Political Profiling and Framing and Defaming
"It is to our great dismay that the student body and the media missed the clear, if subtle message of our flier."
- E-mail sent to The Hatchet by seven student "framers"
- E-mail sent to The Hatchet by seven student "framers"
Monday morning of this week, the following poster appeared all over the George Washington University:
It provoked outrage. The Young America's Foundation is to host an "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" Oct 16-22nd. But they were not responsible for the hateful posters that falsifies and smears the nature and intent of the event. Even though the true culprits have come forward, a group calling itself Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness, University officials are apparently still "on a rampage" against the Young America's Foundation.Among the student seven, is Adam Kokesh, a graduate student and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (a Ron Paul supporter, to boot). You can read his blogpost here.
As my regular readers are aware, I've been in agreement with Amy Proctor's efforts to promote the substitution of the term "jihad" for "hirabah". As far as I can tell, it makes perfect sense. And it has nothing to do with being "politically correct".
This said, I can also understand- even as I no longer really use it myself- the use of the term "Islamo-fascism", which is not a condemnation of the whole of Islam. If that were the case, if that is the message the Young America's Foundation is promoting, they would advertise their event as "Islam Awareness Week" from an anti-Islam viewpoint.
While there is definitely risk in offending and alienating by the inclusion of the word "Islam" in "Islamo-fascism", the fault mostly lies with the offended for not making the distinction, and for being overly-sensitive.
If you are talking about black gangs, are you condemning blacks as a whole, because you linked the words "black" and "gang", together? If you are describing "Japanese gangsters" to distinguish them from "Italian gangsters", are you somehow offending and condemning all Japanese as associated to criminal mobs?
The ones who we are fighting are indeed Islamic. It is absolutely ridiculous to pretend otherwise. To remove "Islam" from a full description of who it is we are fighting, is caving to the pressures of political correctness.
Blogging:
Flopping Aces
Jules Crittenden
Little Green Footballs (Islam Online picked up on the story without mentioning the poster was faked)
The Sniper
The Volokh Conspiracy
From the Hatchet:
Opinions
Previous Stories
Of further recent reading relevant to "naming" the enemy:
Bottomline Upfront
Gateway Pundit
Muslims Against Sharia Blog
The Freethinker (interesting discussion)
Also, read Amy Proctor's comments at
Dragon Lady's Den
Gateway Pundit
Woman Honor Thyself
posted by The WordSmith from Nantucket at 10/11/2007 09:50:00 PM
4 Comments:
I think the dirty trick of this poster by leftwing zealots is typical of their hypocrisy. The left's endeavor to be politically correct and all inclusive actually has the opposite effect.
I have to agree that the word Islam must be included in everything we do in the war on terror.
To me, as a woman, I believe there is nothing, absolutlely nothing that Islam contributes to the advancement of a free American society.
Contrast the University community reaction to this outrage to the reaction at Columbia to the noose hung on the professors door.
The clear message is that if you are mocking conservatives using racist imagery no problem.
This said, I can also understand- even as I no longer really use it myself- the use of the term "Islamo-fascism", which is not a condemnation of the whole of Islam.
Which is a good reason not to use the term, because after all, it is the whole of Islam that should be condemned.
To remove "Islam" from a full description of who it is we are fighting, is caving to the pressures of political correctness.
So is creating or adopting misleading terms like "radical Islam", "Islamism" or "Islamofascism" which, although they don't remove "Islam" from the description, conceal the actual identity of our enemy by being seemingly more restrictive in scope than the correct term, which is "Islam". (I write "seemingly", because some people already recognize that there is no "radical Islam" or "Islamism" or "Islamofascism" as distinct from Islam itself, the problem is that the usage of these terms implies that such a distinction does exist.)
It'd be nice if you quit using "anonymous" if you're going to post here on occasion.
the problem is that the usage of these terms implies that such a distinction does exist
That's exactly what I am implying.
Nothing you've ever said is anything I haven't heard before; and nothing that has swayed me into rethinking my opinion on this matter.
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