Holy war ideas appear among Muslims during the earliest manifestations of the new faith. This book locates the origin of Jihad and traces its evolution as an idea within the history of the Islamic traditions worldwide, as well as analyzing how the concept of Jihad has been misapplied by modern Islamic terrorists and suicide bombers. It provides a unique and balanced coverage of the historical evolution of the concept of Jihad, and mainstream moderate Islamic views of the concept from the Qur'an to the twenty-first century.