The true meaning of Jihad must be explained.

Face the fact, the Islamic states of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) nowadays is considered to be the main threat all over the world. Focusing on our country, based on the police report, the number of those who involve into this group directly or indirectly has increased gradually. In other words, it reflects to the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of our approach to cope with this problem.

The ISIS propaganda seems working compared to the previous Al-Qaeda. The main factor would be their success in forming a special state that governed by the ‘caliph’. Moreover, they still maintain to defend themselves from collation attack, leading from America and Arab countries. Now, one third of the map of Syria and Iraq is assumed to be the ISIS territory. This current progress undoubtedly has inspired other militant groups like Boko Haram and Abu Sayaf to be more aggressive and they even declared their support to ISIS.

While our intelligent and law enforcement need to be beefed up, education and explanation are still the most effective and long run solution to counteract ISIS threat. People might reject their brutal acts in term of humanity, but when the term of Jihad is justified, it leads the confusion among Muslim and non-Muslim. Thus, not surprisingly, this propaganda has successfully attracted some Muslim at least to be sympathetic to their fight. As for the non-Muslims, they might be phobia to Islam as Jihad seems to be a menace to human life.

In fact, Islam should be understood clearly between its principle and implementation. The principle in Islam like justice, peace, safety, happiness, people’s well-being is unchangeable regardless the place or period, while the letter could be different due to the current reality. As for Jihad, its principle like protecting the religion, promoting the justice, repelling the evil, safeguarding the lives and properties, spreading the virtues is clear to be understood. In other words, the philosophy of Jihad is to defend and to protect the humanity instead of bringing the bloodshed.

In terms of implementation, Jihad should not be restricted only to military activities against non-Muslim. Protecting the country’s sovereignty, Improving the quality of the nation, boosting the country’s economy, helping the helpless people, joining the charity and humanity activities are in line with the principle of jihad.

Even Fatwa council has already declared the status of ISIS, it is still not enough. Instead of giving the ‘true’ or ‘wrong’ answer, there are a few things that should be taken into account as follows:

1. Standardizing the real meaning of Jihad, predominantly its philosophy and benefits to human life.

2. Explaining the true implementation of Jihad in this era, especially in military form. What it should be and what are the rules and regulations? What are other ways to exercise Jihad apart from the military?

3. Clearing the current situation in Syria and another country that involve in armed conflict based on Islamic perspective. Some people might argue that their support is not directly for ISIS, but to overthrow the regimes as they justify it as an honorable fight

4. Airing the live or recorded dialogue program between Mufti or religious person and those who involved or sympathetic to ISIS, showing to them and audiences that their understanding about Jihad is totally wrong.