Editorial May 13, 2019 ISSUE

Can an honest inner victory change the headlines?

Tony Lobl

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.

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Bible Lens—May 13–19, 2019