What are Sunni Jihadists?

Answer 1

This is wildly open to individual interpretations, but the term Sunni Jihadist has come to mean by popular media use anyone who is an adherent of orthodox or Sunni Muslim beliefs who participates in Jihadist activities.

According to Islam there are two forms of Jihad:

• the greater Jihad - the inner struggle of Muslims to fulfill religious duties.
• the lesser Jihad - the physical struggle against the enemies of Islam.

This second, lesser Jihad has become a topic for current discussions on Islam. Many in the west interpret it as a sort of Crusade against anything that is not Islamic. All recent terrorist activities connected to Islamic factions has come to be labelled Jihadist, and those who perform such acts seem to revel in the application of the label.

Sunni Muslims further identify four forms of the lesser Jihad:

1. jihad bil galf/nafs - Jihad of the heart - resisting the devil and his attempts to persuade to believer toward evil. (Some Muslims refer to this as al-jihad al akbar, the greater Jihad.)
2. jihad fil lisan - Jihad by the tongue - the believer is focused on speaking the truth and spreading the word of Islam.
3. jihad bil yad - Jihad by the hand - the believer is direceted to do what is right and to actively fight against injustice and the wrong that exists within the world.
4. jihad bis saif or gital fi sabilillah (Holy War) - Jihad by the sword - open combat against any who are not of Islam.

The fourth definition of lesser Jihad has come to be the most common interpretation of the word, and typically is the "go to" definition of most westerners.