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PrintMay 4, 2008
Homeland Security's Muslim advisors contradicted new terror lexicon
American Thinker publishes today Joseph Myers' critical assessment of Homeland Security's new terror lexicon, "Strategic Collapse in the War on Terror", as it published my own analysis, "Flying Blind in the War on Terror", last week. This new lexicon adopted by both Homeland Security and the State Department's Counterterrorism Communications Center, directs government employees to cease using the terms "jihad", "jihadist", and "mujahedeen" to describe Islamic terrorists.
The memos were publicly released by Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project on Friday, but inquiries by Emerson about which Muslim leaders exactly advised Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff on this widely criticized policy were rebuffed.
But past news reports have identified at least some of the Muslim advisors consulted by Homeland Security, and at least two of these advisors made recommendations that directly contradict the new policy.
Last June, the San Francisco Chronicle identified four of Chertoff's Muslim advisors: Shahed Amanullah, Akbar Ahmed, M.J. Khan, and Resa Azlan. And in direct opposition to the new government terror lexicon, at least two of these Muslim advisors recommended using "jihadist" to describe Islamic terrorists, as that is the term used by most Arab Muslims today:
Starting the conversation about terrorism is problematic. The term "Islamofascism," used by President Bush and others, offends Muslims who believe their faith condones no violence and other religions are rife with examples of terrorism. Many Muslims also reject terms such as "Islamic terrorism," "Islamist terrorists" or "Muslim terrorists" for the same reason.Amanullah and Reza Aslan, author of "No god but God" and a professor of religion and creative writing at the UC Riverside, prefer the term "jihadist."Many Muslims object to it because it modifies the Islamic term "jihad," which refers to an inner struggle -- not a military one. But "jihadist" has been widely adopted in the Arab world as a way to describe terrorists, said Aslan.
This raises serious questions about how exactly Homeland Security arrived at its conclusions, when the very Muslim advisors it solicited advocated for the very terminology that Chertoff has now banned. Who exactly advised them in favor of this new lexicon? Could it be the case that these Muslim advisors were brought in to provide cover to a policy that had already been predetermined?
Needless to say, this new revelation could be a devastating blow. As Michelle Malkin observed this past week, even the President himself violated the new guidelines this week. Before Chertoff and his minions start congratulating themselves on their extravagant feat of appeasement and political correctness, they should consider that the applause they believe they hear is the sound of one hand clapping.
