In a July 12 Washington Times op-ed, Andrew Bostom attacked Obama administration counterterrorism adviser John Brennan over his statement that jihad is “a legitimate tenet of Islam meaning to purify oneself of one's community.” But as Media Matters has noted, President Bush similarly stated that extremists “distort the idea of jihad” to support their terrorist acts, and official Bush administration policy stated that "[t]errorists distort the idea of jihad into a call for violence."

From Bostom's July 12 op-ed:

A dry pun asks, “When is a door not a door?” -- the answer being, “When it is ajar.” But dry humor is clearly preferable to the deluded warping of the lexicon by the Obama administration's lead counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, which leads to this question, and requisite answer, “When is jihad not jihad?” -- “When it is bloodless, spiritual struggle.” Mr. Brennan vociferously advocates an exclusive, bowdlerized definition of jihad in the public discourse as “to purify oneself or one's community,” lest the tender sensibilities of Muslims be offended. He further claims that, somehow, self-described jihadists “have truly just distorted the whole concept” of jihad. But it is Mr. Brennan who, irrespective of whatever flimsy, ahistorical rationale he provides, thoroughly misrepresents jihad - a living, bellicose Islamic institution that dates from the advent of the Muslim creed almost 14 centuries ago.

The dangerous absurdity of Mr. Brennan's jihad denial is self-evident: More than 15,600 jihad terror attacks have been committed by Muslims worldwide since the cataclysmic acts of jihad terrorism committed against the United States itself on Sept. 11, 2001. These data should remind us that there is just one historically relevant meaning of jihad, despite contemporary apologetics.

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One can now safely include Mr. Brennan among those whose willful misapprehension of jihad Khomeini characterized, appositely, as “witless.” This juxtaposition of views on jihad would be comical - the learned, pious Muslim theologian, Khomeini, versus the uninformed infidel cultural relativist adviser, Mr. Brennan - if the implications for U.S. security were not so ominous.