Speech meant to tell real meaning of 'jihad'

Zayed Yasin said he's dropping 'jihad' from the title of his speech, but the content will not change.

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(CNN) -- A dispute at Harvard University will culminate Thursday when a Muslim-American student delivers his commencement speech. Zayed Yasin's original title for the address was "My American Jihad," but that title caused such an angry backlash that he changed it to "A Faith and Citizenship."

Some students say that Yasin is an inappropriate choice for the commencement honor because of his alleged involvement with a group that considered giving money to The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development -- which the U.S. government says is linked to Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic organization classified as a terrorist group by the United States. Yasin says the accusation is wrong.

CNN's Daryn Kagan spoke with Zayed Yasin, a biomedical engineering student at Harvard.

KAGAN: First I want to go to your speech, "My American Jihad." What was your original intent with that title?

YASIN: The intention of the title is to talk about the unity between American and Islamic values and to talk about jihad. Jihad as a moral and a personal struggle to do the right thing that I think that is very relevant to Americans today.

KAGAN: That's its original intent, but do you understand that Americans, as they have been victims and have watched terrorist groups that have adopted the word jihad ... have a different understanding of that word?

YASIN: I think that the corruptions of the word jihad and the perceptions that exist out in the world perpetuated both by Muslims and non-Muslims is exactly why I feel I need to give this speech.

KAGAN: So take me back. You -- how are you picked in the first place to be a commencement speaker?

YASIN: Well there was an audition process. So I submitted a paper draft of the speech and made the first cut. And then went through several rounds of auditions and was eventually chosen.

KAGAN: And at what point did they go -- 'Hold, hold, everything, this title, it's just not going to work'?

YASIN: It only came up after I was already chosen and it was printed in the "Harvard Crimson" -- and the kind of hue and cry started there. And after about a week of that, I met with some of the folks from the selection committee. And we decide that people hear the word -- jihad is a very powerful word. It's much more powerful than we had even anticipated.

And we thought that we really wanted people to hear the message of this speech and so that it made sense, for the first time, on commencement day, that (when) people hear the word "jihad" it will be inside the context of the speech, as it's being developed and explained.

KAGAN: So you were OK with taking it out of the title but the word will be in your speech tomorrow?

YASIN: The word is central to the speech.

KAGAN: And exactly what are you hoping that people get out of your speech?

YASIN: I'm hoping people get a sense of both of the unity between American-Islamic values -- the idea that there is no contradiction between being Muslim and being American, that the values that we share are universal values, as well as trying to reclaim the word from the way it's been -- it's been misappropriated.

KAGAN: What about the people who say that you shouldn't even be speaking in the first place?

YASIN: I think that's very sad.

KAGAN: But do you see their point in that you used to support a group -- or do you still support the same group -- that has been linked to terrorism by the FBI?

YASIN: I think this is -- this is a horrible misrepresentation. It's kind of interpretations of falsehoods. First, I never -- at one point in time I was part of a group that considered giving money to Holy Land Foundation but for a variety of different reasons, we decided never to give them any money.

KAGAN: OK.

YASIN: And so regardless of a discussion about Holy Land itself, I've never worked with them or given them any funds.

KAGAN: So in no way do you support a group that would commit acts of terrorism against the United States or other fellow Americans?

YASIN: I think that nothing can justify what happened on September 11. I think that it's -- I do not support anything that causes violence against innocents. I don't believe that anything that happens like that is in the name of my religion.

KAGAN: Zayed, what kind of a response and welcoming do you think you're going to get tomorrow at commencement?

YASIN: I think people, for the most part, are going to sit and listen. And I hope they'll be pleased with the speech and they'll wonder what all this fuss was about.

KAGAN: Well, we wish you well with the speech and congratulate you on your commencement. And what are your plans for the future?

YASIN: I'm going to be working for a rural health NGO in northern Pakistan for the next year before attending medical school.