Far-right or Islamist, call terrorism by its name
What constitutes terrorism? The answer is using the threat of, or actual violence, as a means towards a political end.
The last decades' notoriousness of terrorist attacks driven by Islamist extremist ideologies, coupled with the lack of constancy in defining terrorism, has not only prompted the rise of widespread societal anti-Muslim animosity, but also restricted public understanding of the term.
More importantly, it has served to neglect the emergence of an equally dangerous extremist ideology and similar terrorist attacks: far-right inspired attacks.
Islamist terrorism is driven by the political ideology of Islamism mixed with a Salafi jihadist interpretation of Islam. Yet, out of fear of being branded an anti-Muslim bigot, several high-standing politicians have used terms like "al Qaeda-inspired terrorism" or merely "terrorism," seeking to avoid confrontation with non-extremist Muslims by not naming the Islamist ideology.… Seguir leyendo »