[quidnunc]

Oh for the love of Pete, stop trying to bury the original point of contention in a morass of sophistry.

Let's return to basics.

A significant percentage of the Muslim world is waging a jihad against those whom they consider to be unbelievers with the ultimate goal being to subjugate the world to Wahabist Islam.

Jihad is defined as 'A Muslim holy war or spiritual struggle against infidels.'

That makes the jihadists' decades-long rampage of killing a religious war.

[optimistically_conservative]

Jihad is defined as 'A Muslim holy war or spiritual struggle against infidels.'

Here's an excerpt on how Pipes defines modern jihad:

As this suggests, jihad is "holy war." Or, more precisely: It means the legal, compulsory, communal effort to expand the territories ruled by Muslims at the expense of territories ruled by non-Muslims.

The purpose of jihad, in other words, is not directly to spread the Islamic faith but to extend sovereign Muslim power (faith, of course, often follows the flag). Jihad is thus unabashedly offensive in nature, with the eventual goal of achieving Muslim dominion over the entire globe.

Jihad did have two variant meanings through the centuries, one more radical, one less so. The first holds that Muslims who interpret their faith differently are infidels and therefore legitimate targets of jihad. (This is why Algerians, Egyptians and Afghans have found themselves, like Americans and Israelis, so often the victims of jihadist aggression.) The second meaning, associated with mystics, rejects the legal definition of jihad as armed conflict and tells Muslims to withdraw from the worldly concerns to achieve spiritual depth.

Jihad in the sense of territorial expansion has always been a central aspect of Muslim life. That's how Muslims came to rule much of the Arabian Peninsula by the time of the Prophet Muhammad's death in 632. It's how, a century later, Muslims had conquered a region from Afghanistan to Spain. Subsequently, jihad spurred and justified Muslim conquests of such territories as India, Sudan, Anatolia, and the Balkans.

That makes the jihadists' decades-long rampage of killing a religious war.

OK, fine. We're at war with the jihadists and their Religion of Violence.

Oh for the love of Pete, stop trying to bury the original point of contention in a morass of sophistry.

I'll try, and please, no more personal information about Pete - OK?

[Ragnar54]

Calling this a religious war is a mistake, since it concedes the point that Islam is a religion. In fact, it is no more than a crime syndicate skilled at manipulating political institutions. Were it not for the cloak of religion, Muslims in this country would either be in jail or deported. Islam's demonstrated intolerance for any real religion (or any belief system based on individual rights), combined with the stated goal of overthrowing Constitutional government and replacing it with Sharia law disqualifies it from Constitutional protection. We do not allow head hunters or cannibals to practice their "religions" in America; why do we tolerate Islam?