Jihadist

     Again at the Barnes & Noble's section on Arabic lore, I read a reference  to "jihad" completely opposite to the current meaning being attached to it by Western media. A jihadist is not supposed to be a terrorist bent on killing other people specially innocent children or civilians. To be on a jihad is to be on a path to overcome one's own weaknesses and to be a better person from the moral and spiritual standpoint. We should not even point to the cohorts or followers of Osama Bin Ladin as "terrorists", for in effect we are conceding that indeed we're afraid of them. True, there is obviously an urgent need to open the eyes and minds of our Muslim brethren. Education, modernization of living conditions, probably even more frequent contact with civilized behavior could be a quicker, better, even less expensive solution than warfare. As their own Sufi once suggested: - Change your foes to friends and you have no more enemies.