War on Muslim Terrorism is OVER.... according to Kevin Rudd

Terror terminology in the firing line

Paul Maley
The Australian
July 07, 2009

IT'S official: The war on terror is over.

Nearly eight years after New York's World Trade Centre twin towers fell and US president George W.Bush stood amid the smoking rubble and vowed revenge, the phrase "war on terror" has been officially dropped from the Australian government lexicon.

The dumping of the phrase, criticised as a non-sequitur because terrorism is a tactic, not an entity, is part of a campaign by the Rudd government to change the way we talk about terrorism.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland yesterday launched the national rollout of "project lexicon", a joint study on the language surrounding terrorism.

Mr McClelland said the study, to be conducted with Victoria Police, the Victorian government and the Australian Multicultural Foundation, was part of a broader strategy aimed at countering radicalisation of young Muslim men.

Mr McClelland said several of the words or phrases used to describe terrorism had the inadvertent effect of glorifying violent criminal behaviour. He said rather than framing terrorism as a struggle by describing it as a "war" or "jihad", acts of terror should be described as serious criminal acts usually directed at innocent civilians.

"The general theme (of the research) is anything that suggests a war of cultures or religions," Mr McClelland told The Australian. "So the expression 'war on terrorism' has been identified as one that suggests that if you engage in acts of violence you're a soldier participating in that war."

Mr McClelland said the research into various hot-button terms would be a precursor to a discussion with the Muslim community and the media about how to describe terrorism. The aim would not be to proscribe the use of certain forms of language, Mr McClelland said; rather to make the media aware of the research.

Mr McClelland said Australia lagged behind other parts of the world in its counter-radicalisation activities. With the terror threat increasingly likely to be home-grown - rather than imported by al-Qa'ida or its various surrogates - this was potentially dangerous.

"I think a lot of good work has been done in Australia in terms of developing law enforcement capability, intelligence capability and, indeed, the legal framework," Mr McClelland said.

"But I think the area of countering violent extremism has been neglected."

Mr McClelland said the pugnacious language employed by the Howard government and the Bush administration was counterproductive.

He contrasted the combative approach of Mr Bush and John Howard to Barack Obama's speech in Cairo last month in which he called for dialogue between the Muslim world and the West. "(That) had far more impact in terms of the election of moderates, or a greater number of people prepared to vote for moderates, in both Iran and southern Lebanon," he said.

Rudd and his left wing loon pals can call Islamic Terrorists,their acts of terrorism and the threat's to destroy Western Judeo / Christian civilization any touchy feely name they like, however, calling Muslim Terrorists and their acts of Terrorism what they are NOT will, like the Burka, only hide their identities, but I guess that is what this latest act of treachery is all about.

If Rudd and his cabal of left wing loons believe that "come the revolution" they will be getting a "get out of jail card" from their Muslim pals, in exchange for the assistance rendered to these Anti Christ's they are in for a rude shock,the useful idiots are the first against the wall or to lose their heads, after all, no one trusts a traitor.