What does Islam say about killing 'pagans,' 'infidels,' 'nonbelievers' and others?

Bismillah Rahman Raheem



Now let us begin to answer by correcting some mistakes in the 'question' itself:

The word used most often in Quran, that is so often mistranslated as kill; slay; or slaughter is not jihad, it is qital and if you look to the Arabic, you will quickly understand this word in today's usage would clearly be combat.

Naturally, just as here in the U.S. we must stand up for righteousness and strive to prevent oppression, aggression and tyranny. This is the proper usage and understanding for this term, as you will discover while passing through the tafseer and explanations by top scholars today.

Once this is in place, there really isn't a question anymore, due to the necessity as we see today, to prevent and subdue enemies of freedom, liberty and justice. In other words, we could easily say Islam declared the first war against terrorism - 1,400 years ago. And by the way, it's called, JIHAD.

Thanks so much for your kind question and may Allah guide all of us to the straight path to be with Him in the Next Life, ameen