BERLIN,
April 11, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The European
Union is set to remove derogatory terminology about Islam like
"Islamic terrorism" and "fundamentalists" in its new
lexion of public communication to make clear that terrorists are
hijacking the religion, an EU official revealed on Tuesday, April 11.
"Certainly
'Islamic terrorism' is something we will not use ... we talk about
'terrorists who abusively invoke Islam'," the official told
Reuters.
The
official, speaking anonymously because the review is an internal one
that is not expected to be made public, said the point of using careful
language was not to "fall into the trap" of offending and
alienating citizens.
"You
don't want to use terminology which would aggravate the problem. This is
an attempt ... to be aware of the sensitivities implied by the use of
certain language," he said.
"It
is to help us understand what we are saying and try to avoid making
mistakes," he said of the lexicon, who is expected to be adopted
initially in June.
EU
counter-terrorism chief Gijs de Vries said that terrorism was not
inherent to any religion, and praised Muslims for opposing attempts by
terrorists abusing Islam.
"They
have been increasingly active in isolating the radicals who abuse Islam
for political purposes, and they deserve everyone's support. And that
includes the choice of language that makes clear that we are talking
about a murderous fringe that is abusing a religion and does not
represent it," he told Reuters.
Omar
Faruk, a Muslim British barrister who has advised the government on
community issues, said there was a strong need for a "new sort of
political dialogue and terminology".
"Those
words cannot sit side by side. Islam is actually very much against any
form of terrorism ... Islam in itself means peace," he said.
The
widespread use of the expression "just creates a culture where
terrorism actually is identified with Islam. That causes me a lot of
stress," Faruk added.
Misinterpreted
Jihad
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"Islam is actually very much against any form of terrorism ... Islam in itself means peace," said Faruk.
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The
lexicon, which would set down guidelines for EU officials and
politicians, will reconsider other terms like "Islamists" and
"jihad," which is often used by groups like Al-Qaeda to mean a
holy war against the infidels.
"Jihad
means something for you and me, it means something else for a Muslim.
Jihad is a perfectly positive concept of trying to fight evil within
yourself," said the EU official.
Acclaimed
British writer Karen Armstrong wrote in the Guardian newspaper of
Britain that the world jihad was stereotyped as merely meaning holy war.
"Extremists
and unscrupulous politicians have purloined the word for their own
purposes, but the real meaning of jihad is not 'holy war' but 'struggle'
or 'effort'. Muslims are commanded to make a massive attempt on all
fronts - social, economic, intellectual, ethical and spiritual - to put
the will of God into practice," she wrote.
The
United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted in April last year a
resolution calling for combating defamation campaigns against Islam and
Muslims in the West.
UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan said that seeing Islam as a
"monolith" and distorting its tenets are among the many
practices that now make up the term Islamophobia.
"Too
many people see Islam as a monolith and as intrinsically opposed to the
West. Caricature remains widespread and the gulf of ignorance is
dangerously deep," he said.
The
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest US Muslim
civil liberties, has called for issuing an annual report on Islamophobia
across the world on a par with the global anti-Semitism report.
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