While the White House continues to insist terms such as radical Islam are inappropriate, MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin, who is a Muslim says "a lot of people use the word Muslim extremism and jihadist groups to refer to that."
During Tuesday's press briefing NPR reporter Mara Liasson confronted Press Secretary Josh Earnest about the administration's reluctance to identify radical Islam as radical Islam:
Liasson: I just want to go back to your statement about the extremists want to incite a religious war against Islam and they failed. There have been a lot of questions raised about why you have chosen not to associate yourself with the language that was used by the French President when he said we’re at war with radical Islam, and instead you have chosen a formulation where you say you want to capture individuals who commit violence based on their warped view of Islam. Is the reason you don’t want to call it “radical Islam” or use the word “war” because you’re afraid of playing into the extremists’ desires to incite a religious war on Islam? Is that the reason you’ve gone to great lengths to come up with this different formulation?
Earnest : Well, Mara, there certainly -- it does seem clear that these terrorists -- let’s call them what they are -- these terrorists are individuals who would like to cloak themselves in the veil of a particular religion. But based on the fact that the religious leaders of that religion have roundly condemned their actions, those religious leaders have indicated that their actions are entirely inconsistent with Islam. I think the fact that the majority of victims of terror attacks that are carried out by al Qaeda and adherents to their particular brand of violence, that the majority of them are Muslim, I think, is a pretty clear indication that this is not a matter of the world being at war with Islam. The world and the United States -- as we’ve discussed before in the context of ISIL -- is at war with these individuals, these violent extremists who carry out these acts of terror and try to justify it by invoking this religion.
Liasson: Right. But the leader of France, your ally in this effort, has put a name on this ideology, which he calls “radical Islam.” You have bent over backwards to not ever say that. There must be a reason.
Earnest: I think the reason is twofold. One is I certainly wouldn’t want to be in a position where I’m repeating the justification that they have cited that I think is completely illegitimate, right? That they have invoked Islam to try to justify their attacks.
Liasson: But to call it radical Islam you feel would be playing into their hands.
Earnest: Well, I think what I’m trying to do is I’m trying to describe to you what happened and what they did. These are individuals who are terrorists. And what they did was they tried to invoke their own distorted deviant view of Islam to try to justify them. And I think that is completely illegitimate. And what we should do is we should call it what it is. And it’s an act of terror, and it’s one that we roundly condemn (...)
Liasson: But other of your allies have described the ideology that you call a warped view of Islam by calling it radical Islam. They're not saying we're at war with Islam. They agree with you totally in every word you’ve just said. But they are calling the ideology, the warped view that these people adhere to by a name. And it seems that the White House has gone to great lengths to avoid ever calling it anything other than a warped view, and I’m wondering is there a reason for that.
Earnest: Yes, and I guess I’m trying -- I’m doing my best to try to explain to you what that is. The first is accuracy. We want to describe exactly what happened. These are individuals who carried out an act of terrorism, and they later tried to justify that act of terrorism by invoking the religion of Islam and their own deviant view of it. The second is this is an act that was roundly condemned by Muslim leaders. Again, I’m describing to you the reasons why we have not chosen to use that label because it doesn't seem to accurately describe what had happened. We also don't want to be in a situation where we are legitimizing what we consider to be a completely illegitimate justification for this violence, this act of terrorism.
On Wednesday's Morning Joe, Ayman Mohyeldin, a Muslim who is MSNBC's Middle East reporter, said many Muslims use what Earnest said was an illegitimate term:
Scarborough: Ayman, talk about the divide in the Muslim world, obviously and in the West and who you see in the Middle East, who you see in the Muslim world, trying to bridge that divide.
Mohyeldin: Yeah, I mean Joe, one of the points you guys were talking about. This is an important point is a lot of people use the word Muslim extremism and jihadist groups to refer to that. The word itself has been co-opted, no doubt about it. Right now there are people that speak out and they definitely use the word extreme radicalism. Those are not words that are taboo to use in the Arab World. I know you guys were saying earlier how the White House is reluctant to say that. But I also think about a point that Dr. Brzezinski made on the show. He said you don't want to see yourself in a war with Islam. You don’t want to drag 1.6 billion people into a confrontation. There could be some of those sensitivities as well in terms of what happens from a religious point of view, in terms of this ongoing debate.
