Sticks and Stones

This morning, Joe Malchow noted that a CAIR press conference on the arrest of more than twenty alleged terrorists in England was scheduled for noon, eastern time. Joe gave CAIR some very sound advice on what to say:

CAIR should remind its members that it exists to protect and nurture the fraternity of American Muslims, and that even before Muslims were a significant portion of the population, America has tolerated and supported citizen brotherhoods of most any stripe. But America has only so tolerated such coteries so long as they are not used to veil criminals and criminal activity. CAIR should urge its members to add an item to their personal code: No brotherhood excuses murder.

Joe also predicted that CAIR wouldn’t take his advice, and instead would “talk about backlash.” He was right, of course. The only unexpected aspect of CAIR’s press conference was its objection to President Bush’s reference to “Islamic fascists”:

You have on many occasions said Islam is a ‘religion of peace.’ Today you equated the religion of peace with the ugliness of fascism.

That would be fair if Bush had suggested that all Muslims are fascists, but of course he didn’t.

The use of ill-defined hot button terms such as ‘Islamic fascists,’ ‘militant jihadism,’ ‘Islamic radicalism,’ or ‘totalitarian Islamic empire,’ harms our nation’s image and interests worldwide, particularly in the Islamic world. It feeds the perception that the war on terror is actually a war on Islam .

I don’t get this. First, CAIR endlessly tells us that Muslims are peaceful and not terrorists. But then, in the next breath, it sticks up for the terrorists and objects to their being called fascists. Second, CAIR seems to object to any pejorative reference to Islamic terrorists. If we can’t call them fascists, or militant jihadists, or Islamic radicals, or totalitarians or imperialists, what on earth are we supposed to call them?

Personally, I generally just call them terrorists. They clearly have some qualities in common with the fascists of the 30s and 40s, but, frankly, calling the terrorists “fascists” does a disservice to the fascists. In my opinion, today’s Islamic terrorists are worse even than the Communists, who previously held the record. Worse qualitatively, that is; the difference is that the terrorists don’t yet wield the kind of power that the Communists once did.

If anyone ever figures out what CAIR wants us to call the people who try to blow up airplanes, let me know. In the meantime, I’ll keep on calling them “the *&#)@/ terrorists.”

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