We in the West often seem baffled as to what we should call those who seek to kill or maim us. Former Europe Minister David MacShane has the word:
“Six weeks ago, David Cameron wrote an article in the Observer criticising those who used the word ‘Islamist’ to describe the ideological roots of the terrorist threat. Yet ‘Islamist’ is an accurate description of a global ideology that has been slowly incubating for decades. It took 69 years between the writing of the Communist Manifesto and the imposition of Bolshevik terror on Russia after 1917. Hitler’s hatred of Jews was derived from writings and ideologues active before he was born. The Islamist equivalent of Marx’s revolutionary appeal can be found in the writing of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, with a growing presence in Egypt, as well as off-shoots such as Hamas and a European network, including prominent members of the Muslim Council of Britain.”
MacShane, incidentally, represented a constituency with a high level of peace-loving Muslims-he says he’s visited more mosques than churches in recent years. Read the whole piece.