Jihad (Civ3)/Civilopedia

The word "jihad" means "struggle", although it is often translated as "holy war"; many interpretations have been applied to it throughout the history of Islam. In medieval times, it was taken to 
refer to the divine imperative to wage holy war against infidel states and lords, and convert their subjects to Islam (at the point of a sword if necessary). Even in medieval Islam, though, jihad was 
also understood as a personal struggle within each individual, to overcome temptation, sin, and resistance to the word of Allah. Military campaigns have often been labeled jihads; the Berber invasion of Spain was 
so characterized, as was the earlier Saracen campaign in France; even modern wars, such as the Afghan guerrilla war against the occupying Soviet Union in 1979, have been named jihad. More recently, Islamic terrorists 
have termed their campaigns against both Muslims and non-Muslims jihads, to assume a mantle of divine legitimacy.