Jihad: From Ibn Taymiyyah to Bin Laden

After the September 11th terrorist attacks to the twain towers of World Trade Organization by Al-Qaedah, the Western media started utilizing the word “Jihad” widely. However, in most cases, they distorted its real meaning and occasionally represented Islam equal to jihad and violence. The present paper presents the evolutionary semantic changes of “Jihad” from the early Islamic era to the present time, concentrating more on the meaning of Jihad in the military Islamist groups. The paper emphasizes that conception of people such as Osamah Bin Laden from Jihad is different from the conception of the Shiites.