Shockingly enough, I heard a very interesting, less-Liberal piece on NPR tonight on my drive home. Leftists have been very concerned of late with linguistics... learning to use the right words to get votes, I suppose, from the more Conservative areas of the country. I suppose they needed to do that after Kerry's infamous attempt at being a good ole boy in 2004 was the laughing stock of "flyover country." I'll never be able to erase the soundbyte of Kerry saying, "Where can I get me a huntin' license?" ACK!
The NPR series is called "Exploring the Language of Post-Sept. 11 US Policy." For my money, you can take out the "US Policy" part of that title -- it's ridiculous. We've been struggling to find the right words to describe the nightmare we've been living with for over 20 years now and it has NOTHING to do with US policy! Islamo-fascists (a term that's up for discussion next in the series) brought the nightmare to us and gave us assistance with the necessary labels. Okay, enough. I digress.
The first part of the series is a discussion of the word "Jihad" and what it means to Muslims. I am now convinced, after hearing it directly from a professor who teaches Islamic law at UCLA, that we are actually complimenting terrorists by calling them "Jihadis" -- I don't call them that but the President's speech writers have inserted it into his speeches. The correct way to insult a terrorist is to call him a "Hirabah."
According to Professor Abu El Fadl:
The NPR series is called "Exploring the Language of Post-Sept. 11 US Policy." For my money, you can take out the "US Policy" part of that title -- it's ridiculous. We've been struggling to find the right words to describe the nightmare we've been living with for over 20 years now and it has NOTHING to do with US policy! Islamo-fascists (a term that's up for discussion next in the series) brought the nightmare to us and gave us assistance with the necessary labels. Okay, enough. I digress.
The first part of the series is a discussion of the word "Jihad" and what it means to Muslims. I am now convinced, after hearing it directly from a professor who teaches Islamic law at UCLA, that we are actually complimenting terrorists by calling them "Jihadis" -- I don't call them that but the President's speech writers have inserted it into his speeches. The correct way to insult a terrorist is to call him a "Hirabah."
According to Professor Abu El Fadl:
"The term in Islamic law which best describes the activities of al Qaeda is hirabah, which originally meant brigandage, but has a more general meaning as sinful warfare," says Streusand. "If our elected officials started saying 'This is a war against hirabis,' that would be more effective. It would certainly be better than using the term jihad or jihadis which is actively harmful."This NPR series promises to make us rethink the terms we're using and/or help us understand the terms we're using at a finer granularity. Either way, it's a good idea. Thank you, NPR.
Comments