Words Matter in the War on Terror
If we refuse to call terrorists by their proper name — "jihadists" — we will never defeat them. (Also read Phyllis Chesler: Extraordinary Activists Who Stood Against Radical Islam in Times Square.)
Knowledge is inextricably linked to language. The less accurate words are, the less accurate the knowledge they impart; conversely, the more precise the language, the more precise the knowledge. In the war on terror, to acquire accurate knowledge — which is pivotal to victory — we need to begin with accurate language.
Would the free world have understood the Nazi threat if, instead of calling them what they called themselves, “Nazis,” it had opted to simply call them “extremists” — a word wholly overlooking the racist, expansionary, and supremacist elements that are part and parcel of the word “Nazi”?
Unfortunately, the U.S. government, apparently oblivious to this interconnection between language and knowledge, appears to be doing just that. Even President Obama alluded to this soon after taking office when he said, “Words matter in this situation because one of the ways we’re going to win this struggle [war on terror] is through the battle of [Muslims'] hearts and minds.”
According to an official memo, when talking about Islamists and their goals, analysts are to refrain from using Arabic words of Islamic significance (”mujahidin,” “salafi,” “ummah”); nor should they employ helpful English or anglicized words (”jihadi,” “Islamo-fascism,” “caliphate”). Instead, vague generics (”terrorists,” “extremists,” “totalitarians”) should suffice.
A renewed defense of this disturbing trend was recently published by one Colonel Jeffrey Vordermark and deserves examination. After suggesting that Americans “love to throw around foreign words,” Vordermark writes:
We have fallen into the “jihad” trap. The term is used in casual banter yet most remain clueless regarding its origin or meanings. We think, therefore we know. Pundits, academics, and laymen profess to know its meaning, and the term is daily news in the mouths of reporters and in the banners of headlines. Unfortunately, its very use assumes that Islam is simple and monolithic. … As a nation and society, we could not be more incorrect.
While lofty sounding, this view is riddled with problems. First, by seeking to excise the word “jihad” from public discourse, due to the erroneous notion that that term is apparently unknowable, this position is self-defeatist.
“Jihad” has a very precise, juristic definition; more to the point, Sunni Islam — which accounts for nearly 90% of the Islamic world — is, in fact, “simple and monolithic,” thanks to the totalitarian nature of Islamic law (Sharia), which categorizes all possible human actions as being either forbidden, discouraged, legitimate, recommended, or obligatory. Indeed, of the major religions of the world, none is perhaps so black and white, so clear cut as Islam, which meticulously delineates to Muslims the correct “way” of living (”way,” incidentally, being the literal definition of the word “Sharia”).
Thus to try to portray Islam and its institutions as somehow “otherworldly” and unfathomable — so let’s just not bother trying to understand in the first place — is not only folly, but precisely what the Islamists themselves most desire: to guard Islam’s more troubling doctrines, such as jihad, from infidel scrutiny.
Vordermark continues:
Historically the term [jihad] applied to the concept of either a “greater jihad,” or a “lesser jihad.” The former denoting the daily struggle of the believer to overcome “self” in the pursuit of Allah’s will, and the latter traditionally meaning defense of religion, family, or homeland [emphasis added].
Let’s for the time being overlook the hackneyed stress on the so-called greater-lesser jihad dichotomy — which, semantics and sophistry aside, does not invalidate the lesser jihad (i.e., armed warfare). The real problem here is that Vordermark’s assertion that the military “jihad” has been “traditionally” limited to “defensive warfare” is totally false.
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Raymond Ibrahim is the author of The Al Qaeda Reader, translations of religious texts and propaganda.
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26 Comments
1. BPT (Australia):You are so right. If we took the same position for Ku Klux Klan nuts, they’d still have the power in the Democratic Party.
May 4, 2009 - 4:51 am 2. David Thomson:“…due to the erroneous notion that that term is apparently unknowable, this position is self-defeatist.”
It is postmodernist claptrap. Human language is never perfect—but more often than not, it is adequate. The word Jihad is very useful. It helps us to substantially better understand our existential foes. Subconsciously, the Obama administration prefer employing euphemisms because it desires to avoid confronting the Islamic nihilists. Much of this has to due with their normally darker skins. They are supposedly justified in their anger towards the United States because of our past imperialist policies.
May 4, 2009 - 6:24 am 3. larry j:One of my neighbors is an Air Force fighter pilot. He has served in Iraq and is about to return. Based on the briefings he has had on the region and what he told me, you couldn’t be more wrong.
