U.S. officials may have spent the last six and a half years unwittingly glorifying terrorism in their language.
This according to new report that has federal agencies like the State Department of Homeland Security telling their people to stop calling Islamic extremists “jihadists” or “mujahedeen.” Why change the lexicon? The terms are believed to associate terrorists with noble religious causes. From the Associated Press:
U.S. officials may be “unintentionally portraying terrorists, who lack moral and religious legitimacy, as brave fighters, legitimate soldiers or spokesmen for ordinary Muslims,” says a Homeland Security report. It’s entitled “Terminology to Define the Terrorists: Recommendations from American Muslims.”
Federal officials hope the language change helps the War on Terror. But nearly seven years after 9/11, when newly shunned terms like “islamo-fascist” gained meaning in America, could the change have come too late?