Like other faiths, Islam permits fighting as a means of self-defense or in defense of religion, or on the part of those who have been forcibly expelled from their homes.

Treatises and dissertation have been written detailing the rules of engagement in war in which scholars have laid down strict rules of combat, which include prohibitions against harming civilians including women and children, and against destroying crops, trees, livestock and polluting of drinking water.

As Muslims see it, injustice would be triumphant in the world if righteous individuals were not willing to risk their lives for a valid cause.  The Qur’an says:

“Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not transgress the limits.  Without doubt, Allah does not love the transgressors.” (al-Qur’an, Chapter 2, Verse 190)

We also read:

“Allah does not forbid you in regards to those who do not fight you nor drive you out of your homes that you deal kindly and justly with them; for Allah loves those who are just.  Allah only forbids you respecting those who made war upon you on account of your religion and drove you forth from your homes and backed up others in your expulsion, that you make friends with them, and whoever makes friends with them, these are the unjust.” (al-Qur’an, Chapter 60, Verse 8-9)

War therefore, is the last resort and is subject to the rigorous conditions laid down by the sacred law.

The term jihad - which is commonly used in the western media, although always misunderstood and mistranslated as ‘holy war’ - literally means to ‘struggle’. 

In the Arabic and Islamic terminology, there is actually no word that means ‘holy war’ as this concept is alien to Islam – a religion founded on peace and justice. 

The term ‘holy war’ was actually coined by Christian forces over eight hundred years ago as the Webster’s Revised Dictionary of 1998 tells us that a holy war is a crusade; an expedition carried on by Christians against the Saracens in the Holy Land, in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries for the possession of the holy places.

As for the meaning of jihad, Muslims believe that there are two kinds of jihad or struggle - the inner struggle against one’s own soul to combat his or her lust and desires for the sake of attaining the inner peace (usually referred to as the greater jihad) and the jihad on the battle front which is constantly referred to as the minor jihad in the Islamic sources.

In a famous narration from the Prophet Muhammad (blessings of Allah be upon him and his family), after the Muslims returned from a battle, the Prophet welcomed them home and said to them: “Welcome back home from the minor struggle (jihad) to face the major struggle (jihad).”  The companions who were surprised asked him what he meant by this statement.  The Prophet replied that their defensive battle against those on the war front was the minor struggle, while their struggle to keep away from sin and vice is the major struggle that remains to be fought.

Source: http://www.al-haqq.com/