If jihad means holy war, then a jihadist is a holy warrior. That’s what they call themselves and they certainly don’t see that with negative connotations. If we start calling them holy warriors, then we’re effectively saying that those opposing us are acting in accordance with Islam. In that region, that would be a terrible mistake.
May 4, 2009 - 6:31 am 4. LynnS:Ok, you win, we’ll call it World War III and….
you thought it was a problem figuring out what the meaning of the word “is” is. I think the meaning of Islamic words are whatever they want them to be and if your not in their inner “circle of trust” well, good luck with that.
May 4, 2009 - 6:56 am 5. David Thomson:“has to due with their normally…”
Should be “do to their normally…”
“then we’re effectively saying that those opposing us are acting in accordance with Islam”
Not quite. We are merely pointing out that many adherents of Islam interpret Jihad in this matter. Religions are rarely, if ever, monolithic regarding belief.
May 4, 2009 - 7:06 am 6. Professor Guvinoff:I used to be totally ignorant about islam, and drinking the cool-aid. I found that websites such as http://www.jihadwatch.org and books by Robert Spencer and others are very useful in illuminating the subject. They will not make an expert on the subject of islam, but they will help you avoid the most common and dangerous errors about the nature of islam. The “Sharia and Jihad” daily feature on PJTV is also an illuminating beacon.
Many muslims think that the west is determined to steal their possessions and kill them. This fear could well be a typical error of projection. Since they believe that their mission is world conquest, they most naturally imagine that we must be animated by a symmetric ambition. It is hard for them to imagine that the superiority of the west in science, literature, health care and technology could in any way be the manifestation of the inner strenghts of the judeo-christian tradition.
They do not see any conflict between enjoying cars, cell phones, satellites dishes and even airplanes, all fruits of the western culture, and seeking to destry it at the same time.
So we are not the only ones misconstruing the other culture. When they are defeated on the battlefield, they have a wonderful way of accepting it, by declaring that such was the will of Allah, but that won’t happen until they are defeated militarily in the first place. In the meantime, we would do ourselves (and them as well) a favor by prosecuting the muslim among us according to our laws when they perpetrate crimes that can be excused by their tradition. The notion of personal responsibility is a distinctively western value, and it is for us to honor it, and impose it on those immigrants who would rather evade it.
We should not accept immigrants that enjoy the benefits of our culture while rejecting our values. If they want to stick to their traditional code of conduct, they can do that by a returning to a society governed by Sharia, which they have left! If we fail to enforce our own laws and values, they will eventually enforce theirs, and the west will become islamic, simple as that!
May 4, 2009 - 7:50 am 7. David W. Lincoln:As long as words have the meaning that the nefarious mountebank occupying the Oval Office wants them to have, rather
than what they are – The United States will be in for a very long spell trying to live down who is in the White House.
Not quite on the same level as the killing fields of Cambodia, or the gulags under the hammer and sickle, but bad nonetheless.
May 4, 2009 - 9:26 am 8. Fragmentarian:I think the correct term should be f***ing jihadi ***holes.
May 4, 2009 - 9:55 am 9. JB:I’ve still but five words for gun grabbers: “From my cold dead hands”
May 4, 2009 - 12:02 pm 10. DonJoeBillyBob:Do not fear being labeled an ‘Islamophobe.’ Winston Churchill was once accused of being a ‘Naziphobe.’
Islam is NOT a religion of peace. By its nature Islam is radical, it has no shades.
Most people are simply unaware that Islam is NOT just another religion but a totalitarian political cult-like ideology, which compels its followers into blind obedience, teaches intolerance, brutality and locks all Muslims and non-Muslims in a struggle deriving directly from the 7th century nomadic, predatory, Bedouin culture.
FYI: http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/about/
Obama is a Communitarian; Their slogan; “It takes (Global) Village to raise an idiot, look at me, be like me.”
Woo-hoo We got sneekers;)
May 4, 2009 - 12:33 pm 11. DoubleTapper:In terms of general usage Jihai and terrorist are synonyms.
Here in Israel we don’t worry about semantics.
May 4, 2009 - 12:46 pm 12. Erasmus:Great, of course in 2003, Iraq wasn’t an Islamic theocracy with jihadist aims. It took a willful distortion of the language by the previous administration to fool enough people into thinking that somehow Iraq was involved with 9/11.
