The words of war

I thought this article was sooooo interesting. "White House bars loaded labels from words of war--Some speech aids extremists, insults Muslims, report says."

Here's a short snippet:

Federal agencies, including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counter Terrorism Center, are telling their people not to describe Islamic extremists as jihadists or mujahedeen, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. Lingo like Islamo-fascism is out, too.

The reason: Such words may actually boost support for radicals among Arab and Muslim audiences by giving them a veneer of religious credibility or by causing offense to moderates.

Some people might think this is just politically correct posturing to appease Muslims, but I think it's much more than that. How often do we (as Muslims) have to explain the concept of "jihaad" and how it doesn't mean "holy war?" But yet the vast majority of Americans are convinced the two words are interchangeable. They also think that the world's population of over a billion Muslims are waging "holy war" against everyone else. Such idiotic notions might begin with a few rogue and isolated groups attempting to affect political change in their own country or region--who use the language of Islam to gain broader support for their cause.

But when the media picks it their rhetoric, rather ignorantly, and attempts to sound more informed (pseudo-experts) regarding the movements on which they are reporting, the concepts which aren't explained get a free ride on the propaganda, giving people the false impression that Islam is somehow their enemy (because it's waging holy war on everyone) and they start distributing a variety of hate literature targetting Muslims.

The article suggests that government agencies see that when the media uses the religious language for political movements, they give a sort of credibility to the terrorism. People start to think that this is a widespread teaching about Islam, and while I'd like to think that Muslims know better, maybe in some cases they don't. And then people really get confused when the media starts to identify the ideologies of terrorists with known religious movements--you know that has happened when you hear your senator or representative talking about how dangerous "wahhabis" are.

Here is another neat opinion piece about the first article, and it's called Words for the evildoers.

Overall, I think this demonstrates the fact that higher-ups in the American government (like in the State Department and the White House) have realized that endorsing the neoconservative anti-Islamic sentiment is really damaging to American interests, at home and abroad. And it shows that the vicious rhetoric of politicians is just that--rhetoric, and not being passed off as actual policy. At the very least, I think it's a step in the right direction.