilsenan, Hamid Enayat, Pi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
Main Author: Lawrence, Bruce B. 1941- (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge 1990
In: Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
Further subjects:B Holy War
B Third Sacred War
B Islam
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
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Summary:‘Holy War’ does not exhaust, and often fails to explain, the semantic range of jihād in Arabic/Islamic contexts. A more fruitful approach to the culturally encoded nuances of jihād requires the prior delineation of ideology from religion. Only a few scholars, e.g., Michael Gilsenan, Hamid Enayat, Pierre Bourdieu and Bassam Tibi, have considered the value‐neutral use of ideology in the analysis of Islamic evidence. None has addressed jihād, none has reverted, or tried to revert, contemporary stereotypes derived from an essentialist notion of Islam and Muslims, power and piety clustered around the univocal reading of jihād as ‘holy war’. This essay suggests other interpretive options that merit consideration by all serious students of religion in the modern world.
ISSN:0959-6410
Contains:In: Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/09596419008720939