AP defines Islamists as "Those who view the Quran as a political model encompass a wide range of Muslims, from mainstream politicians to militants known as jihadi."
IPT News — After doing everything it can to ensconce a new word, "Islamophobia," into conversational English, the nation's most visible Islamist group is trying to stop use of a well-established word: Islamist.
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) national spokesman Ibrahim Hooper released a column urging journalists to "Drop the term 'Islamist.'"
It was added to the latest Associated Press Stylebook – the guide for spelling, punctuation and other rules – that is used by journalists at the smallest community papers and the largest television networks, Hooper wrote. AP defines Islamists as "Those who view the Quran as a political model encompass a wide range of Muslims, from mainstream politicians to militants known as jihadi."
Journalists should ignore that, Hooper argued, because it is used in a negative way, and used by "Islam-bashers" who really hate the faith of Islam but want to cover their tracks. "Yet they fail to explain how a practicing Muslim can be active in the political arena without attracting the label 'Islamist.'"
Plenty of practicing Muslims work bravely in opposition to Islamist ideology. Britain's Quilliam Foundation was started by Muslims who walked away from radical Islamist thought and now counter the arguments Islamists offer.
"Challenging extremism is the duty of all responsible members of society," the foundation's website says. Not least because cultural insularity and extremism are products of the failures of wider society to foster a shared sense of belonging and to advance liberal democratic values. With Islamist extremism in particular, we believe a more self-critical approach must be adopted by Muslims." [Emphasis added]
Hooper may have had the Investigative Project on Terrorism in mind with his comment, as we try to distinguish between the faith of Islam as practiced by individuals, and its application as the foundation for political action and law. When devout Muslims espouse this "separation between mosque and state," Hooper dismisses them as "a mere sock puppet for Islam haters and an enabler of Islamophobia."
Hooper's demand that "Islamist" be removed from the lexicon is ironic, since his bosses seemed more than comfortable placing themselves firmly in the world of "Islamists" back in 1993. CAIR founders Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad joined two dozen Hamas supporters in Philadelphia for a fall weekend in an urgent meeting called to discuss ways to "derail" the U.S.-brokered Oslo Accords.
The FBI bugged the meeting room. Transcripts entered into evidence during a 2008 Hamas-financing trial show the participants referred to "Islamists" dozens of times. Ahmad helped lead the meeting, helping determine who might attend and calling it to order.
The FBI described the group as Hamas members and supporters. "Hamas' agenda was not only to eliminate Israel," prosecutors wrote, "but also to sabotage the Oslo Accords and to replace the secular PA regime with an Islamist government that would control all of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza." » Read More
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About the IPT
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) is a non-profit research group founded by Steven Emerson in 1995. It is recognized as the world's most comprehensive data center on radical Islamic terrorist groups. For more than a decade, the IPT has investigated the operations, funding, activities and front groups of Islamic terrorist and extremist groups in the United States and around the world. It has become a principal source of critical evidence to a wide variety of government offices and law enforcement agencies, as well as the U.S. Congress and numerous public policy forums. Research carried out by the IPT team has formed the basis for thousands of articles and television specials on the subject of radical Islamic involvement in terrorism, and has even led to successful government action against terrorists and financiers based in the United States.