Assessing Al-Qaeda (merged thread)

[Bill Moore]

I think your article makes my point:



My issue is that we, as professionals, should not give into the the desires to simplify the problem. If we start using terms like "political Islam" without the necessary clarifications between the terrorist/insurgents' interpretation of Islam and a more pedestrian meaning of the term Islam then how can we hope those who read our writing to understand there is a difference. If we are incapable of understanding and articulating the difference in conversations amongst ourselves, how are we ever going to get the general population to understand.

As professionals, people listen to what we say. We should be clear when we use terms like "political Islam."

BTW, the article you site makes a great point on how Islam is blamed for socioeconomic problems that are larger than Islam.

As professionals it probably way past time to explore updating our lexicon.

Obviously Islam isn't a cause for economic problems, since the same economic problems impact other societies and states that are not Islamic. A lot of countries that are primarily Muslim suffer from the same issues of corruption, the resource curse, and borders drawn to facilitate exploitation by western powers as many non-Muslim countries. On the other hand, those that practice fundamental Islam do have an issue with marginalizing approximate 50% of their population by hindering the ability of women to get an education and pursue professions, and I can't help but think that is a factor in some countries for retarded economic growth.

Islam is the underlying reason for the wide ranging jihad we're wrestling with now. That doesn't mean every Muslim embraces it, and most likely a small percentage do, nonetheless a small percentage of 1.3 billion people is still a lot of people. We have to understand our adversary and ourselves, and based on the recent dialogue I fear we understand neither.