I get why they did it, but it feels like something is lost as a result.
Is it really Islamophobia if you’re portraying a religious war as bad, and using a Christian word for a bad religious war instead of an Islamic one?
I thought the point is that the jihad - at least, the one that Paul tries to prevent - won’t, strictly speaking, be bad.
Dune Spoilers
He ended up riding the jihad, steering it a bit, but it was never in his power to stop it. The Fremen were, from the beginning, going to cast the Harkonens from their world, and the jihad brought a new vitality to the Imperial apparatus.
Now that I’m writing this, the worm, the unstoppable creature that is the source of spice, I see that the worm is a pretty clear metaphor for the jihad.
spoiler
Whether he could have stopped it is debatable. IIRC for most of the book he talks about a “Golden Path” that would avoid it, but he might make some comment towards the end to the effect of “that was never realistic, anyways.” Although that could just be cope at that point. It also seems clear that him dying could have stopped it, and there are multiple points where – despite his prescience – he senses he is in real danger of dying.
Great point on the sandworm metaphor, too.
