Choosing Words Carefully: Language to Help Defeat Islamic Terrorism - Dr. Douglas Steusand and Lieutenant Colonel Harry Trunnell IV (USA). National Defense University Center for Strategic Communications paper, May 2006.

... This essay discusses the most egregious and dangerous misuses of language regarding Islamic totalitarian terrorists; a comprehensive study would require a book. We begin with the word jihad, which literally means striving and generally occurs as part of the expression jihad fi sabil illah, striving in the path of God. Striving in the path of God is a duty of all Muslims. Calling our enemies jihadis and their movement a global jihad thus indicates that we recognize their doctrines and actions as being in the path of God and, for Muslims, legitimate. In short, we explicitly designate ourselves as the enemies of Islam...