European and Islamic

notions of struggle:
the opportunities in a shared
history
Fr. John DAlton, PhD candidate
School of Philosophical, Historical, and
International Studies,
Monash University

Europe and Islam

The Arab Spring, bans on burqas, and
recent European critiques of
multiculturalism raise many questions
about the role of Islam in the West.
In debates over Islam taking place today,
no principle is invoked more often than
jihad. Bonner

Context
The term jihad (struggle, strive, battle,
fight) has become the main Western
symbol of the Muslim response to the
West. Western media often links Muslim
with jihadi.
The trope of the inevitable clash of
civilizations has propelled the role of
violent jihad into the forefront of global
politics.

 The concept of jihad is often used in the

West as a proof of Islams innate
violence which allows for a representation
of Islam as the essentially violent enemy.
Some recent Western academic
representations of Islam have even
described jihad as an Islamic invention
with no historic equivalents.

True Islam:
Rumi or
Osama bin
Laden?
This has enabled some non-Muslim
authors to claim that the concept of jihad
as "internal spiritual struggle" is a 9th
century CE Muslim invention constructed
to hide Islams fundamentally violent
nature.

Q and A
Q. Was and is jihad unique to Islam?
A. Jihad (struggle/fight/contest/strive) was
a key concept in early Islams
contemporary Syrian Christian world, and
in ancient Greece, and still is in modern
European cultures.
Metaphor: Life is struggle

 In Syriac, Agona (struggle/strive/fight), cf Jihad,

and a cluster of related concepts like shahid
(martyr), were in widespread use for 300 years
prior to Islam, in the Syrian Christian tradition. In
both pre-Islamic Syriac and early Sufi Islam,
jihad or agona meant primarily the internal
spiritual battle against the passions rather than
the external forms of battle. It was also applied
to political, social and other domains.
Far from being an indictment of Islam, a full
understanding of jihad provides a bridge
between the West, Christianity and Islam.

Cognitive Metaphor theory

My research uses cognitive metaphor theory,
analysing the semantic range of key words, and
their semantic fields.
Cognitive metaphors are more than linguistic;
they shape perceptions and actions.
Jihad/Struggle used in fields of:
Sport
Physical conflict/battle
Intellectual conflict
Psychological
Political and social

Cognitive Psychology
The struggle metaphor arises from the
foundational experience of the baby under
1 year old, struggling to sit upright,
striving to reach an object, fighting
against gravity and (later) siblings etc.
This experience of struggle is then
generalised into various domains eg sport,
politics, intellectual debate.

The agon in Ancient Greece

Burkhardt says that agon (struggle, fight)
is the central idea in Greek culture
Sport eg 5 core Olympic events
Music contests
Physical conflict/battle
Intellectual conflict
Psychological eg Greek tragedies
Political and social eg Creon in Sophocles

4-9th Century CE Syrian Christians

Agona (Syriac for striving or struggle)
(derived from agon) is a complex idea
intertwined with Sahda (cf. shahid)
(martyr) and other words related to
spiritual struggle such as combat, victory,
contests, fighting, contending etc.
Dictionaries at the time equate Syrian
agona with Arabic jihad.
Different range of meaning to q-t-l (both
Syriac and Arabic) (kill/murder/massacre)

Previous uses of terms

Christian Martyrs 3rd-4th century were described
as soldiers of the arena and athletes (athloi) of
God for their willingness to undergo struggles
and agonies (Greek agon; Syriac agona) for
their faith.

Jihad and agona in Arabic and

Syriac Bibles
1Tim 6:12
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold onto
the eternal life to which you are also
called, and have professed a good
profession before many witnesses.

verb and noun Arabic: jihad. Syr.

Agona (cf Greek agon)

Jihad and agona in Arabic and

Syriac Bibles
Luke 22:44 Jesus in Garden of
Gethsemane
And being in an agony he prayed more
earnestly: and his sweat was as it were
great drops of blood falling down to the
ground.

Arabic: jihad. Syr. agona

Anthony, Evagrius etc.

For Evagrius, as for most early monks, the
ascetic life is a battle, a striving after
virtue, and specifically a fight with the
demons.
Daily spiritual life is a combat and an
open fight. Even anger is a tool used to
fight against the demons and strive for
every pleasure.

Theodoret
bishop of Cyrrhus, Syria (423-457CE)
Wrote A History of the Monks of Syria
In his praise of James of Cyrrestica, Theodoret
links athletes and war in an extended metaphor.
Now that we have proceeded through the
contests of the athletes of virtue described
above, narrating in summary their laborious
exercises, their exertions in the contests and
their most glorious and splendid victories, let us
now record the way of life of those who
contend magnificently and strive to surpass their
predecessors in exertion. James, unceasingly
under the eyes of spectators strives in
combat and repels the necessities of nature.

Isaac: bishop of Nineveh

c. 660-680 CE - wrote an extremely popular
treatise on the spiritual life On the Ascetical life
He describes the spiritual effort as struggle,
the time of conflict, hidden attacks and a
secret war. The Christian is meant to arm your
soul with the armour of fasting so as to
conquer the Adversary and not be defeated.
Better for us is death in the battle for the love of
God than a life of shame and debility.

