Walid Phares debunks the notion that jihad in its original meaning was noble but then hijacked and ruined by mean terrorists:
…this theory was produced by clerics of the Wahabi regime in Saudi Arabia and the Muslim Brotherhood, as a plan to prevent jihad and Jihadism from being depicted by the West and the international community as an illegal and therefore sanctioned activity.
Academics in the West played a large role in spreading the fallacy within the United States, including in defense circles, thus further distorting the democracies’ perception of the enemy. (American Thinker)