Don't Run, We Are Your Friends

Well, perhaps Tony's advice made some impression after all. Tony, as we know, took special care to avoid offending people with the idea that New Labour had anything to do with helping poor people, or that the NHS should be a service for looking after the health of the nation, or that removing liberties laid down since Magna Carta might change the way of life of hard-working families, or that deliberately saying things that aren't true might be in any way compatible with telling fibs. Tony, to put it mildly, knew the importance of emollient words in blurring the outlines of despicable actions; and with less than a year left in office, the Bush administration has decided it can afford to take an interest in the language it uses to describe the evil terrorists whose terrorist evil has resulted in so much evil and terror. "We are communicating with, not confronting, our audiences," federal officials are told, in a radical policy shift by the Bush administration. "Don't insult or confuse (sic) them with pejorative terms such as Islamo-fascism, which are considered offensive by many Muslims". Officials have received a non-binding request "not to use the terms jihadists and mujahideen, describe al-Qaida as a movement, or refer to Islamo-fascism", because such usages "may actually boost support for extremists among Arab and Muslim audiences by giving them a veneer of religious credibility or causing offence to moderates". Jihad, for example, is understood by non-Muslim Americans, though not by Guardian reporters, to mean holy war, though in fact it refers to religious struggle in a broader sense. Hence, says the Department of Homeland Security, "even if it is accurate to reference the term, it may not be strategic because it glamorises terrorism, imbues terrorists with religious authority they do not have and damages relations with Muslims around the world" in a way all those gunships, cluster bombs and support for Israeli massacres could never do.