According to the Indispensible MEMRI, a liberal Muslim scholar claims that the current crop of Islamists really have perverted the idea of Jihad. This is exactly what the CAIR and AMS apologists here in the US have been saying, and it is in complete contradiction to the judgments of scholars like Bernard Lewis. (Prof. Lewis has a new book out, by the way, a collection of several decades' worth of journal and magazine articles.)

That there is absolutely no reason to doubt the man's sincerity raises a point worth remembering. There are clear apologists for terror, such as CAIR, who claim distortion of Islam while opposing any US efforts to defend itself. There are also be people who really want to claim this concept for peace-loving Muslims, and who want to win the internal intellectual and theological battle. Those people deserve our support.