Jihad and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Mindanao

Is the call of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines within the principles of the true meaning of Jihad.
I come from Mindanao where five percent of its population is composed of Muslims of diverse ethnicity. This is something for me. As a Christian, I have experienced living with them. It was difficult for me to understand their manner of living and customs. It was perfectly all right with me. But when the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao, a conglomerate of separatist group of Muslims, started to hostage and bomb innocent civilians away and justify it in the name of Jihad, I began to become more confused understanding the word. While the situation in Mindanao became worse than ever, my own understanding of Jihad has been more clouded by biases.

It is along this objective that I wanted to make my own inquiry as to the real meaning of this word. This paper is divided into two parts: First part is the discussion on Jihad. I would utilize and cite some authorities in order to know the meaning of the word. My analysis would be carefully intertwined along the presentation. The second part of the paper would eventually lead to analyzing the activities of the MILF vis-