Islam does not approve of any kind of harm to human beings, a visiting scholar from the United States said.
The concept of jihad had been completely misused and misunderstood, said Professor S. Waqar Ahmad Husaini, president of the California-based Institute of Islamic Sciences, Technology and Development.
"There is a big difference between jihad [struggle] and qatal [murder]. Islam does not approve of murder or inflicting any kind of harm on people. Islam is the religion of peace, harmony, tolerance and love.
"Killing in the name of Islam is not jihad, it is murder, which is not allowed in Islam under any circumstances. The meaning of jihad is misunderstood. Jihad means struggle. You can struggle for a good or a bad cause. Islam teaches jihad for the prosperity and betterment of human beings. This is true jihad," Husaini said.
He also said fighting, killing and wars, according to Quranic teachings, did not come under the concept of jihad. "Jihad is a struggle for self-purification from baser instincts, against poverty and for socio-economic justice through development," he said.
The basic principles of Islam are that there should be no compulsion on any non-Muslim, he said.
"The strongest statement in the freedom of consciousness is found in the Holy Quran, where God says that if He did not compel people to believe, nobody has the right to compel other people."
Therefore, he said, historical Muslim states should give non-Muslims every kind of civil liberty to apply their own personal laws and impart education.
Husaini, a civil engineer who migrated to the United States in 1961 from Hyderabad in India to further his studies, is an advocate of modern science and technology. He has written several books on different aspects of science and technology with references from the Quran.
According to Husaini Muslims worldwide have restricted Quranic teachings to the five basic pillars of Islam and ignored the teachings of science and technology, politics and economics ("941 verses are on water science and engineering and 1,400 on economics", he said).
"It is a pity Muslims don't teach and preach them in religious institutions," he said. "Non-Muslims, on the other hand, have taken over Islamic science and technology teachings and secularised them."
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