Declaration of Jehad Thank you Zahra #96 and MFarooqui #99. I`ll read the suggested books.

Declaration of Jehad Please pardon any ignorance on my part, I have have learned quite a bit so far this evening. I am still learning.

Declaration of Jehad Please help me. I am an American who admits my ethnocentrism. Life as one born in the U.S. is my paradigm. But my mind is open.

I`ve read the Qur`an. It is infused with a beautiful, spiritual reverence. In the first few chapters Muhammad goes to great length to establish a special bond between Jews, Christians and Muslims. I like the idea that we are all pilgrims here on earth. Maybe because I don`t read Arabic, I find it difficult to understand at times.

My brother told me about another set of writings that some or all Muslims also take as holy scripture, it that true? So my questions are...

Is there somewhere else where there might be another definition of Jihad?

Do any people have the right to call Muslims to fight a religious holy war?

Does it say in any Islamic text that a believer can put aside all values associated with Islam to wage a war and die and attain paradise in the afterlife?

The attacks on September 11 revealed the flaws of Islamic religion (or at least the western world`s perception of Islam, or Osama`s and the Taliban`s version of Islam). And that is a shame because I so admire the rituals and clean lives of Muslims. I so admire their warmth and passion for life. I so admire the architecture and art of Islam. As a little boy in Beirut, I learned to trust the average Arab in the street (strangers would watch over me while my mom would shop - my mom said there was one man who used to take me as soon as we would get to the market...and he got a big laugh out of telling everyone that I, a blonde and blue-eyed two year old, was his son). This was happening while the Isrealis and the PLO were fighting a war.

These September 11 attacks are a bit like having a friend tell you the best ways of things...and then commits suicide while killing a bunch of your family. I hope this is the work of a bunch of psychopaths and not the way of the Islamic people - that would be as sad as anything so far.

I ask these things and put out these words to you with respect.

An Alternate View I`ve seen this article in many places. It is tremendously compelling. If people have questions about the events since September 11, I often refer them to this article.

I, too, am neither a hawk or pacifist - no rational person truly wants war, especially misdirected war. Osama does, but he is not a rational person. Yet cowardice at this moment would also be wrong and dangerous for Americans and other innocent people around the world.

The best thing we can do as life-loving civilians is be prepared to help one another when things start blowing-up.