The Delicacy of Careful Language

"I'm guessing it's a way that they want to simply capture that very broad, very diffuse set of actors. But at the same time (terms) certainly can be used with a loaded agenda, or to frame a discussion. In reality, we need to pay fairly careful attention to who is using the terms and in what context."
Jeremy Littlewood, research affiliate, Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society

"Hamas is ISIS, ISIS is Hamas. Branches of the same poisonous tree."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

"Terms like 'Islamic terrorism', 'Islamist terrorism', 'Jihadism' and 'Islamo-fascism' succeed only in conflating terrorism with mainstream Islam, thereby casting all Muslims as terrorists or potential terrorists."
"Distorted and inflammatory linkages between  Islam and terrorism [leads Muslims in Canada and abroad to fear the West as an enemy]."
"The media and the public are often highly critical of these attempts to shape the discourse arguing that they distort reality by effectively ignoring a critical component of the problem."
RCMP 2009 internal guide Word Make Words

"National security discourse, especially within the media and in the public narrative, tends to erroneously conflate Islam with terrorism. It can serve to embolden prejudicial elements in our society and in sort of a circular way, feed the extremist narrative propelled by terrorist groups about a clash of civilizations."
Ihsaan Gardee, executive director, National Council of Canadian Muslims

The NCCM made an especial appeal to law enforcement and spy agencies to avoid using terms such as 'Islamist' and 'Islamic terrorism'. Their reasoning being, of course, that terrorism has little to do with Islam. And labelling such terror acts Islamic, as have been continually, the world over, launched by those shouting to the rooftops that they are devout Muslims engaged in a holy war with the West, as having a derogatory label not appreciated by Muslims.

Shouting "Allahu Akbar!" while aiming a Kalashnikov rifle or setting off a suicide belt, does sound like an Arabic paean to god, but sounds, like looks, apparently are hugely deceiving. The turbaned man with a bomb set to go off under his turban, the burqa-clad man hiding a suicide belt, are just incidentally Muslim; mostly they are demented souls veering off Islam's righteous path of peace and brotherhood, we are informed.

Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham have shamelessly co-opted the religion's name as their very own. They seek to do full obeisance to Islam by consecrating an expanding geography to Islam's gain in its bid to conquer the world through jihad, resorting to violence where cajoling failed to influence enough converts to the universal cause of the caliphate. Choosing the vinegar of beheading over the honey of compassion to reflect Islamic values.

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper appears not to have understood the need to camouflage language to prevent the giving of offence to Muslims through the misuse of words, equating Islam with terror. "We will not be intimidated by jihadist terrorists", he impulsively vowed, throwing the nicety of diplomacy to the winds. The vocabulary of 'jihad' of course represents Islamophobia. Further inflaming emotions he continued: "The international jihadist movement has declared war" on Canada.

Quite simply intolerable that a prime minister should intone such language, hurtful to the sensibilities of the faithful whose religion just happens to spawn the world's foremost and most plentiful terrorist squads. Western academics and journalists are a far more sensible, sensitive lot, fully agreeable to skirting the issue by employing terms less identifiable with Islam. They hold, after all, that there are 'root causes' impelling the faithful to 'defend' themselves.

"I'm hearing in your presentation the words 'violent extremism', but I'm not hearing what's internationally known as 'violent Islamic jihadist exremism'. If we can't acknowledge the problem, how can we find a solution? It's like there's an elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about", declared Conservative Senator Lynn Beyak, responding to the annual terror threat report avoiding offensive terminology issued by Public Safety Canada.

"If you accuse some group of being terrorist, you are implying they are evil, awful people. But people have been more cognizant of how the word is used so promiscuously. For many people it still has a lot of bite, so it's a word with an uncertain future."
"That [war] has a whole implication. If [Harper] is going to start using the word 'war', and it is a war, you have to declare it under proper circumstances, with the assent of Parliament."
Randal Marlin, propaganda expert, Carleton University

The world of Islamism, the exemplars of Islamofascism, al-Qaeda and Islamic State, both of which enjoy huge popularity in the Islamic ummah, has declared war on the West, on democratic states, on the United States and Israel in particular, although to be faithful to reality the Islamic Republic of Iran has in word and gesture and intent done as much as well. Canada has been named on a number of occasions as deserving of very special attention.

Canada, as its Prime Minister, has responded, is perfectly capable of returning the compliment. Fully spelling out in unambiguous terms, just who and what is involved, and why.