"Holy War Against the Infidels"

This crusade would be the first of nine total crusades that Christians would carry out as they attempted to control Palestine.

Many in the West mistakenly equate the word Jihad, to mean "Holy War against the infidels" or war against non-Muslims.

Where did this concept come from if it is foreign to Islam, the following is a Medieval definition pertaining to the Crusades.

Crusade
A holy war, utilizing the CROSS as a rallying symbol. From the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, each crusade was a military foray to recapture Jerusalem from the infidels or to surpass local heresy such as the Albigensian*; or to fight against Muslims in Spain or Prussian heathen in Eastern Europe.

So the idea of a "Holy War against the infidels," is a Medieval Christian concept; not one from Islam nor has it ever been, but rather, an early version of Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism or conquest against Muslims.

Less we also not forget that many Jews where living in Palestine at this time, that they too where being subjected to slaughter; by the Crusaders, the same as Muslims.

*Albigensian (definition): Christian religious group in southern France during the 12th and 13th centuries. They believed that everything in the material world is evil.