White House Rightly Faulted for Avoiding ‘Islamic’ Labels

As more and more information comes to light linking ISIS and its atrocities to a medieval form of Islam, it is becoming impossible to continue to pretend that Islam is not part of the problem.  True, not all Muslims subscribe to the poisonous form of Islam ISIS promotes, but the reality is that portions of the Koran and the writings of the falsely named Prophet (who in my view was worthy of a mental institution) support the barbarity that we are seeing.  Fundamentalist religion is a pestilence plan and simply and to claim that Islam isn't part of the problem is like claiming the Bible and Christianity have nothing to do with the hate and vitriol one hears daily from American Christofascists who are best defined by hate.  It's time for the White House to face reality and start condemning ALL fundamentalist religions that foster hate, bigotry and, in the case of ISIS, horrific violence.  A piece in the New York Times looks at the growing criticism of Barack Obama's refusal to lay blame where it is due.  Moderate Muslims - just like moderate Christians - need to loudly and consistently condemn and work against their foul coreligionists.  Religion deserves no deference whatsoever.  Here are article highlights:

President Obama chooses his words with particular care when he addresses the volatile connections between religion and terrorism. He and his aides have avoided labeling acts of brutal violence by Al Qaeda, the so-called Islamic State and their allies as “Muslim” terrorism or describing their ideology as “Islamic” or “jihadist.”

With remarkable consistency — including at a high-profile White House meeting this week, “Countering Violent Extremism” — they have favored bland, generic terms over anything that explicitly connects attacks or plots to Islam.

Obama aides say there is a strategic logic to his vocabulary: Labeling noxious beliefs and mass murder as “Islamic” would play right into the hands of terrorists who claim that the United States is at war with Islam itself. The last thing the president should do, they say, is imply that the United States lumps the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims with vicious terrorist groups.

But Mr. Obama’s verbal tactics have become a target for a growing chorus of critics who believe the evasive language is a sign that he is failing to look squarely at the threat from militant Islam. 

“Part of this is a semantic battle, but it’s a semantic battle that goes to deeper issues,” said Peter Wehner, a veteran of the past three Republican administrations and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “Self-deception is not a good idea in politics or international affairs. We’re lying to ourselves, and the world knows it.”

While the most vehement criticism has come from Mr. Obama’s political opponents on the right, a few liberals and former security officials have begun to echo the criticism.  “You cannot defeat an enemy that you do not admit exists,”

“Obama’s reaching a point where he may have to ditch this almost scholastic position,” Mr. Ahmed said. “He sounds like a distinguished professor in the ivory tower, and he may have to come down into the hurly-burly of politics.”

Many advocates for Muslims appreciate Mr. Obama’s care in keeping their religion separate from the terrorist groups whose claims they reject. “We support the Obama administration and the administration before them for not falling into the Al Qaeda-ISIS trap of saying this is a religious war,” said Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a national group.

But even Ms. Khera complained that the name of the White House conference on the topic was too vague. While the label was “violent extremism,” the vast majority of speakers spoke only about Islamic extremism, ignoring all other kinds, she said. “If the summit were called ‘Countering ISIS,’ that would be fine,” she said. “But it’s not.”

Yes, there is huge hypocrisy on the right and among Congressional Republicans who attack all Muslims as extremists yet prostitute to Christian extremists here at home and work to subvert the U.S. Constitution's guaranty of religious freedom by striving to enshrine Christofascist beliefs in the nation's laws.