Talking the Talk

The Foreign Office has an Engaging with the Islamic World Unit. The Foreign Office's Engaging with the Islamic World Unit has requested ministers to avoid the phrase "war on terror", apparently because British Muslims and "the Islamic world" would prefer to be bombed, shot, irradiated, robbed, invaded and discriminated against under some less military rubric. According to the belief of Whitehall officials, "militants use a sense of war and crisis and a 'clash of civilisations' to recruit supporters", as when the Minister of Unfitness for Purpose talks of facing the most sustained period of severe threat since the Second World War. A spokesbeing for the Ministry for Lesser Breeds said that the Government wished to "avoid reinforcing and giving succour to the terrorists' narrative by using language that, taken out of context, could be counter-productive". Removed from its context of bombings, shootings, discrimination and so forth, the term "war on terror" clearly constitutes such an unfortunate use of language. Rather than using military terms, according to the spokesbeing, "we tend to emphasise upholding shared values as a means to counter terrorists"; values such as freedom, democracy, arms sales to Israel, and not wearing veils. This approach, as we are all well aware, has been working like a charm.