Intellectual Gymnastics to Avoid Uttering "Islamic Extremism"

The Aspen Institute is a non-profit leadership organization which aspire to foster open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues.  Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson's cautious comments about not associating ISIS (The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) with Islam showed that one can be so open minded that one's brain falls out.

 Of course, Johnson's conceptual contortions about not naming radical Islam is nothing new.  Avoiding utterances that could be construed as blanket condemnations of the so called "Religion of Peace" (even though Islam is better translated is "Submission") dates back to President George W. Bush after the September 11th 2001 terror attacks.  Western "leaders" have seemed congenitally skiddish about associating plethora of attacks with perpetrators shouting "Allahu Akbar" with Islam.

 

 Is this reluctance to utter reality because our elites are indoctrinated in political correctness and employ a "real world" version of the UNH Bias Free Language Guide?  Maybe it is the progressive hubris that by changing the lexicon one can alter inherent attitudes.  Or maybe there is the realization that when implemented Islam is a holistic religious and political system and by associating the violence with the religion it enlists otherwise unenthusiastic adherents.

 But as Sun Tzu wrote in "The Art of War"  in the Sixth Century BC "Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not yourself, wallow in defeat every time."