Intended Meaning
He argues that conflating the cause of fighting with its aim in the discourse of some interpreters and writers leads to turning fighting from a means tied to its circumstance and purpose into an open-ended practice. At that point, fighting becomes a permanent project for domination and exclusion rather than remaining confined to defense and the protection of freedom.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: methodological
- Argument movement: conflating the cause of fighting with its aim turns it into a permanent practice.
- Key terms: cause of fighting, aim of fighting, permanence, defense.
- Degree of centrality: subsidiary.
The atom points out that failing to distinguish between cause and purpose corrupts the understanding of fighting as a whole. If this difference is lost, the historical contingency becomes as if it were a permanent rule, and defense turns into domination.
Links to help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur: Draining the Sources of Terrorism
- Jihad, Fighting, and the Critique of Violence
- Legitimate fighting is defensive and constrained by the aim of freedom
Grounding
- Supporting text: “and he sees that conflating the two in the discourse of some interpreters and writers”.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted word for word.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is argumentative; it supports a larger conclusion in the chapter or prepares for it.
Related to
Editorial Note
This is an interpretive atom that explains the affliction of conceptual conflation.