Why “Jihad” is being discussed
The most recent Hacker News stories and comments contributing to this topic's mentions.
I think you're mostly right. Herbert worked backward from sand dunes in Oregon to create his Dune universe. He needed reasons for people to look and act and fight in certain way…
by madrox · Oct 17, 2026
I've said it before, but I always thought the Butlerian Jihad was the biggest plot hole in Dune, because a superintelligent AI would have precluded a lot of the dynamics in the…
by keeda · Oct 17, 2026
There's a lot that I think you missed in your reading: If you read the preambles to each chapter and the glossary in the back of Dune, you'll find that the Butlerian Jihad was a…
by indymike · Oct 17, 2026
Yes, but it never goes into what actually happened - it's just the belief of the time. And curiously a critical part of Golden Path became a reversal of major Butlerian Jihad ef…
by p_l · Oct 17, 2026
I've always believed the Jihad was mostly about world building - defining a different vision for a how a future civilization could look than most sci-fi of that era was consider…
by jeremyjh · Oct 17, 2026
It was a clever device to have a universe where high fantasy tropes can be freely mixed with advanced nigh-magical space flight and other sci-fi tropes, and is one of the things…
by api · Oct 17, 2026
Interest
Proportion of Hacker News items mentioning "jihad" over time.
Mentions
Total number of Hacker News items mentioning "jihad" over time.
Jihad is an Arabic word that means 'exerting', 'striving', or 'struggling', particularly with a praiseworthy aim. Jihad is typically associated with religiously-motivated warfare against external enemies of Islam. In an Islamic context, it encompasses almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God's guidance, such as an internal struggle against evil in oneself, efforts to build a good Muslim community (ummah), and struggle to defend Islam. For its literal translation 'struggle', the term is frequently associated with warfare. Read more on Wikipedia