Jihad (English pronunciation: /dʒɪˈhɑːd/; Arabic: جهاد‎ ǧihād [dʒiˈhæːd]), an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is mujahideen. Jihad is an important religious duty for Muslims. A minority among the Sunni scholars sometimes refer to this duty as the sixth pillar of Islam, though it occupies no such official status. In Twelver Shi'a Islam, however, Jihad is one of the 10 Practices of the Religion. 
 
 There are two types of jihad. Upper jihad and lower jihad. Upper jihad is the daily struggle to live and provide and the lower jihad is the violent jihad which allows a muslim to protect himself and his family only as a response to an injustice. Never a planned attack on a target. And to defend islam? First wearing a uniform makes you no longer civilian. An officer of the law is a civilian on his way home and thereafter until putting on the uniform again and becoming an officer. When overthrowing a ruling corporation it is essential to avoid civilian casualties as thouse are the very people you are trying to free. Bin Laden arranged the killing of thousands of potential muslims. Had they been allowed to receive the right information through the appropriate channels. Take out the uniformed organisation and then manipulate the media. 
 
 According to the authoritative Dictionary of Islam jihad is defined as: "A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad ... enjoined especially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims." The prominentBritish-American orientalist Bernard Lewis argues that in the hadiths and the classical manuals of Islamic law jihad has a military meaning in the large majority of cases. In a commentary of the hadith Sahih Muslim, entitled al-Minhaj, the medieval Islamicscholar Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi stated that "one of the collective duties of the community as a whole (fard kifaya) is to lodge a valid protest, to solve problems of religion, to have knowledge of Divine Law, to command what is right and forbid wrong conduct". An accurate interpretation of the concept of Jihad is provided by the BBC about how Muslims describe three different types of struggles: §  A believer's internal struggle to live out the Muslim faith as well as possible §  The struggle to build a good Muslim society §  Holy war: the struggle to defend Islam, with force if necessary  
 
When Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him waved jihad it was a war between men. Not terrorist attacks on civilians including women and children. Jihad stands for justice and it is the last course of action when all else fails.