The Importance of Three Letters

The Importance of Three Letters

President Obama has been repeatedly criticized for his failure to use the term “radical Islam” when talking about terrorist attacks by ISIS here and across the globe. His intention is to make sure that Islam as a whole does not become tainted by the small minority of its adherents who perpetuate these horrific acts. Some of Obama’s critics, including Donald Trump, feel that the lack of the term is shirking the problem and have taken a completely opposite tack and have called to stop immigration of all Muslims, and are, in fact, tainting an entire religion because of a small minority of its adherents.

In an effort to maintain the neutrality towards Islam that President Obama is trying to maintain with his words yet to also recognize the role that Islam is playing in these attacks, Hillary Clinton recently used the phrase “radical Islamism”. Islamism is also known as Political Islam.  This is a small change but separates Islam as a religion from Islamism as a political ideology. This linguistic compromise may help the American people, and those in other parts of the world, find a way to create a distinction between those who are believers in Islam and those who are believers in Islamism.

Clinton is relying on the power of 3 letters—ism—not only to capitalize on the political power that Trump has tapped with his rhetoric (she is involved in a Presidential campaign after all) but to find common ground between the two camps. The question remains whether or not most people are so set in their opinions that they can change their thinking at all and also if 3 letters can help both sides to see the terrorist scourge in a way that is more helpful to understand it and to try to eliminate it. Words are the single most important way we exchange information so it seems worth the effort to find ones that can help us address this critical issue in a united and ultimately successful way.

NOTE:  As I went to post these thoughts, a news article popped up in my feed about Congress attempting to control a subject heading used by the Library of Congress in their classification code.  That issue also highlights the importance of what we call things.  More to come.