May 4, 2009 - 2:24 pm 13. Carl Gordon:I’m guessing that along with the latest last minute rewrite of Reagan’s communication “skills” and it’s alleged effectiveness, the current GOPers remain steadfast and stupid against all things reality based, i.e., based on actual attestable facts, as the thoughts of missing out on all that birthday cake and chocolate ice cream laying in the bottom of their pig troughs is too drool inducing to acknowledge what each of us faces every morning as the result of 8 years of “Reaganomincs” – sunny happy-face painted visions of party favors, bobbing for apples, and Chuckles the clown getting a might too familiar with your senator’s or representative’s package. Face it Bush lickers: You just couldn’t resist the lure of ingesting too many conservative hot dogs and the aural flatulence assault and obligatory vomiting of seemingly thousands of over-indulged red-state brats screaming Hosannas of glee as they hop like retard bats in one of those inflatable trampoline jump thingys. Yeah, you talk a mean game but underneath, you’re just a weak-kneed, pencil-dick pansies for discarded, retarded GOP dulled talking points, and that you never miss a chance for a little one-on-one with Chuckles, not to mention your unnatural fascination and troubling affability with the leather saddle horn on the Cheney’s Express pony ride. I heard Cheney saying the other day on some Fox wank-off show that the old glory hole hasn’t been the same since the real adults showed up. He was complaining how he developed this strange scent of latex in his nostrils, his breathing got labored, even after Tim unbuckled his tight pants, and I’m sure if asked, you’d claim you remembered little of what transpired. Wolf found you later that day face down in the salmon eggs. But I’m concerned about Poddy, he seems to have turned over a new “leaf”, a peculiar nuance, if you will, that has rather disturbing undertones.
May 4, 2009 - 3:10 pm 14. Leatherneck:It seems to me the reason to call anything not blindly following the Marxist in the White House extremest, is there is no such thing as war within the New Order of the Ages. There are only those who commit crimes, and they are extremests.
Soon being a Christian Pastor who states G-d said Homosexual acts are a sin will be a crime. Therefore, the Pastor is an extremist. See how that works?
May 4, 2009 - 3:41 pm 15. Tri Geek:Wow, Carl Gordon you are a very strange person with an amazingly perverted mind. Is this the way you talk in public?
May 4, 2009 - 6:21 pm 16. gadzooks:larry j — with all respect to your pilot neighbor, his briefings didn’t serve him or us well. Jihadis are not waiting for approval of their jihad from kaffirs. It would help if one imam pronounced takfir (i.e. called an infidel) on bin Laden or any other jihadi, but it’s not happening.
May 4, 2009 - 7:56 pm 17. tanstaafl:Study of Islam or owning Koran was prohibited to non-Muslims under Muslim rule, so study it up while you can.
Even if you, larry j, don’t call it what it is, don’t you owe it to yourself to find out?
“Words matter in this situation because one of the ways we’re going to win this struggle [war on terror] is through the battle of [Muslims'] hearts and minds.” (Obama)
I’m sure this Kuwaiti professor, Fahd Abd Al-Aziz Al-Nafisi, is amenable to being won over. Just tweak a few words (maybe you could even dump a little of your famous “empathy” on him) and he’ll cease his vile hatred of the infidel. Ya think ?
Kuwaiti Professor Fantasizes Of A Biological Attack On The White House”
May 5, 2009 - 5:53 am 18. SAY NO TO BIG GOVERMENT:Show Obama, Reid and Pelosi the tea party protests were not “astroTurf” but they were the beginning of a massive movement against massive Government growth and the control that comes with it. Tell them to Empower Individual Americans to take responsibility for their own lives and for the individual to have control over the direction of our country Sign the petition for Individual Empowerment!!! http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Indv1776/petition.html THE ONLY WAY THIS WILL WORK IS IF YOU COPY AND SEND IT TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY THAT HAVE THE SAME OPINIONS AS YOU. ALSO COPY AND POST IT ON OTHER NEWS SITES, BLOGS, EMAIL IT TO ORGANIZATIONS ETC
May 5, 2009 - 1:47 pm 19. Will:Wake up America,stand up to Marxism and Islamist.
May 6, 2009 - 10:08 am 20. captcouv:While serving in Iraq, I received some timely information on the use of words in that culture from Mr Jim Guirard of TrueSpeak Institute, http://www.truespeak.org/content.php?id=itsnotjihad
With this information, I successfully used the terms ‘mufsidun’, ‘al-Hiraba’, and ‘tajdeef’ to counter the terrorist activities in my province. Sheiks, peasants, businessmen, tribal leaders, et-al instantly knew of what I was speaking and by the time I returned home, the people of Wassit Province were conspicusly using the same terms to describe people and acts that were counter to good order and prosperity in the province.
May 6, 2009 - 12:59 pm 21. Muhsin:The problem with all people, not matter what their affiliation, is their
May 7, 2009 - 8:45 am 22. jamil hanna:puffed up egos and sense of self righteousness.
