Searching for true jihad

Terrorism is a political strategy, a tactic of radical Muslims; "it is not an ideology," a visiting Islamic scholar told a Honolulu interfaith gathering Wednesday.

Yes, there are passages in the Quran about slaying the enemies of God, but Islam does not teach the concept of "perpetual, indiscriminate warfare," said Mohamad Abdalla, director of the Islamic Research Center at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. "The notion that Islam is the new communism, locked in a life-and-death struggle with the West, is fundamentally flawed and could lead to disastrous consequences for the West and the Muslim world," he told the monthly meeting of Open Table/Interfaith Alliance of Hawaii.