Common Sense Political Thought

Jeff Goldstein, perhaps the only blogger more long-winded (save in haiku) than I am, has a good, and typically long, article on the pre-emptive surrender attempts of European Union bureaucrats in Brussels to establish “some kind of self-regulatory media code in reporting about Islam.” Quoting the Brussels Journal, he said:

The term “Islamic terrorism” will no longer be used. Nor will words such as “Islamist,” “fundamentalist” and “jihad.” The latter, for example, is often used by Islamic terrorists to mean warfare against infidels, but according to an EU official “for a Muslim Jihad is a perfectly positive concept of trying to fight evil within yourself.”

The EU civil servants drafting the lexicon claim it will be a “non-emotive lexicon for discussing radicalisation.” The lexicon will be submitted to the 25 EU leaders in June. An EU official said the point of using careful language was not to “fall into the trap” of offending and alienating citizens. “This is an attempt [...] to be aware of the sensitivities implied by the use of certain language.”

There’s a lot more, including my highly insightful comment, at “The B Vocabulary of the EUSSR”: Language Matters.