Until we defeat the demons in our own souls, hatred, malice, anger, jealousy, pride, racism and other diseases of the heart…much of which is apparent in the above comments…then, alas, the cycle of oppression will continue, no matter who holds the reigns of power.
Mr Ibrahim the ennemy terrorists are not who you are busy to market them ,definitly they are the Qaeda,Taliban ,Wahaebi and Salafy,how do you want to fight the Qaeda and Taliban and fund schools to raise terrorists and suicide attackers.Let your bosses in Saudi Arabia stop funding them noting that it is a matter of time and they will dominate Ahganistan as well as Pakistan.Go to the Wahabi.
May 7, 2009 - 9:52 am 23. ZAC D.:For some reason when you speak or to be more accurate when you type I really pay attention to what it is you are teaching.
Most of the blog writings I read are illogical, filled with hyperbole, or ad hom attacks and straw man argumentation. You are clearly a cut above the rest in your associates in your analysts.
You rely on the evidence like any good scientist or skeptic conducting a thesis on his/her reseach.
May 8, 2009 - 3:29 am 24. salah ali:What about the language barrier? The dividing wall of mentality? Islam which is incorrectly and improperly linked by Western hooligans as Bush, Salman Rushdi and bernard Lewis to Terrorism is powerfully confounded and interlaced with Arabic language. You cannot read or understand its heart that is The Holy Qur’an with the sort of the mental set Western mind has. Moreover, all Muslems decline to conceed to Kafirs or Mushriks on whatever they say: Ya Ayuha Alladheena Aamanu lattabi’u Al-yahooda waln-Nasara, waman it-taba’ahum minkum fahwa minhum i.e. You believers: Do not follow the Jews and the Christians, and those who follow them from among you are of them not of you…There are so many verses in The Holy Book of God that call us to be aware of the devil as it embodies those who speak for him. Media is entropy in which disorder weighs heavily at the expense of order. Your media gives death and aggression a good name. The Muslem people of Iraq and Palestine cannot and will not forget or forgive the killing of children which your so-called democratic media has avoided. Your double standard policy in calling for the arrest of Sudan president for presumed crimes while neglecting to call to task Israeli criminals, won’t do you any good as it only brings to lime light the fact that you are lying and distorting the facts even in shifting the statement I have made in my previous comment on another essay in this site. I said Israel is supporting terrorism and you shifted my statement telling readers it was the Palestinians. You blame the victims (Palestinians) and praise the killers (Israeli criminals) . There is no single Israeli child killed in the last aggression on Gaza but everyone watched the slain Palestinian kids on the small screen! You encourage Israel to build nuclear arsenal and fight any other State particularly Islamic States for trying to defend themselves even with traditional weapons! What democracy you are talking about? Democracy that seeks welfare to pets while killing children of hunger and WMD everywhere in the Muslem world? We are fed up with your lies and it is time for you to understand that you are talking alone and talking to yourselves..The illusion or rather delusion of judging others is a mistake you never feel ashamed of. The Indian sweet lord of Richard Harrison is Kreshna one of whose manifestation is the cow, you never tell the Indians not to worship the cow! We Muslems have our seeing hearts and minds which tell us you are telling lies.Your democracy is an illusion, your society is declining and you are misunderstanding everything in your efforts to understand us. So the best to do is to live and leave others to their life, moral standards and ethical values, their language and history, and most importantly to their homelands and their God of wisdom, goodness and light: Allah Blessed Be His Name Salah Ali
May 9, 2009 - 12:19 am 25. Yuval Brandstetter MD:I think this last commentator explains just about everything. By calling all israelis criminals and all Muslims just he perpetrated exactly that which Ibrahim accuses Islam of: Totality of purpose, totality of self-justification, an utter lack of self-criticism, a blindness to one’s own faults or grey zones, supremacist ideology justifying the eradication/annihilation/forced conversion/domination/liquidation of infidels or all non-Muslims.
May 17, 2009 - 7:54 am 26. Gravelrash:The present American administration has decided to throw the infidel state of israel under the bus, that is clear. Alas, even if Israel goes under, which it won’t, that will only intensify Muslim fervent justification to do away with the rest of the opposition, which is, like it or not the United States of America. (Europe is already a goner) In reality, the new American administration will actually force Israel to be more forceful, actually win the war on terror, in other words on jihad, in other words on the society and communities whence Jihad and terror spring. Jews are not going quietly into the chambers again, at least not the jews of the Eastern Mediterranean. As for the Jews of modern Christendom? One wonders.
Readers might also find this helpful.
http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/statistics-and-the-meaning-of-islam/
May 21, 2009 - 11:55 pm