Comment · Mon, June 25, 2012
“The Koran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our path and death in the name of Allah is our goal,” -Egypt's new president, Mohammed Morsi
What they were answering
gypsywhore · 13 points
Well, to be honest, Egypt, or any Muslim country, shouldn't need to 'rebrand' jihad anymore than moderate Christians need to 'rebrand' Christianity because of WBC. It's more like the Western media should stop using jihad as an umbrella term for everything terrible, just like 'atheists' (read: anti-theists) should stop using Christianity as an umbrella term for extremism and bigotry. But I understand your point. Also, like translation in any language, English has notorious difficulties really capturing the nuances of other languages. (Kind of how like in Japanese there are 2 verbs for 'to listen,' and one implies that you're paying more attention than the other. Except in English that extra meaning gets lost, and listening is listening.) "Death in the name" just might be one of those things that has a far more nuanced meaning than we think it does. (Or I could be completely wrong, it could mean exactly what it sounds like. But I have a sneaking suspicion this is not the case.)
Living in the US, I've never heard this perspective.
But I'm sure you've heard plenty of people talking of living and dying for Christ, right?
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
I think the issue is the president saying that their country's law and foundation will be based on it. If my president here in the US said, "The bible is our constitution, Jesus is our leader, religious struggle is our path, and death in the name of Christ is our goal." I would be flipping out! The point is, there is no such thing as a Muslim country. There are people of all different faiths, or lack thereof, in every country. Sure, some countries are the vast majority of one, but not total. I was just in Egypt last week. 25% of the people I met were Christians that were afraid of Morsi winning.