Mujaheddin (also spelled mujahideen or mujahidin) are fighters who see their fighting as a religious duty in Islam — soldiers, or more often irregular fighters, with a strong faith. The word is plural in origin: it names a group of such fighters, not one man. English borrowed it from Arabic, and news English used it a lot for the Afghan groups who fought the Soviet army in the 1980s. Later writers used it more widely for other armed Islamist groups. It is a serious, loaded word. Some speakers use it with respect (“holy fighters”); others use it in a cold news way; in some mouths it is close to a scare word. Though actually, it does not mean “any Muslim soldier.” A regular army doctor who happens to be Muslim is not mujaheddin. The word points to people who name their fight as jihad, a struggle in the path of God — and people argue, often angrily, about who has the right to that name.