"Pro-Muslim Subway Ads to Hang Near Anti-Jihad Ads" by ASHWAQ MASOODI at the NY Times

[applegrove]

2. I think Jihad is a general term that means struggle. Here is wikipedia on the subject.

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)".[1][2][3] 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.[4] In Twelver Shi'a Islam, however, Jihad is one of the 10 Practices of the Religion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad


I think the people who did the original ad were well aware that people would conflate "Jihad" with "muslim". The two words go together. If the original ad had used the word "terrorism" that would have been much clearer that they did not mean to include all muslims in the ad. It is one of those vague messages that people will project meaning onto. That being the case, people have every right to defend muslims from such a slur because they were a target, even if the authors claim it was only military terrorism against civilians that they meant. If they meant that, why didn't they say that more clearly?