“radical” Muslims, Muslim “extremists,” and jihadists
Rational Foreign Policy Demands Precision In Language
The words, “Islam”, “Islamists”, “Muslims”, “radical Muslims”, “Muslim extremists”, and “jihadists” are heard on every news program and uttered by every talking head and candidate for elected office, particularly the American presidency. Unfortunately, there is no attempt to use these words with any kind of precision in meaning.
There are cries echoing throughout the media for the United States to take action against radical Muslims, Muslim extremists, and jihadists, yet the only word in that group with any precise meaning is “jihadist!”
For example, to many Muslims, a “radical” Muslim would be a woman wearing Western clothes rather than a burqa and a Muslim “extremist” would be a woman insisting on the right to drive an automobile in Saudi Arabia.
The imprecise use of the words “radical” and “extremist” in the context of the ongoing terrorist attacks on Western civilization and intellectual freedom only adds to the confusion and diffuses the effort to end the jihad and kill the jihadists.
The United States Department of Justice has used its own ad hoc definitions of jihad in indictments of individuals involved in terrorist activities.
“Jihad… refers to the use of violence, including paramilitary action against persons, governments deemed to be enemies of the fundamentalist version of Islam.”
“violent jihad or jihad includes planning, preparing for, and engaging in, acts of physical violence, including murder, maiming, kidnapping, and hostage-taking.”
According to those definitions by the Department of Justice and the declarations and deeds of the jihadists ruling the self-proclaimed Islamic state, ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq & Syria, or the much broader ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant which includes as well as Iraq and Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus and part of southern Turkey, there now exists a state of total war between these jihadists and Western civilization.
The jihadists and their jihad
The declared goal of these jihadists is to restore the Caliphate as it existed in AD 750 when it ruled 10% of the world’s land area and 28% of the world’s population.
Caliphate in AD 750
These jihadists have publicly asserted their right to kill all unbelievers and they define unbelievers as any individual who does not accept their particular view of Islam. They ignore the early teaching of the prophet Muhammad concerning the safety of women, children, and noncombatants and insist that in the name of their cause they have the right to kill as many unbelievers as possible.
Facing an enemy conducting warfare on these principles leaves no recourse but extermination.
With video presentations of the extent to which these jihadists will take their war to all unbelievers, there is no way the states of Western civilization can allow them to continue their campaigns. They must be exterminated before they bring down Western civilization.
Those who believe they have the absolute right to kill, maim, and torture other human beings merely because they do not or will not accept a particular interpretation of Islam have no place in civilized society. The world is no longer large enough to tolerate those who do not respect the lives of others.