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Can an honest inner victory change the headlines?
At an interfaith talk in London a few years ago, I heard a Sufi Muslim explain the main meaning of the term jihad in a way that was quite different from what I’d become accustomed to seeing in headlines and news reports. He described it as the inward, spiritual effort to search for God, to shun materialism, and to struggle against the temptation to sin.
Of course, the word has other meanings. Muslims generally would say jihad also refers to self-defence when they are under attack. And there’s no escaping the notoriety the term has garnered through association with atrocities by Islamist militants—both in predominantly Muslim countries and in other nations.

May 13, 2019 issue
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From the readers
Jana Rowland, Karen Neff
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Agenda-free prayer
Susan Booth Mack Snipes
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Honoring our great worth as God’s child
Martha Moffett
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The truth about opinions
Rosemary S. Pendery
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How’s the baby? She’s perfect.
Pete Paciorek
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From unbelief to feeling embraced by God’s love
Carol Lee Price
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Learning about the Bible helped us!
Natalie, Genevieve, Xavier
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Healed while hiking Mount Kilimanjaro
Christiane Heer
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Desire to drink alcohol disappears
Ellen Clark Anderson
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Cat healed
Tonia Benoist
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'Man should be found not ...'
Photograph by Steve Ryf