Probably the hardest thing for wingnuts to understand is that, for Muslims, the words “Islam,” “Islamic,” and even “jihad” are positive words. When you call something Islamic, the presumption is that it is something good. There’s a reason that radical political/terrorist groups tend to call themselves things like “Party of Allah,” “Islamic Jihad,” or the “Muslim Brotherhood.” It’s not to scare the Texas congressional delegation. It’s because those names arouse sympathy from ordinary Muslims.
A Brit might not like the sound of the “Daughters of the American Revolution,” but they aren’t named that to scare Brits. They’re named that because they’re proud to associate themselves with the American Revolution, and they know most Americans will respect the name if not necessarily the specifics of their agenda.
So, going around denouncing “Islamic” terrorism is really a horrible way of driving a wedge between terrorists and everyday Muslims. Everyday Muslims will never agree that being Islamic is suspect or somehow bad.
We should be able to reach out to the vast, vast majority of Muslims who are not radical.
But, our Manichean conservative absolutist’s have no room for nuance.
You’re either purely good, or purely evil.
“The only good ‘Injun,’ is a dead ‘Injun!'”
“America, love it or leave it!”
This is nothing new.
It always been part of the American Authoritarian hive-mind.
By the same token, maybe saying the terrorist act is “not Islamic” is a good thing. I’m always afraid it sounds patronizing coming from, say, Obama, but since all the clerics agree with it, it shows some real understanding. And great to mention jihad in this context, meaning everybody’s spiritual struggle.
Just read this piece, Are All Terrorists Muslim Fascinating and much needed addition to discussions.
From that article: “We Muslims can make the case that their actions are not based on any part of the faith but on their own political agenda. But they are Muslims, no denying that.”
I disagree. The word islam (which I’m deliberately not capitalizing but, rather, using in the same way it’s used in the Qu’ran) is not the name of a religion but, rather, a verb. It means to be submitted. Submitted to the will of God. It’s very much the same as when a Buddhist speaks of non-attachment.
People who commit acts of terror are in no way submitted. They are the opposite, arrogant, taking the will of God into their own hands to the point of meting out death. This is clearly prohibited. It makes as much sense for a terrorist to call himself Muslim as for a KKK member who castrates and lynches black men to call himself Christian. Such people are in no way religious. They hide behind religion.
Those who are “going around denouncing ‘Islamic’ terrorism” don’t differentiate between terrorists and everyday Muslims. We should be crystal-clear on that point. From their POV all Muslims are the enemy, anti-American, and preferably soon-to-be-dead. I wish this were hyperbole.