[lit-ideas] Re: Terrorist Language
- From: Brian <cabrian@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 12:48:45 -0600
Mike,
There has not been broad consensus about what label to use but
Islamist has been used most often so that is the default, yet Jihadi
is more precise. This is one of the main problems of Western
scholarship concerning counterterrorism: the failure to identify the
underlying ideologies of our enemies. In the Militant Ideology Atlas
they define four constituencies of the Jihadi movement (Muslims,
Islamists, Salafis and Jihadis) and they describe Islamists as
"people who want Islamic law to be the primary source of law and
cultural identity in a state. They differ over the meaning of this
objective and the means of achieving it. Among Sunnis (the vast
majority of the worlds Muslims), the Muslim Brotherhood is the most
influential group in the Islamist constituency..." And Jihadis are
"the holy warriors and todays most prominent terrorists, whose
movement is part of the larger Salafi Movement (but note that most
Salafis are not Jihadis). Since Jihadi thinkers draw their legitimacy
from the same tradition as Salafis, Salafi scholars--particularly
Saudi clerics--are best positioned to discredit the movement among
other Salafis."
One thing the authors recommend is dealing with the poverty of
language by labeling the Jihadi movement Qutbism after the most cited
Jihadi theorist, Sayyid Qutb. This would help Muslim opponents of
the Jihadis and also distance ourselves from potentially offensive
words. This is along the same lines as my post about robbing the
terrorists of their language and not using words like mujahideen and
jihad because those carry positive connotations for those groups
labeling themselves that. I have my quibbles with the Atlas document
but I'm curious, what word or phrase do you prefer, Mike, for
labeling Islamic terrorists?
Brian
On Jan 3, 2007, at 10:02 PM, Mike Geary wrote:
Are you using the word 'Islamist' as a synonym for 'terrorist'...
If so, you're being extremely sloppy and bringing these attacks
down on himself. An Islamist is not, by definition, a terrorist.
Other related posts:
