Islam and Jihad, by Pr. Omar Dourmane

“When we’ve lived so long in a Muslim country, when we could see there in the people’s daily life, men and women whose faith in God and the message of the Coran are source of peace, courage, and misericord; we become then surprised by the mistrusting attitude that many Western people have towards the Muslim religion.”

This is how Michel LELONG (1) came to denounce in 1986, the poor vehiculated message in Europe about Islam, and the stubbornness of some people to keep tarnishing the image of this beautiful religion. This stubbornness is still existent nowadays. 

A new result is adding this representation a dark layer which sounds like a double sentence to European Muslims. Blind terrorism which, in favor of pernicious amalgams, tarnishes their reputation and flouts their beautiful religion.

However, there’s still a hope: mutual knowledge about each other and cultural exchanges are naturally able to reestablish the truth. 

This is what Michel Lelong’s procedure was about when he says: “When I was discovering step by step thanks to some friends and books, the religious, ethical, social values of Islam, I figured out that the spread ideas in Europe about the Coran, the Prophet Muhammad, rites and Islamic morals do not correspond to reality”.

I. The Origin and the Aim of the Creation of Humanity According to the Coran

“O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.” Surat n° 49 verse n° 13.

This verse reminds Muslims in one hand, that they are all brothers since they have the same father and mother. In the other hand, it reminds them that the regional and cultural diversity are God’s will. Anyone who ignores this willing and dreams of a world of clones living under one religion, one culture, and one way of thinking; will start a war which is lost in advance: God says:

“Had Allah willed, He would have made you one nation [united in religion], but [He intended] to test you in what He has given you; so race to [all that is] good. To Allah is your return all together, and He will [then] inform you concerning that over which you used to differ.” Surat n° 5 verse n° 48.

The best way, and probably the only one, to overcome differences is once again the knowing of others.  Knowing their cultures is a Koranic injunction which cannot be achieved except in moments of peace and appeasement through brothering meetings. This is the major aim of Islam in terms of diversity. Consequently, Islam is strongly related to peace; a sinus condition related to the cultural and civilizational acquaintance.    

II. What does Islam mean?

It is suitable to define Islam from this Koranic idea of brotherhood and the unique aim of humans’ creation. I would define Islam as having three meanings:

The first one is an ethical meaning: it comes from the pacific ethic of humans who must promote peace between people with no exception, and no racial distinction, or any distinction related to the skin color or religion. Being a “Muslim” (whether a Muslim man or woman) means being the one who spreads peace. It is even an inherent predisposition to human nature. This what is reminded by God in the 30th verse of Surat n° 30:

” [Adhere to] the fitrah of Allah upon which He has created [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah”

The second meaning is the dogmatic order and the choice of religion: It means “submission” which must be taken as “giving oneself to God “. It relies on humans’ knowledge thanks to their awareness, that there is one being above all; that there is one and unique creator which human minds acknowledge his omnipresence. He is One, and there are no other Gods except him. He is out of what all humans can imagine him to be.

The third meaning consists of questioning oneself by making a continuous judgmental work without blindly believing that there is only one Truth. This will lead people to deny all other possible truths. By the way, The Coran forbid it in the Surat number 34, verse number 24:

“And indeed, we or you are either upon guidance or in clear error. »

III. Jihad between an Arab terminology and a Western definition 

It is true that the term “Jihad”, fortunately enough, was not Latinized like other terms although it received a real change of meaning in the Middle age.

First of all, one must distinguish between jihad, which implies people doing all their best for their well-being, and Kitale which means precisely “the battle with weapons”. The first term was found for the first time in the maqui verses when the battle was even prohibited in Mecca. As a result, the term jihad means every effort of mobilizing human forces be they intellectual, social, economic or military ones. 

Religions are aimed to guide humans to the straightway and social cohesion, but it remains possible that humans get corrupted enough to consider warriors as gods like Ares in Greece and Mars in Rome. The war-attracted man will go even further to the point of worshiping war and divinize it. Arabs of the Jahiliya (the age of nescience) are no exception.

Thus, holy books mention naturally war with specific codes so that this sensitive and serious domain would not be hidden to human emotions. The Coran refers always to the battle for the sake of Allah by the term Kitale and not Jihad by alluding to the three revelations (the Torah, Evangel, and the Coran).” As if it were a common, important, essential reference to every monotheist religion” – Michel Dousse. Dieu en guerre, p.210.  

“Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed. [It is] a true promise [binding] upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an” Surat 9, verse 111

The foolish behaviors of those who pretend themselves to be the defenders of Islam by spreading terror, reflect nothing but their own blindness and their religious ignorance. They are going against the commandment of Islam and its religious, social, and human prescriptions.

Their foolish acts are increasing the worst fantasies whose first victims are Muslims themselves.

It’s high time Muslim people and non-Muslim people learned to distinguish between those who know and practice Islam, and those who seek to make it their own for reasons that are unrelated to Islam and to the worship of Allah and the respect of others.

Islam is the religion of universal peace. It is destinated to everyone, and no one has the right to instrumentalize it. God let humans free to choose between light and darkness, good and evil, and between peace and war.  Everyone must assume their responsibility by themselves.

By Omar DOURMANE, President of France Fatwa, lecturer in the Islamic sciences faculty.

1. Father Michel Lelolng, died in April 10^th, 2020 at the age of 95. He was one of the main craftsmen of the dialogue with Islam; the religion in which he deepened his knowledge on at the age of 72 years old, back when he was a missionary in Tunisia, Algeria and in France. As a specialist in Arabic, he had always excellent relationships with all members and trends of Islam in France.
   He was the President of the Relations with Islam from 1975, and the National service for the relations with Muslims until 1981.
   He founded then, with Pr. Mustapha Cherif, the Islamic-Christian Friendship Group known as the GAIC.
   See also our article in the SNRM website:  https://relations-catholiques-musulmans.cef.fr/actualites-et-initiatives/actualites/292171-pere-michel-lelong-1925-2020/