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Comment by softg | Hacker News Reader

TIL Iran has a 'Minister of Agricultural Jihad'. I assume they declare holy war on crickets or something.

Jihad as a broader term means to strive or struggle towards something, and it can refer to nearly any kind of pursuit, whether internal or external. To put another way, you could also roughly translate it as the Minister of the Agricultural Effort, albeit that would lose nuance.

As a broader term maybe, but you can't deny the religious connotation of the word, especially under a theocratic regime. Also I am not entirely sure if the broader sense of the word would be obvious to Iranians, who do not speak Arabic (except in the southwest). I wonder if anyone who speaks persian can confirm that that they use jihad for struggle/effort outside of religion.

Would Minister of the Agricultural Crusade work better?

I agree with the religious connotation, but I think it's hard to separate anything from religious context in a theocracy. If everything is done in the name of that one singular purpose, every institution becomes an end towards that goal. In that sense I agree, that's what I meant with the lost nuance, but I wouldn't really go so far as to singly connect it to the holy war concept.

It’s probably akin to our “czars” when we declare “war” on some unwanted thing.

In the US government:

1. “czar” is an informal title, not an official title (the “Drug Czar” is formally titled “Director of the Office National Drug Control Policy”)

2. The “czar" informal title has nothing to do with a “war” (this is a false generalization from the Drug Czar and the War on Drugs), but with the position of coordinating policy for the executive branch for an effort that cuts across multiple cabinet level agencies.

First, the word Jihad in Arabic doesn't mean holy war. It generally means to struggle or put effort to improve. Someone could say "jahid nafsak" to mean "stop your desires".

Based on [0] which links to [1] there was an agricultural initiative called jihad of construction to improve and develop the country. It was later merged 2ith the ministry of agriculture.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Agriculture_Jiha...

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad_of_Construction

What matters is what the word jihad means in Persian, not Arabic. Both of your links point out that jihad was added during/after the Islamic Revolution, when the country was swept by a wave of religious fervor. Unless a Persian speaker contradicts me, I think my point stands.

Your point being that the 'Ministry of Agricultural Jihad' has declared a holy war on crickets or something. Not a hill I would recommend to die on tbh.

Meh. I'm Turkish, I was raised as a muslim. My entire family are muslims. I am not going to let random people on an English language forum accuse me of being insensitive towards muslims. That's the hill I can die on I guess.

In Turkish, jihad (cihat) is only used for holy war. Nobody but the most demented religious zealot would suggest a ministry of agricultural jihad. Now, discussions on the subtleties of the meaning of the word jihad in Arabic are interesting, but they do not mean much because Iran isn't an Arab country. I do not speak Persian and I can't tell if jihad is used for 'struggle/effort' in that way in that language. We use other Arabic words like 'mücadele' for 'struggle' for example, but not jihad.

It means the same in Farsi. Meaning depends on context and it is not a religious context.

When the US declares a 'War on Poverty', do you also assume that the Pentagon deploys a three-star general to plan and carry out a shock-and-awe campaign against rural and inner-city communities?

When Canada appoints a 'Minister of Finance', does she have to be a Protestant clergymember? Does she lead prayer ceremonies? Does she sanctify wine and holy water? Does one of her duties involve feeding a congregation with only two loaves and five loonies?

It's almost as ridiculous as using czar in titles.

That was just a spate of authoritarianism envy.

Headline disease. Czar nabs top vetting job, slams snub.

Example: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/04/food-tsa...

ITT: Americans with no clue about foreign languages

> I assume they declare holy war on crickets or something.

No, that's the Mormons.

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