Turning to contemporary fighting, several wars have occurred between Muslims under the flag of Jihad. The most well-known ones are the eight years war between Iranians and Iraqis, the liberation of Kuwait in 1991 and the Afghanistan Jihad, all of which had the direct and indirect support of the USA, Saudi Arabia and many western countries. In fact the USA had stirred up young Muslims and urged Arab and Muslim countries to support the Jihad against the Soviet Union. The message of Islamic scholars was very clear and eliminated any doubts about the obligation of Jihad in Afghanistan with the result that tens of thousands of Muslims around the world departed into battle. When the Soviet army was defeated in Afghanistan both the USA and Muslims countries wanted to convince Muslims that Jihad is not obligatory in other parts of the Islamic world such as Palestine, Somalia and now Iraq. This has in fact confused young Muslims and caused official scholars to lose their credibility.

Muslim scholars such as bin Baz and bin Othaimeen of Saudi Arabia set up conditions when considering whether or not Jihad is obligatory. The first of the most controversial conditions is when the Imam calls for Jihad. Presently, there is no such position in the contemporary world. The equivalent position nowadays is the king, president or prime minister etc. The second condition that makes Jihad obligatory is when the enemy invades a Muslim land. The term, Muslim land, used to refer to the land that is under the control of caliphate. At present we don't have the caliphate. Instead we have countries surrounded by international boarders. However, the mistakes that were made by the U.S.A. in Afghanistan in the 1980s have weakened any and all efforts by Muslim scholars and countries to prevent extremists from departing into battles in Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya and Somalia.

Finally we should bear in mind that people will never refrain from resisting occupation and oppression whatever the name of the resistance and regardless of the tools of the struggle.