Today we thought we'd share this TED video from TEDxGeorgetown. TIME magazine editor Bobby Ghosh talks about 'jihad' and says that the global jihad of terror is in its final days.

David L. Johnston has just written an article in response to last week's Newsweek cover article, “The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World,” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

A reader of my previous blog, “Fear, Inc.,” asked a very reasonable question. He or she had wondered how accurate my placing Robert Spencer among the “purveyors of hate and misinformation” actually was. I like this. I know everyone on the PCI team wants open and transparent communication. Indeed, let’s urge one another to speak the truth and to speak it in love, as Paul challenged the Ephesian church.

In his short series on the subject of jihad, Dr. David Johnston now explains the concepts of the “greater” and “lesser jihad”, as found in the Quran. You may be surprised at the conclusion!

I ended the first half of this blog arguing that Sayyid Qutb’s definition of jihad, as total and permanent war until Islam reigns supreme in the world, was a throwback to the consensus of Muslim jurists and theologians in the classical period and a vigorous push back against the modern Islamic consensus that military jihad can only be justified in the case of foreign invasion. Let me unpack that here.

Thanks to Osama bin Laden and others like him, “jihad” has become a byword for terrorism and oppression and the source of much societal Islamophobia in recent days. Could the concept of jihad ever be a peaceful one? Guest blogger Dr. David Johnston opens up the issue, discusses the "sword verses" found in the Quran, and explains the actual history behind the idea of jihad.