Early Sufis
Muhasibi (c. 164- 242 AH) 781-857 CE
God has appointed self-mortification for
the seeker, for the training of his soul.
The nafs (lower soul) is the enemy within,
the pleasures and lusts which must be
fought and overcome.
Also, the enemy of God, Iblis, (God)
has commanded you to fight him, and to
strive against him.

Ghazali (d.1111CE 505AH)

Quotes al-Razi: Fight your soul with the
swords of self-discipline.
Quotes Prophet Mohammed: Make war
on your souls with hunger and thirst, for
the reward which this brings is that of
participation in the jihad.
His work in summary: Struggle (jihad)
against the lower soul (nafs)

Modern European usage

The metaphor of struggle is similarly used
in many languages in the domains of:
Sport
Physical conflict/Battle
Intellectual conflict
Psychological
Political and social

French

lutter, la lutte
struggle, fight, battle, contend, wrestle
Sometimes overlaps with efforant (effort)
News articles from Le Monde online

Sport
Le Gorgien parle trs fort, mais sur le
terrain il est trs rude ; avant d'tre
rugbyman, il a souvent pratiqu la lutte
Gorgien speaks very extremely, but on
the ground it is very hard; before being a
rugby player, he often practised the fight

Political/Social
M. Hunt doit annoncer ce soir un nouveau
plan de lutte contre le tlchargement
illgal
Mr. Hunt will announce tonight a new plan
to combat illegal downloading
In relation to education: de lutte et pour
l'galit contre les discriminations
combat for equality against
discrimination

Psychological
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Ce fut pour moi une lutte fatigante contre toutes
sortes dedifficults.
It was for me a tiring fight/struggle against all
kinds of difficulties
j'aurais eu un moment une lutte douloureuse
contre la jalousie et le dsespoir
I should have had one vital struggle (fight) with
two tigers--jealousy and despair

 She has vie incertaine et pleine de

luttes
uncertain struggling life
But Je dsirais le combat
I desired the combat
il fallait lutter encore, m'efforcer de vivre
I must struggle on: strive to live
Ie Life is struggle

German
kampf struggle, fight, contend, battle,
combat conflict; streben - strive, struggle
Alles ist ein Kampf - Wichtig ist wofr man
kmpft!
Life is always a fight - Important is what
you fight for!
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
Das leben ist ein kampf. Alles ist Kampf.
Living is a struggle. All is struggle.

Psychological
Die Leiden des jungen Werther: The Sorrows
of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe
...brachte die widrigsten Wirkungen hervor und
lie ihm zuletzt nur eine Ermattung brig, aus
der er noch ngstlicher empor strebte,
produced the saddest effects upon him, and
rendered him at length the victim of an
exhaustion against which he struggled with still
more painful efforts than he had displayed,
als er mit allen beln bisher gekmpft hatte.
even in contending with his other misfortunes.

Sport
FC Bayern zu rechnen sein im Kampf um
den Titel
fight for the title

Intellectual/Cultural:
Kampf der Kulturen
Clash of Civilisations

Political/Social
Kampf gegen Korruption
Fight against corruption
EU Commision president Jos Manuel Barroso
Dies sei ein Kampf um Arbeitspltze und
Wohlstand, um die wirtschaftliche und politische
Zukunft Europas, ein Kampf um die europische
Integration selbst.
This is a fight for jobs and prosperity, for the
economic and political future of Europe, a fight
for European integration.

Political/Social
"Titanenkampf" gegen den Staatsbankrott
Titanic fight against the national
bankruptcy
Als Motiv gab der Rechtsextremist seinen
Kampf gegen Multikulturalismus und die
"muslimische Invasion" an.
As motive the right-wing extremist gave his
fight against multiculturalism and "Muslim
Invasion"

Spanish
Lucha (n), luchar (v) - fight, struggle .

Sport:
lucha libre: free-style wrestling
Lucha por la ventaja de campo en
playoffs en la Superliga de voley
Fight for the advantage of the field in
playoffs in Volleyball Superleague

Political/Social

lucha de clases : class struggle

lucha contra la contaminacin atmosfrica
fight against the air pollution
la lucha judicial de Espaa contra los
yihadistas
the judicial fight of Spain against the
jihadists.
Also lucha mental intellectual struggle

Finnish
Taistelu. Struggle, fight

Sport: motorcycle World Championships

Seuraavista sijoista kytiin tiukempi
taistelu
A tighter battle was fought from the
following places

Political/Social

taistelu byrokratiaa vastaan

battle against bureaucracy. .
Taistelu Peltomen seuraajasta alkoi
The fight for the successor of Peltomki began
War on Drugs: Tamaulipasin taistelu on ennen
kaikkea taistelu hiljaisuutta vastaan
Tamaulipas is a struggle, above all, the battle
against the silence

Conclusions
Many cultures have similar conceptions of
life as struggle, and histories of struggle.
Jihad is not a unique Islamic invention.
Jihad/struggle is historically primarily
internal, intellectual, political or social, and
only secondarily violent.
Thus, rather than being an indictment of
Islam, the notion of jihad in fact has the
potential to be a bridging concept between
Islam and Europe.

 A deeper understanding of the

commonality of the life is a struggle
metaphor and the similarities in the words
jihad/ struggle/ agon/ lutter/ kampf/ lucha/
taistelu etc. is an opportunity for cultures
to appreciate each other and their
common worldview, to foster a more
maturely multicultural Europe, and to be
better united in diversity.