Namely, as acts of 'terrorism' are waged against the supposed enemy of Islam under the term "Jihad," Lippman considers this to be "the most overused and ill-understood word in contemporary Islam." (113)
In a large respect, this is because geopolitical circumstances have created many defensive and militant segments of the global Muslim population. The exploitation of the term Jihad is one of the primary practices of those armed extremist groups postured in opposition to the west. Lippman's text provides some excellent insight in this regard, noting that Jihad is taken generally as a call to "holy war" but that this is a pointedly selective interpretation of its meaning. In actuality, the term means "utmost effort." (113) While Lippman does not preclude therefore the possibility of violence as being encompassed by the utmost effort in defense of Islam, the conflictive relationship between Islam and the colonizing...
The result is a focus in Lippman's text on the ways that Islam has attained its negative image in the west.
The text's strongest quality is the balance that it brings to its explanation, presenting a history in which Muslims are shown often to be at the brunt of abuses and simultaneously identifying the cultural defects which have allowed some of Islam's less defensible practices. Most importantly, the text demonstrates that these practices must be separated from our comprehension and judgment of a faith and people which are both driven by tenets of peace, knowledge, goodness and fellowship.
Works Cited:
Lippman, T.W. (1995). Understanding Islam: An Introduction to the Muslim World. Plume.
