Sama News published apologetics for Islamic Jihad, claiming it won the micro-war with Israel earlier this month:
The enemy did not expect the "Quds Brigades" to continue fighting in the "Revenge of the Free" battle for more than two days, yet that the battle would extend to 5 days. And if he had succeeded tactically in assassinating 6 leaders of the "Al-Quds Brigades", he strategically failed to predict its capabilities and the strength of its fighters.
Once it set up and burned that straw man, it goes into detail on Islamic Jihad's military doctrine, which includes:
At the heart of the doctrine of jihad for the sake of God, which makes the goal of every fighter victory or martyrdom in pursuit of God's pleasure. ...The doctrine of jihad for the sake of God is the basis of the combat doctrine from which the Mujahideen start....Jihad is the highest degree in Islam and its culmination is in the text of the Prophet’s hadith...The fighters of the "Quds Brigades" go to battle as a religious duty, just as they go to prayer. ...Jihad for the sake of God for the liberation of Palestine is linked to martyrdom, which occupies a central position in the combat doctrine of the Mujahideen of the Quds Brigades and all the Mujahideen are on the same path, based on the concept of divine choice of the martyrs who testify with their blood and souls that the goal of liberating Palestine and the nation's renaissance is more precious than their lives under occupation and oppression....The blood that is shed from the martyrs is the fuel for liberation and the movement of the masses to revolt against the occupation in all the stages of the Palestinian revolution. ...The role of the mujahideen in Palestine, led by the Al-Quds Brigades, remains to keep the embers of jihad burning in Palestine, and to keep the fuse of resistance burning against the Zionist entity, which means continuing the jihad and the continuation of the resistance until the conditions for complete victory over it are completed, and this is what the founder of the movement, the thinker, the martyr Fathi. Al-Shikaqi said: “Our jihad will continue, and our martyrdom operations will continue, until this cause remains alive, and until the whole nation rises towards its sacred cause, the cause of Palestine.”
When terrorist apologists speak to the West, they like to claim that the word "jihad" is misunderstood, and that "holy war" is only the "lesser jihad" while the "greater jihad" means the personal struggle to be a better person.
But I can see no mention of "greater jihad" here in Arabic. I don't see much inner struggle in this text. The word "jihad" has only one meaning in this manifesto.
And indeed, as we've seen, the default meaning of "jihad" in Arabic is invariably violent holy war. In fact, WikiIslam say that the original source cited for "greater Jihad" as an inner struggle is considered by many Islamic authorities to be fabricated or at best quite weak, and contradicts several explicit Quranic sources that say that jihad with bloodshed is superior in every way.
Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and receive no hurt, and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah with their goods and their persons. Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home). Unto all (in Faith) Hath Allah promised good: But those who strive and fight Hath He distinguished above those who sit (at home) by a special reward. (Quran 4:95)
A number of hadiths quoting Mohammed are even stronger, such as,
Standing for an hour in the ranks of battle is better than standing in prayer for sixty years.(Saheeh related by Ibn Ade and Ibn Asakir from Abu Hurayrah 4/6165. Sahih al Jaami as Sagheer no. 4305)
Etymologically, "jihad" means struggle, but colloquially and Islamically, there is only one real meaning for the term.
