Dropping the term ‘Islamist’ does far more damage than just giving Islamists a win
Britain’s National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) want law enforcement to drop the term “Islamist terrorism” and “jihadis.” Their proposal offers alternative language including “faith-claimed terrorism,” “terrorists abusing religious motivations” and “adherents of Osama bin Laden’s ideology,” when describing attacks by those who identify as Muslims.
However well intentioned, these language modifications are damaging to counterterrorism work.
While calling for “Islamist terrorism” to be removed is not a total cancellation of the term Islamist, it is a policy-based shape-shifting of reality that funnels open exploration into a narrow margin for the following reasons:
Here are the four reasons. You will want to read the whole article where those reasons are expounded upon.
1. Obfuscating language damages public trust
2. The debate is a waste of precious time and resources
3. The term ‘Islamist terrorism’ is accurate precisely because the religion informs the political ideology. That needs to be acknowledged
4.Contrary to being an anti-Muslim phrase, the term Islamism is native to the Arabic language
5. The term reminds us that Islamism is not the only form of Islam
https://clarionproject.org/uk-mull-dropping-term-islamist-terror/