The power of words: the deficient terminology surrounding Islam-related terrorism

Abstract

Terms usurped and capitalised upon by Al-Qaeda and other similar terrorist and extremist organisations have a special place in Islamic culture and a particular resonance with Muslim populations. The aforementioned terrorist groups normally utilise these terms in order to further their objectives and gain, first, the support of larger audiences and, ultimately, legitimacy for their actions. At the same time, Western policy makers, security agencies and, crucially, the media have also used and regurgitated the same terminology in an uncritical fashion. This article explains the semantic nuances behind terms like “Islamic”, “Islamist”, “fundamentalist”, “Salafi”, “Wahhabi” and “jihadi terrorism”, and the potential that such use has for the alienation of moderate segments of the Muslim creed and the obstacles it raises for intercultural counter-radicalisation efforts. The article then suggests the adoption of a more-nuanced term by Western circles – one that is equally embedded in Islamic culture and its value system and one that is not as negligent or power-related as the ones that are currently used.

Keywords:

• Islamic
• Islamist
• fundamentalist
• Salafi
• Wahhabi
• jihad
• neo-Kharijism

Acknowledgements

The authors are listed in alphabetical order and contributed equally to this article. The authors would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on previous drafts of this article. All errors are the authors’ responsibility.

Notes

†As this article was going to print, the authors noted that an identical title was recently used to describe the rhetoric and discourse (both by Muslims and non-Muslims) that surrounds the word “jihad” (see Ghosh 2012). The title of this article was first used in September 2012, while Ghosh's reference was not disseminated until December of the same year.

1. Nasr (2003, 224) opposes both the secular modernist and fundamentalist perspectives, both of which he regards as forms of extremism.

2. “Binladenism” would also be one such terminology (Ghosh 2012).