Consider this from the fourth chapter of the Koran: "Those of the believers who stay at home, other than the disabled, are not equal to those who strive in the path of God with their goods and their persons. God has placed those who struggle with their goods and their persons on a higher level than those who stay at home. God has promised reward to all who believe but He distinguishes those who fight, above those who stay at home, with a mighty reward." Now by the time the Prophet was talking like that, it sounds to me as though he had come a long way from mere "moral striving."
In fact, throughout most of the history of Islam, jihad has meant war -- war to defend and advance Islam. Not only is this clear from the later passages of the Koran but also from the hadiths, or the traditions associated with the Prophet.
Consider two examples: "A day and a night of fighting on the frontier is better than a month of fasting and prayer," or, "He who dies without having taken part in a campaign dies in a kind of disbelief." The Prophet was no Quaker.
"I never say Islam is this or Islam is that," Pipes recently declared, and from the above permutations in the word jihad, I think we can understand why the Prof is so fussy about simple declarations of Islam's nature. Today, in a world made dangerous by Islamic radicalism, it is crucial that government have access to knowledgeable minds such as Pipes'. That his knowledge gets him into controversies with those who want to say Islam is all good or all bad is unfortunate, but controversy is to be expected in times of war.
America is, through no fault of its own, at war with international terrorists who spout religion as their moral justification. Scholars such as Pipes can tell us what the terrorists' spoutings really mean and how widely they are adhered to. I am glad he is around and may soon be at a think tank that fashions plans for peace -- though my favorite peace movement remains the United States Marines.