AVI STEINHARDT/Courier-Post Women in traditional head coverings pray at Bait Ul Qayem in Delran. The women sit behind the men and boys during services. All worshippers sit on prayer rugs.

By KIM MULFORD
Courier-Post Staff

This week, Saddam Hussein called for a jihad against the coalition forces fighting in Iraq.

"Strike at them. Fight them," said Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf in a statement read on national television. "They are aggressors, evil, accursed by God. You shall be victorious and they shall be vanquished."

Saddam, who is aligned with the Baath political party, is not seen as a religious leader in Iraq. But by using the term jihad, he can appeal to Iraq's Muslims, who make up the majority of the population.

"He is asking Muslims to adhere to what he knows Muslims believe," said Shams Inati, an expert in Islam and Iraq who teaches at Villanova University. "Namely, that if they feel they are attacked, they should defend themselves."

It's a term that's often incorrectly translated as "holy war," Inati said.

Jihad literally means "effort" or "strive," she said. There are two kinds of jihad. The greater jihad is the internal struggle for self-control and the achievement of a higher moral standard.

The lesser jihad is self-defense against aggression or to fight oppression. Muslims are required to defend themselves against attack, Inati said.

Muhammad Rashiduzzaman, an associate professor of political science at Rowan University, said Saddam has tried to exploit religion with his calls for jihad.

"But I don't think it has worked. He is not perceived as a religious leader," he said.

"Religion provides a kind of easy emotional way to mobilize people, with its metaphors of good and evil, but civilization has never belonged to any one particular country or one particular faith," Rashiduzzaman said.

Only a legitimate religious authority, such as an imam or a prophet, can declare a jihad, said Imam Sakhawat Hussain, leader of the Delran mosque Bait Ul Qayem.

"Saddam Hussein has no right to declare a jihad," Hussain said. "This is a misuse of the word jihad."

Like Osama bin Laden, Saddam claims he is Muslim, Hussain said, but his character is against Islam.

"He is a fake Muslim," Hussain adds. "He is a hypocrite Muslim . . . He is a sinner. He is an oppressor."

On a recent Friday, Hussain delivered a message about peace to his congregants at Bait Ul Qayem, a Shia mosque.

Islam means peace, he said. It's a religion of peace.

The Western media assumes Islam teaches terrorism, he said. But there is no room in Islam for terrorism or hijacking or killing or law-breaking.

Religion is one thing and its follower is something else, he said. He compared it to traffic laws that some drivers break.

"The Western media should separate Islam from Muslims," he said.

Rehana Karamali would not comment on the war, but said these are sad times. A native of India, she was raised in Pakistan and has lived in Eastampton for the last 20 years. She works for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

"We can only pray," she said.

Others said Saddam Hussein must go, because he kills and tortures people. Worse, he does it in the name of Islam.

Hussain said removing Saddam is an obligation. But he worried about the Iraqi citizens who could be killed by coalition forces.

"The killing of innocent people, whether in Iraq or in New York, will hurt me," the imam said. "We are peaceful Muslims. The thing that hurts us is the killing of innocent people."