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Jihad is obligatory for the Muslims.

Jihad is holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's community.

'Jihad' can mean holy war to extremists, but it means struggle to the average Muslim.

There's no question that jihad historically means war.

No one in al-Nahda believes that jihad is a way to impose Islam on the world. But we believe that jihad is self-control, is social and political struggle, and even military jihad is only a way to defend oneself in the case of aggression.

Radical Islam, it has grown into a global jihad.

Many American Muslims are peaceful and define jihad primarily as an internal struggle to improve.

Look at the newborn baby. It struggles to breathe after living in the womb. And yet, growth comes as a result of struggle. Even when we talk about jihad. We need to attach consciousness to struggle. This struggle has to be both individual and collective.

The reason that Islamist militants can assert that jihad is necessary against the perceived enemies of Islam is that there is sufficient ammunition in the Quran to buttress their beliefs. The same could also, of course, be said for the Old Testament, which is full of scenes of violent death visited on the enemies of God.