In response to :

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/6365

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I didn't find any intolerance in the incident of Yasin depicted in the above link by  fellow Americans. "Jihad" itself is a hate-mongering word. While giving lecture in some conference/seminar of any prestigious university, one should choose his word critically. If I go to Bisshabharati University or Shantiniketon, and start my lecture addressing "My dear fellow Kaffir" or in Alabama State University - "My dear Black Niggers", how much tolerance should I expect ? One should understand that some words have disparaging impact towards race, culture or society.

After 9/11 incident Americans are quite sensitive about this word "Jihad". I understand their outrages and the reason of anxiety of the parents. If someone wish to study the root meaning of "Jihad", the bellicose and hostile picture can easily come in front.  The pattern is that of a 'jihad' (holy war) against the infidels in which the 'ghazis' (religious warriors and conquerors) of Islam undertake 'ghazzuas' or raids in order to :

1 invade the lands of the infidels;

2 massacre as many infidel men, women and children as they like after winning a victory;

3 capture the survivors to be sold as slaves and some retained in their harems as slave-girls;

4 plunder every place and person for war booty, a fifth of which (including the slaves) went to the caliph or some other religious head;

5 demolish the places of worship of the infidels and build mosques in their places; and

6 defile and desecrate the deities and other symbols of the infidels' religions by throwing them into public squares or making into steps leading to the prayer area of the believers.

 Jehad is considered as the surest  means of access to paradise, the abode of choicest carnal-delights-after-death, sex and violence combine to form the basic approach of Islam to coax man into a web of salvation. The following verses from Quran directly influences Jihad :

a. "God has bought from the faithful theirselves and their belongings against the gift of paradise; they fight in the way of Allah; they kill and get killed; that is a promise binding on Allah... ( 9: 111)

b. "Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden - such men as practice not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book - until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled." (9: 29)

Thus Jehad acts as a binding contract between Allah and Muslims to the following aspect:

1. Whatever a Muslim possesses, including his life, belongs to Allah in return for paradise.

2. Allah is bound by His promise to offer paradise to a Muslim provided he willingly kills and gets killed for His pleasure.

3. The Muslims must fight non-Muslims.

4. Non-Muslims are all those people, who do not believe in Islam (the religion of truth). Thus People of the Book i.e. the Jews and Christians are equally infidels like the Hindus, the Buddhists, the atheists, etc., and must be killed unless they submit before the Islamic sword and live as tributaries (zimmie) to acknowledge their humiliation through payment of Jaziyah i.e. Poll Tax.

5. Jehad automatically becomes obligatory on a Muslim when people do not practice what Allah and Muhammad have prescribed as the proper way of life.

Here my intention is not to educate people against Jihad, but to make understand that some words like "Jihad", "Kafir", "Maalu", "Jobon", "Mleccho", "Nigger"  etc have notorious impact on the society, and thus one should pick those words sensibly.

Avijit