INTERNATIONAL ANALYST NETWORK: The Bush administration has launched a new “outreach” policy reflecting it’s reluctance to discuss jihadism in public. This time, it has targeted language. We are no longer at war with “jihadism”. Rather, we are engaged in a war against “extremism”.
In a document titled: "Words that Work and Words that Don't: A Guide for Counterterrorism Communication” released in March 2008, Federal agencies including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counter Terrorism Center will now be issued instructions on how not to describe "jihadists”, or the "mujahedeen", or to use any references relating to Islam, Islamic theology or Muslims in the context of our current war. Nor are these the only words to be struck from the government’s political lexicon. Words and phrases like “al Qaeda movement”, “Salafi”, “Wahhabist”, “Sufi”, “ummah” (the Muslim world), “Islamic terrorist”, “Islamist”, “holy warrior” and even “caliphate” are also to be removed from diplomatic discourse.
The erroneous rationale given is that these terms promote support for “extremism” among Arab and Muslim audiences by providing religious credibility to “extremists” while offending moderate Muslims. The directive states that the term “jihad” tends to “glamorize terrorism, imbues terrorists with religious authority they do not have and damages relations with Muslims around the world". The memo says the advice is not binding and does not apply to official policy papers, but should be used as a guide for conversations with Muslims and media.
This directive mirrors identical policy guidelines distributed to British and European Union diplomats last year to better explain the current war to Muslim communities there (as if they don’t already get it). Last summer, Prime Minister Gordon Brown prohibited his ministers from using the word “Muslim” in connection with terrorism. And in January this year, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith went even further, announcing that the British Government had dropped the terms “War on Terror” and “Islamic extremism” altogether. Civil servants now have to refer to Islamic terrorists merely as “criminals” without any reference to Islam in order to “prevent the glorification and incitement of terrorism”. Bat Ye’or would call these actions just another manifestation of creeping British “d’himmitude” [sic] (infidel submission to Islam), but the fact that the US government is now following the British lead (where fear under the guise of “outreach” is the motivating factor) is disturbing. America’s War on Words >>> By Mark Silverberg
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
