Jihad must promote goodwill, not violence

Tema, May 7, GNA - Alhaji Abdul-Wahab Issah, National Secretary of Tahrik-I-Jadid, Naib Afsah of Jalsa Planning Committee, Ghana, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, says Jihad must only be promoted and supported if it promotes goodwill and not violence.

According to Alhaji Issah, 'Jihad stands for a struggle, or striving to achieve a specific goal' adding that 'Islam teaches that, to engage in jihad means to go the extra mile according to the means available to one to establish goodness and put away evil.'

He was the Guest Speaker at the Tema Circuit Conference of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission held at Tema Mosque.

The conference which was on the theme, 'Financial Sacrifice, A Jihad of our Time', was organized to raise funds to purchase a cemetery plot for the circuit.

Alhaji Issah said 'Jihad must be the most controversial phenomenon in today's world. It is arguably the most misunderstood term in the religion of Islam.'

According to Alhaji Issah, the media had failed in its portrayal of miscreants who perpetrate violence as jihadists.

'To all these groups, the term Jihad casts the image of a man dressed in black with a turban on his head and carrying all kinds of weapons ready to blow out any public facility that comes his way, etc.' he said.

He indicated that the need to engage in physical combat was on few

occasions in the past, and rose as a necessity to implant freedom of conscience and worship, and to protect houses that were set aside for purposes of devotion.

According to him, 'This form of jihad has always been temporary and its employment was meant to institute peace rather than disturb it.'

He said every age came with the types of jihad that were needed to establish the way of Allah and free mankind from the shackles of sin and bad moral conduct.

Alhaji Issah argued that this dispensation (modern era) offers the opportunity to spend out one's possessions instead of offering the ultimate sacrifice.

Ubeidalah Kutia Saeed, President of Tema Circuit of the Ahmadiyah Muslim Mission, alleged that that Muslims die of hunger whilst many rich Muslim countries sponsor extremist organizations like Abdullah Azzam Brigades, Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabab, etc.

'These barbaric groups are given so much to perpetuate mayhem on

mankind without discrimination, whether you are a Muslim or not, whether male or female, young or old.

These atrocities and indeed terrorist activities are committed in the name of Jihad to the extent that a mere mention of the word Jihad sends shivers down the spines of many innocent people and have left a dent on the beautiful and perfect teachings of Islam, a religion that mirrors the laws of nature and a

manifests God's glory,' he said.
GNA

By Alexander Nyarko Yeboah, GNA