A Quote by Marvin Olasky

Many American Muslims are peaceful and define jihad primarily as an internal struggle to improve.

Marvin Olasky

Quote Topics

American Define Improve Internal Internal Struggle Jihad Many Muslims Peaceful Primarily Struggle

Quote Author

Marvin Olasky
American - Educator
Born: June 12, 1950

I have written on numerous occasions that there is no distinction in the American Muslim community between peaceful Muslims and jihadists. While Americans prefer to imagine that the vast majority of American Muslims are civic-minded patriots who accept wholeheartedly the parameters of American pluralism, this proposition has actually never been proven.

Robert Spencer

No one in al-Nahda believes that jihad is a way to impose Islam on the world. But we believe that jihad is self-control, is social and political struggle, and even military jihad is only a way to defend oneself in the case of aggression.

Rashid al-Ghannushi

Jihad amongst the Muslims today has become like a taboo subject that is discussed over coffee. The one who writes and speaks about Jihad has not even spent a minute in the battlefield.

Sheikh Abdullah

What is tragic today is that there is a number of Muslims who think that all the solutions are to be found simply by external actions. They don't have to do anything within themselves. This is a deeply Western idea - modern, Western idea, where you try to improve the world without improving yourself. And this is what the Muslims who talk about others putting their heads in the sand and that "We are doing jihad and we are political" and so forth, they are emulating a very important mistake of modernism.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Whatever the reason, American Muslims appear far less inclined to support the global jihad than their European counterparts.

Timothy Noah

I want the American Muslims to tell the leaders what they are telling me all the time. I want this internal debate to happen and the Muslims cannot just criticize the leadership without being involved. At the end of the day, you have the leadership you deserve.

Tariq Ramadan

It's a complicated issue, but I define myself as an American, primarily.

Deborah Eisenberg

Look at the newborn baby. It struggles to breathe after living in the womb. And yet, growth comes as a result of struggle. Even when we talk about jihad. We need to attach consciousness to struggle. This struggle has to be both individual and collective.

H. Rap Brown

As Western Muslims and American Muslims, we need to understand that the values and principles we promote are not only Muslim values. American Muslims live in a country where justice, dignity, freedom and equality are essential values.

Tariq Ramadan

Dictatorships usually exist primarily because of the internal power distribution in the home country. The population and society are too weak to cause the dictatorship serious problems, wealth and power are concentrated in too few hands. Although dictatorships may benefit from or be somewhat weakened by international actions, their continuation is dependent primarily on internal factors.

Gene Sharp

Jihad is obligatory for the Muslims.

Abu Bakr

There is no reliable way for American authorities to distinguish jihadists and potential jihadists from peaceful Muslims.

Robert Spencer

There is a cottage industry of these Muslim bashers who are training law enforcement personnel, military personnel... and you are breeding a generation of leaders in our society who have this suspicion of Islam and hostility towards American Muslims and Muslims in general. The intention of these trainers is to demonise Islam and to marginalise American Muslims.