Darren...Europe must be scared to death of radical islam. USA government a close second.
EU guidebook: Don't link Islam with terror
Classified rules ban spokesmen from saying 'jihad,' 'fundamentalist'
Posted: March 31, 2007
worldnetdaily.com
A classified European Union handbook advises government spokesmen not to link Islam and terrorism in their statements, banning words such as "jihad," "Islamic" or "fundamentalist."
The EU guidelines offer "non-offensive" phrases to use when dealing with terrorism-related issues, the Daily Telegraph of London reported.
In the U.S., as WND reported, Department of Homeland Security employees have complained their boss Michael Chertoff is hamstringing counter-terror operations with pro-Islamic political correctness.
The EU handbook reportedly says the term "jihad" must be avoided, because it can mean for Muslims a personal struggle to live a moral life.
The EU suggested publicly last year the term "Islamic terrorism" is to be replaced by "terrorists who abusively invoke Islam."
An EU official told the Telegraph the secret guidebook aims to prevent distortion of Islam and alienation of Muslims in Europe.
"The common lexicon includes guidance on a number of frequently used terms where lack of care by EU and member states' spokespeople may give rise to misunderstandings," he said.
The official insisted careful usage of certain terms "is not about empty political correctness but stems from astute awareness of the EU's interests in the fight against terrorism."
British officials are "fully signed up" to the guidelines but say they are not binding.
A member of the Independence Party in the British Parliament, Gerard Batten, charged the EU is in denial over the true roots of terrorism.
"This type of newspeak shows that the EU refuses to face reality," he told the Telegraph. "The major world terrorist threat is one posed by ideology and that ideology is inspired by fundamentalist jihadi Islam."
Meanwhile, at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, some employees say Secretary Chertoff has cautioned officials not to describe Islamic terrorism as Islamic and to respect Islam as a "religion of peace."
"It's constantly drilled into us that Islam is not the enemy, and that the terrorists are merely a minority of 'extremists' distorting Islam," said one official who wished to go unnamed.
Chertoff set the tone in a staffwide memo last year, when he described as "extremists" the two dozen Muslim terrorists who plotted to blow up 10 airliners over the Atlantic. Unlike British authorities, Chertoff did not mention the religious motivation of the terrorists. Nowhere in the one-page memo were the terms "Muslim" or "Islamic" used. |
