Words and culture – “Islamic terrorist” and “Islamo-fascism”

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Monte Asbury has some very good comments on his blog about the way language is understood in different cultures.

clipped from www.commondreams.org “Islamic” has to do with the religion founded by the prophet Mohammed. We speak of Islamic ethics or Islamic art, as things that derive from the religion. “Muslim,” on the contrary, describes the believer. It would be perfectly all right to talk about Muslim terrorists, but calling them Islamic terrorists or Islamic fascists implies that the religion of Islam is somehow essentially connected to those extremist movements. Giuliani complained that during their debates, Democratic rivals “never mentioned the word ‘Islamic terrorist,’ But people are not “Islamic,” they are Muslim. And one most certainly does insult Muslims by tying their religion to movements such as terrorism or fascism. Muslims perceive a double standard in this regard: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols would never be called “Christian terrorists” even though they were in close contact with the Christian Identity Movement. Muslims point out that persons of Christian heritage invented fascism, not Muslims

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Tags: Bible, Christian terrorists, crosscultural communication, culture, culture and society, fascism, Islam, Islamic terrorists, Islamo-fascism, language, language and culture, Muslim, terrorism, terrorists, usage