“Extremists”: A meaningless term for knowing thy enemy

“Know your enemy.”  That is the mantra of success in international conflict.  Our national leaders and media are continuing to fail us in helping us know our enemy.

I am so tired of hearing “an extremist attempted” this and “an extremist blew up” that and “an extremists declared” such and such.”  What useless verbiage!

“Extremist” doesn’t describe anything of value.  Is it an extremist Methodist, an extremist Democrat, an extremist dog catcher?

Catherine Herridge of FOX News, whom I generally respect, today reported a plot by “extremists” to transport an improvised explosive device from Kenya (the most likely place of Obama’s birth – just had to throw that in there) to New York City.  What kind of extremists were these:  Extremist Eagle Scouts?  Is Catherine getting politically hyper-sensitive on us now, too?

Muslims currently have the market cornered on IEDs.  There is a better than a 10,000 to 1 chance the extremists she referred to are Muslims.

Another word describing vile Muslim acts and intentions is “radical.”  A “radical Muslim” did this, and a “radical Muslim” did that.  Even the venerable Christian prophecy author John Hagee call Muslims who commit vile acts (from the perspective of Western Judeo-Christian morality) “radical Muslims.”  When are we going to wake up to the fact that such alleged “radical” Muslims are not radical at all.  They are just doing what their Islamic ideology has taught and promoted for centuries.  The “radical Muslim” is the “good” Muslim.  He is carrying out the teachings and methods promoted by their dear Muhammad.  A better word is “devout” Muslim. 

And neither would I use the word “fundamentalist” to describe such Muslims as some will equate with “fundamentalist Christian.”  The “fundamentalist Christian” or “literalist” Christian is a recent aberration from historic orthodox Christian belief and practice.  A very small proportion of Christians and Christian leadership maintains “fundamentalist” beliefs.  And a nearly non-existent portion of these beliefs morph into violent acts.

On the other hand, the predominant, historic, orthodox  mainstream teaching of Islam, with equal parts taqiyya, is their teaching and practice of hatred and violence to achieve their goals.  Sure, they are “fundamentalists” in the sense of literal implementation of Muhammad's teaching and tactics.  But such is not at all comparable to the teaching and tactics of fundamentalist Christians.

Let’s get over the use of these useless modifiers, these useless obfuscating terms describing Muslims who implement their Islamic faith in unpleasant ways.  They are not “extremists.”  They are not “radical.”   They are Muslims.  That’s what they are supposed to do.