WASHINGTON - From the people who brought you the "war on terror" and the "axis
of evil" comes a new verbal tonic for combating that amorphous emotion.
Out with pejoratives like "Islamo-fascists", "jihadis" and "mujahideen", and in
with "words that work", that is according to a George W Bush administration
memo that was leaked last month to the Associated Press.
The non-binding 14-point guide on counterterrorism communication, prepared by
the US National Counterterrorism
Center (NCTC), urges US officials to drop language and terminology that may
offend Arab and Muslim communities, to use terms such as "violent extremist" or
"terrorist" instead of "jihadi", and to shift the discussion away from the
dualistic "clash of civilizations" or battle between "Islam and the West", a
paradigm that casts Islam as inherently violent.
"A mujahid, a holy warrior, is a positive characterization in the context of a
just war. In Arabic, jihad means 'striving in the path of God' and is used in
many contexts beyond warfare. Calling our enemies jihadis and their movement a
global jihad unintentionally legitimizes their actions," according to the
report. "We need to emphasize that terrorists misuse religion as a political
tool to harm innocent civilians across the globe."
Others points suggest using the word "totalitarian to describe our enemy"
because, according to the report, the term is widely understood in the Muslim
world. Keep the focus on the terrorist, not us, it says, and don't ascribe
"al-Qaeda and its affiliates motives or goals they have not articulated. Our
audiences have more familiarity with the terrorist messages than we do and will
immediately spot US government embellishment."
Lastly, "Try to limit the number of non-English terms you use if you are
speaking in English," because "it's not what you say, but what they hear." In
other words, mispronunciation could make a statement incomprehensible, such as
in the example of "Qutbism", which refers to author Sayyid Qutb, a Muslim
Brotherhood member during the mid-1950s who penned the controversial book, Milestones,
and whose ideas would inspire al-Qaeda.
The word Qutb in English is often mispronounced to mean "books".
Talking tough on terror has been the main currency of the Republican Party, and
the main project of neo-conservative pundits in Washington. But in the
aftermath of the George W Bush administration's failed Middle East policy, many
officials, including the bullhorn-in-chief himself, have pushed to reform the
public diplomacy machinery, and to correct the rhetorical missteps that
unintentionally serve to legitimize groups who share al-Qaeda's ideology.
The inspiration may have come from Bush confidante and hand-holder Karen
Hughes, who acted as an advisor to the administration until she was appointed
under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a position she left in
November 2007.
Hughes had never been to the Middle East and had no expertise in the Muslim
communities that were the main targets of the White House's public diplomacy
goals. But her year-long effort to change the US image abroad did yield the
National Strategy for Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication, a 34-page
document that calls for the US to mind its language.
"Avoid characterizing people of any faith as 'moderate' - this is a political
word which, when extended to the world of faith, can imply these are less
devout and faithful. The terms 'mainstream' or 'majority' are preferable,"
according to Hughes' report.
In the face of increased calls from analysts and officials within the
intelligence community to focus on the very serious public diplomacy problem on
its hands, the Bush administration appears to have taken Hughes' advice to
heart.
The president has used the phrase "Islamic terrorist" only once since the
beginning of 2007 and has buried the "Islamo-fascist" neologism embraced by
right-leaning US officials and terrorism analysts. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice has also refrained from using the word "jihadi" in her public
speeches since last September.
This January, the Pentagon decided to cut the contract of its "foremost"
specialist on Islamic law and Islamic extremism, citing budgetary cuts, but
Stephen Coughlin's supporters said the jihad maven was unjustly fired because
his message was too politically hot.
The recent developments appear to have caused a split among Republicans on how
to define terrorism, and the recent disclosure has ruffled the feathers of
members on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. This month,
every Republican voted for an amendment to an intelligence bill that would ban
the use of federal cash to produce documents that used the same terminology as
the NCTC report. The amendment, authored by the panel's ranking Republican,
Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, was defeated.
In response to the new NCTC recommendations, former House speaker Newt Gingrich
warned last Friday that the US was crippled by "political correctness" as it
tried to meet "the threats around the world".
"If we cannot have an honest discussion about the nature of the threats against
us, we cannot develop strategies to meet those threats," he said. "It is simply
suicidal to treat the al-Qaeda network as simply 'an illegitimate political
organization', both terrorist and 'criminal', while ignoring the radical
religious foundation underpinning this and other groups that constitute an
Irreconcilable Wing of Islam."
With the presidential election just beyond the horizon, it appears that
Republican nominee John McCain will strive to create stark differences between
himself and presumptive Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama. McCain pledges
to continue waging war against "radical Islamic terrorism" and campaign aides
say he won't back down from using the language, even though a recent Homeland
Security report, which shares many of the same views as the NCTC, calls for
just the opposite.
For US-based Muslim advocacy groups, delinking religious identity from the
slippery slope of terror talk is a welcome change.
"It is a good step that they at least take these terms into consideration,"
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on Islamic American Relations, told
Inter Press Service. "What terms are used and what not are a matter of debate.
At least, we should all be thinking about this."
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