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Not Calling Islamism the Enemy

by Daniel Pipes
Wed, 29 Sep 2004
updated Sun, 24 Feb 2008

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My weblog entry, "Calling Islamism the Enemy," documents the increasing readiness of Westerners to call the enemy by its name, but a contrary current, that of disassociating Islam from the problem, or pooh-poohing radical Islam as a threat, should not be ignored. Here follow some prominent examples, in reverse chronological order:

_________

George W. Bush, president of the United States: He did not actively deny the Islamist nature in his final State of the Union speech last night, but he did avoid it, notes Andrew Cochran at "So Now President Bush Won't Call It ‘Islamic' Terrorism or Extremism?" The contrast with his speeches in prior years is telling. (January 29, 2008)

Jacqui Smith, UK home secretary: In her first major speech on radicalization, Smith repeatedly used the phrase "anti-Islamic" to describe terrorism. One example: "As so many Muslims in the UK and across the world have pointed out, there is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorise, nothing Islamic about plotting murder, pain and grief. Indeed, if anything, these actions are anti-Islamic." She expressed her intent to enlist the Muslim community to fight against this "anti-Islamic activity." In addition, senior government sources indicated that the terms war on terror and Islamic extremism will no longer be used by top officials. (James Slack, "Government renames Islamic terrorism as ‘anti-Islamic activity' to woo Muslims," Daily Mail, January 17, 2008)

Gordon Brown, prime minister of the United Kingdom: According to an article, he "has banned ministers from using the word ‘Muslim' in connection with the terrorism crisis. The Prime Minister has also instructed his team … that the phrase ‘war on ­terror' is to be dropped. The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more ‘consensual' tone than existed under Tony Blair." (Macer Hall, "Brown: Don't Say Terrorists Are Muslims," Daily Express, July 3, 2007) Feb. 4, 2008 update: The prime minister's ban has now been codified in a new counter-terrorism phrasebook drawn up by the Home Office, reports Alan Travis in the Guardian.

Reflecting the government's decision to abandon the "aggressive rhetoric" of the so-called war on terror, the guide tells civil servants not to use terms such as Islamist extremism or jihadi-fundamentalist but instead to refer to violent extremism and criminal murderers or thugs to avoid any implication that there is an explicit link between Islam and terrorism. It warns those engaged in counter-terrorist work that talk of a struggle for values or a battle of ideas is often heard as a "confrontation/clash between civilisations/cultures". Instead it suggests that talking about the idea of shared values works much more effectively. …

"This is not intended as a definitive list of what not to say but rather to highlight terms which risk being misunderstood and therefore prevent the effective reception of the message," says the Home Office paper. "This is not about political correctness, but effectiveness - evidence shows that people stop listening if they think you are attacking them."

The European Union: "Brussels officials have confirmed the existence of a classified handbook which offers "non-offensive" phrases to use when announcing anti-terrorist operations or dealing with terrorist attacks. Banned terms are said to include ‘jihad,' ‘Islamic' or ‘fundamentalist.' The word ‘jihad' is to be avoided altogether, according to some sources, because for Muslims the word can mean a personal struggle to live a moral life. One alternative, suggested publicly last year, is for the term ‘Islamic terrorism' to be replaced by ‘terrorists who abusively invoke Islam'." (Bruno Waterfield, "Don't confuse terrorism with Islam, says EU," The Daily Telegraph, March 31, 2007)

Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

complain their boss Michael Chertoff is hamstringing counter-terror operations with pro-Islamic political correctness. They say headquarters has cautioned officials not to describe Islamic terrorism as Islamic and to respect Islam as a "religion of peace." "It's constantly drilled into us that Islam is not the enemy, and that the terrorists are merely a minority of ‘extremists' distorting Islam," said one official who wished to go unnamed. DHS Secretary Chertoff set the tone in a staffwide memo last year, when he described as "extremists" the two dozen Muslim terrorists who plotted to blow up 10 airliners over the Atlantic. Unlike British authorities, Chertoff did not mention the religious motivation of the terrorists. Nowhere in the one-page memo were the terms "Muslim" or "Islamic" used.

("Chertoff's ‘Islam PC' rankles fed officials" February 10, 2007)

British Foreign Office: Not only is the British bureaucracy loath to mention radical Islam, but it has now formally distanced itself from the anodyne and inaccurate "war on terror," on the grounds that even this is inflammatory vis-à-vis British and other Muslims. A Foreign Office spokesman said dropping the term avoids "reinforcing and giving succour to the terrorists' narrative by using language that, taken out of context, could be counter-productive." Instead, British diplomats and official spokespeople will "emphasise upholding shared values as a means to counter terrorists." The move met with approval from Garry Hindle, a terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London, who noted that "Military terminology is completely counter-productive, merely contributing to isolating communities" and called this change in terminology "a very positive move." (December 10, 2006)

[PIC] 209 || right ||Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School: "When you talk about fighting terrorism, you shouldn't talk about Islamo-anything, because … ‘The minute you say Islam [is] connected to terrorism, you are deepending that division'." ("Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. [/PIC]U.S. National Security on the 21st Century" [sic], October 3, 2006)

Karen HughesKaren Hughes at the Islamic Society of North America.

Comment: Despite the impressive leadership of the president in calling Islamism the enemy (documented at length in another weblog entry by that name), State Department types cannot find the backbone to mention the word Islam.

European Union officials, in the process of working on something they call a "non-emotive lexicon for discussing radicalisation" for use by EU officials and politicians when talking in public about terrorism and Islam, are establishing that nothing in Islam justifies the terrorist atrocities on September 11 or in Madrid or London. "Certainly ‘Islamic terrorism' is something we will not use ... we talk about ‘terrorists who abusively invoke Islam'," an EU official told Reuters. The same official noted that "Jihad is a perfectly positive concept of trying to fight evil within yourself." And EU counter-terrorism chief Gijs de Vries says that terrorism is not inherent to any religion, and he encourages "a choice of language that makes clear that we are talking about a murderous fringe that is abusing a religion and does not represent it." A EU official familiar with the "lexicon" review says

the point of using careful language was not to "fall into the trap" of offending and alienating citizens. "You don't want to use terminology which would aggravate the problem," he said. "This is an attempt ... to be aware of the sensitivities implied by the use of certain language."

(David Rennie, "'Islamic terrorism' is too emotive a phrase, says EU," Daily Telegraph, April 12, 2006)

Comment: As so often in this war, sensitivity to feelings trumps the common security and even the effort to win the war.

The Pentagon has renamed what for nearly five years was called the "war on terror" the "long war." The term has not caught on – no surprise there – so the Department of Defense has been trying anew in recent days to get it accepted. ("Pentagon promotes 'long war' strategy as violence threatens withdrawal," Daily Telegraph, February 25, 2006)

Ray Takeyh and Nikolas K. GvosdevLord Carey, the former Archbiship of Canterbury.

Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury: He has undertaken a personal campaign "to challenge anyone who talks about Islamic terrorists. I think we have to drop the word Islamic because in so doing we deprive the terrorist of his religious legitimacy. He wants religious justification for his evil deeds, and we shouldn't give it to him. And second, by dropping Islamic before terrorist we are taking a lot of pressure off the average Muslim who simply doesn't want to be portrayed as a fellow murderer. … We're blaming that tiny, tiny minority of people who are using Islam as a weapon to get their own back against the West and to undermine all we're trying to do." (BBC Radio 4's "Today", September 29, 2004)

Related Topics: Radical Islam, US policy, War on terror

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