CNN ridiculed for 'Sudden Jihad Syndrome' diagnosis

In the midst of fears about ebola, with the first diagnosis of a healthcare worker in New York this morning, CNN is being lambasted for its diagnosis of a very different problem: Sudden Jihad Syndrome.

The diagnosis came in a report about Wednesday's shooting in the Canadian parliament, which left a guard and the shooter dead and raised fears in Canada over reprisals over its role in the US-led anti-IS coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.

CNN reporter Deborah Feyerick wondered whether the shooter, said by Canadian police to have been "mentally unstable", might have been a victim of online radicalisation, or possibly of "Sudden Jihad Syndrome."

Feyerick's comments reference the term coined by Daniel Pipes, a conservative US scholar who argues that, due to the possibility of followers of the faith suddenly becoming radicalised, all Muslims should be considered potential terrorists.

CNN's use of the phrase has sparked a storm of ridicule on Twitter, with many Muslims describing the everyday annoyances that could, according to Pipes and CNN, cause them to turn to "jihad."

Others used the phrase to highlight other less well-publicised meanings of "jihad." In Islamic tradition, jihad, which comes from the same Arabic root as words like "strive" and "exhaust oneself", can take many forms. These include jihad of the heart, jihad of the tongue and jihad of the pen.