How is jihad misunderstood?
Every concept, or word for a concept, has two meanings: what the
user wishes it to mean and what it means to the listener, based on
his or her experience. Jihad means "struggle" and some wish to use
it to mean "interior effort to reach self-perfection" kind of
struggle. Many people however heard it to mean "holy war" based on
the number of Muslims who have committed atrocities while claiming
they were on jihad (the Arabic word for "jihad-ers" is
"mujahideen").
Some Muslims wish "jihad" to mean the latter (i.e., killing
people). Others think Western interpretation of this sort is unfair
to them.
It's something of a problem to say which version is "correct"
without being able to read the speaker's mind. A perfectly
analogous situation surrounds the word "crusade": to a Westerner,
"crusade" means a dedicated effort to correct something, as in
"Crusade against Illiteracy" or "Crusade for Clean Water." To
Muslims, however, the term only means "military action against
Muslims."