Replies

All, right, I can play that game, too:
"...called jihad a “legitimate tenet of Islam,”
Okay: I accept that this term is a legitimate tenet of Islam -- it is a term involving a duty of Muslims, and while it indeed means 'struggle' or 'striving' for Allah, its common use means to war against those who oppose Isalm and refuse to accept and submit to its teachings.

" “jihadists” should not be used to describe America’s enemies."
To the contrary, the point of those conducting 'jihad' has a long history in Islam - which is specifically why that religion has such a violent history: if you are not with them, you are against them. War... in the name of jihad... is the result of the violent practitioners opting to kill those who refuse to submit to Islam. This is not a Western term or a Western practice -- it originates specifically with those who want to wage war for the purpose of spreading the religion.

So to argue that our use of the word is incorrect or pejorative is difficult to swallow since we aren't typically the ones who bring it up in the first place... never mind the fact that it's only an issue with those who are planting the bombs. We aren't the ones issuing fatwas and naming our groups with the term "Jihad" in them. There's a lot of Muslims who refuse to accept violence... but ALL of the ones who don't are doing so in the name of Jihad. To say anything else is to be ignorant of reality - or to be deliberately misleading.

Barack Obama’s top Counterterrorism adviser .....

Obviously, he “counters” terrorism by coming up with twisted explanations for why it can’t possible exist. Unless, of course, its perpetrated by Christians or Jews.