Islamic terrorists: DO NOT USE

The government is making GREAT efforts NOT to talk about the nature of the Islamic Enemy! This from an article at Front Page Magazine by Daniel Pipes

For the past year, there’s been a concerted push within the U.S. government to ban frank talk about the nature of the Islamist enemy. It began with the Department of Homeland Security, then moved to the National Counter Terrorism Center and the departments of State and Defense. Already in May 2008, I heard an excellent analysis of the enemy by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Thomas Mahnken in which he bizarrely never once mentioned Islam or jihad.

The answer just arrived, in the shape of a leaked memo dated March 2 from Jennifer Janin, head of the Urdu service at the Voice of America. The directive can be found in its entirety at “Urdu Language Style & Guidelines #3.” Addressed to the Urdu radio, television, and web teams, as well as to the director and program manager of VOA’s South Asia Division, her diktat insists on no connection being drawn from Islam to politics. In gist:

Islamic terrorists: DO NOT USE. Instead use simply: terrorist.

Islamic Fundamentalism/Muslim Fundamentalists: AVOID.

Islamist: NOT NECESSARY.

Muslim Extremists: NOT NECESSARY. Extremist serves well.

….might argue that she is merely picking up on Barack Obama’s emphasis on “respect” for Muslims, but there is no public indication that “respect” means pretending that Islam is not a central public issue facing Americans

You must name the enemy, in order to understand it….. avoidance leads to disaster!