To be or not to be Islamist

The Moor Next Door blog reports on how the Islamic Society of North America has asked the McCain campaign to stop referring to "Islamic" or "Islamist terrorism", describing the term as insensitive to the Muslim community. A McCain spokesman was swift to reject the request.

McCain's people may be going against the new establishment wisdom. As terrorism.openDemocracy reported yesterday, a study released recently by the National Counter-Terrorism Center has advised against the use of "Islamic" or "Islamist" as adjectives for militancy or terrorism, suggesting "violent cultists" as an alternative. While McCain's policy statements are littered with references to Islamist terrorism and extremism, Obama is careful to eschew any such adjectival use.

McCain hopes that by unflinchingly calling a spade a spade, he'll convince the public that he knows "the enemy" and recognises its obvious threat. Sadly for a country thirsting for moral clarity, the spade is not a spade. Qualifying terrorism as "Islamist" doesn't help explain or counter the threat posed by militant groups like al-Qaida, but only creates a vaguer sense of its "otherness". By being careful, however, Obama gambles that prudence and subtlety can persuade where blunt bluster simply shocks and awes.