"I think that some people were hurt and offended about how he was given the platform at Harvard, because having spoken at Harvard tends to legitimize a speaker," said Sameera Fazili '00, president of the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS) and a Harvard Class Marshal.

The HIS began preparing to challenge Emerson long before the event, circulating an e-mail with suggested questions that urged members to keep their emotions in check.

The debate began before the event even started, as the HIS passed out photocopied flyers titled "The Truth about Islam in America" in anticipation of Emerson's interpretation of the word jihad.

During his lecture, Emerson explained the definition of jihad.

"Yes, jihad can have many definitions...but for the militants...jihad is a battlefront, a war that has to be fought with missiles, knives and bullets," Emerson said.

The flyers, however, suggested a very different definition.

"Its primary meaning, from the root word jhd, is to strive or exert oneself. . . . What is clear, though, is that striving in the right path involves foremost one's struggle to reorient one's own self to live according to how God would have His creation live," reads the statement prepared by HIS.