The meaning of peace

A recent article on Islam Online says that the EU has decided to be more politically correct. The EU would not be talking any more about "Islamic Terror", but rather about the “abuse of Islam by fringe groups”. It would not talk about "Jihad" in the sense of "holy war" since Jihad only means “struggle” and there’s nothing wrong with that.

What I found interesting was the following quote:
Omar Faruk, a Muslim British barrister who has advised the government on community issues, said there was a strong need for a "new sort of political dialogue and terminology".

"Those words cannot sit side by side. Islam is actually very much against any form of terrorism ... Islam in itself means peace," he said.

Doesn’t Islam mean “submission”? I looked it up in Wikipedia, which says the following:
In Arabic islām derives from the triconsonantal root Sīn-Lām-Mīm, with a basic meaning of "to surrender; to obey". Islām is a verbal abstract to this root, and literally means "submission/obedience," referring to submission to God. Salām, meaning "peace", is from the same root, compare the cognate word in Hebrew, shalom, which derives from the cognate root meaning "completeness, fulfilment, well-being", a concept usually encapsulated by translation in the word "peace".

So there is something to it. "Islam" and "Salaam" (peace) do come from the same root. In fact, looking it up, the verb "sallama" means both "to greet" and "to submit/surrender". (In Hebrew the same root is the basis for the words: peace, completion, acceptance of a situation).

This means that when a european says “peace” and when an Arabic speaker says “peace”, the two may not be talking about the same thing.

In this context, it is interesting to note the writings of the 12th century Jewish scholar, Maimonides. Maimonides lived in a Muslim world, and throughout his writings, whenever he uses the Hebrew word for peace (shalom), he uses it in the context of forcing the other to submit. It is not used in the way we use the word today, in the sense of coming to mutual agreement, of tolerance, of “peace and quiet”.

In other words, Islam might mean peace. The only question is what does peace mean.

Source: Islam Online (English)

Note: So what does Islamic Jihad really mean?