The Accuracy of Language

I was listening to the radio this afternoon, and I heard a couple of American Muslims arguing against the use of the term "Islamic terrorists". They suggested that "terrorists" or "criminals" were more appropriate.

I must agree that "Islamic terrorist" is an oxymoron, and indeed combines two concepts which are not only apparently but in fact contradictory. Fortunately the Irish terrorism that continued for so much of the last century was not characterized as "Catholic terrorism" and "Protestant terrorism". Indeed, it became important in the latter stages of the peace process to distinguish between "IRA terrorism" and the terrorism of dissident groups who were not or no longer affiliated with the IRA.

On the other hand, I think it is important to distinguish among types of terrorists and among types of terrorist acts for some purposes. I think. for example, it may well be important for intelligence agencies to distinguish among terrorist acts actually carried out by member of an Al Qaeda network, terrorist acts carried out by people inspired by Al Qaeda but not actually members of the terrorist network, and terrorist acts carried out by others with similar aims and beliefs.

There may be an argument for the use of a term like "anti-American terrorists". There are problems with the term. The obvious one is that there are more Americans outside the United States in other American nations than there are in the United States of America. Moreover, as I understand it, the terrorists are not antagonistic to the people of the United States so much as they are to the policies of our government and to the intrusion of our cultural products into their lives and minds. The terrorist acts directed against citizens and residents of the United States are meant to stop or at least discourage our nations actions or the actions of some of our people and institutions.

Adjectives are used to narrow down the class of things referred to by a noun, and good adjectives do so in a way that is useful. The context is all. We would not normally use the adjective "clothed" to delimit the class of terrorists wearing clothing, since pretty much all terrorists are probably dressed. It is not very helpful to use the term "Islamic" to denote terrorists in a region were nearly all people are Muslims.

Which brings me to "profiling". If the idea is to describe someone in terms so specific that they can be identified from a crowd, I think we all do that. I identify myself to people I am meeting in public the first time as a big guy with a white beard -- not because that captures my essence, but because in a public place there are not likely to be many of us big guys with white beards.

What is inappropriate is to use adjectives that apply to a broad category of things and assume that other characteristics cluster -- that "blonds are dumb", that "gringos are cold", or that "Muslims are violent".

So lets stop letting the media get away with dumb terms like "Islamic terrorists". And let us instead try to use language in ways that clarify thinking rather than being lazy and choosing an easy, but cloudy thought. Oxymorons are great when used correctly for effect, but usually the sign of sloppy thinking.