War is never regarded as a merit in Islam. Rather, it is believed to be a demerit because of causing destruction, and waste of souls, powers and facilities. In some Quranic verses, like 65, The Cattle sura, it is called as one of the divine chastisement among earthquake, thunder, and heavenly or earthly calamities. On this account, Islam has instructed to avoid war as far as possible. However, when existence of a nation is endangered or its sacred objectives are subject to fall, war is deemed as a merit, and is entitled with “Jihad in the path of God”.

Therefore, in contrary to what the enemies propagate, Islamic Jihad never implies imposition of belief. Basically, an imposed belief is worthless in Islam. Rather, Jihad is recommended when the enemy imposes war on the Islamic nation or deprives it from its natural freedoms, disregards its rights or a tyrant oppresses unfairly. Then, it is obligatory for Moslems to support the oppressed even if it may result in conflict with the oppressor’s nation. This is also remarkable that Islam has emphasized on peaceful coexistence of followers of other divine religions, and there are detailed discussions in the verses and Islamic narrations and Fiqh on this under the title of “Rulings for the Tributary”.

If Islam advocated imposition of belief and resort to force and sword for achievement to its objectives, rulings for the tributary and peaceful coexistence would have been nonsense.