|
Malkin gives up “Islamist”
More Jungian synchronicity going on. Immediately after I mentioned Boris Yeltsin as a person who rationally gave up a false ideological belief when he realized it was false, a reader informed me that Michelle Malkin, in her blog for May 10, has announced that she has given up the politically correct term “Islamist.” Following an entry about the arrest of the Muslim killers of schoolgirls in Indonesia, she lists some of her previous entries on that story. One of the links, dated October 30, 2005, says: Islamist butchery in Indonesia. Below that she inserts in parentheses:
(Just an editor’s note—I’ve since stopped using the term “Islamist.” Not accurate. Jihadist, yes. Islamist, no.)Congratulations to Michelle Malkin for recognizing this. What could be more absurd than the spectacle of overly sensitive Western journalists, anxious to avoid any negative generalization about Islam, describing as “Islamists” or “Islamist terrorists” people who don’t call themselves Islamists, but Muslims. “Jihadist” is a perfectly good alternative expression, as it simply denotes a person who believes in jihad (a category, by the way, that includes all devout Muslims, but, so pleased am I with Malkin’s happy change of mind, that I won’t insist on that for the moment). Also, I may have had something to do with this. In an e-mail that I sent to Malkin on February 16 and posted at VFR, I quoted many of her recent uses of “Islamist” and urged her to adopt more truthful and descriptive language. Here are some other entries I’ve written on this subject. (Disclosure: I had used the term myself a couple of times in the past, before I understood its falsity.) The importance of “Islamism” to the neoconservatives Is there such a thing as “Islamism” as distinct from Islam? How Muslims themselves use “Islamist” Pipes: It’s not Islam, it is Islam, it’s not Islam, it is Islam, it’s not Islam … “Muslims” and “Islam” liberated from PC shackles! Islamism: the ultimate ploy of Islam?
Email entry |