Mixed reaction to ending use of ‘Islamist’ in terror attacks

by LAUREN CODLING

COMMUNITY leaders have welcomed the recent claim that police are considering dropping the term “Islamist terrorism” when describing terror attacks, asserting that such language did “not help community cohesion.”

According to reports last week, the term could be changed to “faith-claimed terrorism” or “terrorists abusing religious motivations”.

The suggestion was highlighted by the Metropolitan Police’s assistant commissioner and national head of counterterrorism policing, Neil Basu, during an online event last month. However, a police spokesperson emphasised the modification was not confirmed to go ahead.

According to the National Association of Muslim Police, which made the recommendation, the expressions ‘jihadist’ and ‘Islamist terrorism’ can result in the rise of discrimination towards Muslims.

Speaking to Eastern Eye last Thursday (23), Kamran Hussain, chief executive of the Green Lane Masjid & Community Centre in Birmingham, highlighted the unfair treatment of Muslims in the media. He said he believed there were double standards when referring to terrorist incidents committed by people of other faiths.

“It is unity and not division that is required after terrorist events. Such terms do not help with community cohesion and only cause further division,” Hussain said. Stressing that acts of terrorism were not condoned by Islam, he added: “The murder of innocent people goes against the teachings of Islam so there is no reason to associate the word Islam or Jihad with such acts of violence.”

Labour MP Afzal Khan also told Eastern Eye he witnessed “first hand” the negative impact of media sensationalism on the British Muslim community. He agreed that specific phrases relating to the Islamic faith were directly linked to spikes in hate crimes and instances of Islamophobia.

“It is not fair that a generalisation is made of a whole faith group and terms such as ‘Islamist terrorism’ only further perpetuate stereotypes,” said Khan, who is also the vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims. “As we know terrorism can take many forms and it’s usually a minority group with very extreme views.”

He added: “We need to move away from so-called ‘click bait’ titles and headlines and report fairly.”

Noting the rise in incidents related to Islamophobia, Hussain claimed that language used by people in power directly correlated to a spike in cases. For instance, Islamophobic incidents rose by 375 per cent in the week after Boris Johnson (then an MP) compared veiled Muslim women to “letterboxes” in the Daily Telegraph opinion piece in 2018, he said.

“There is a clear correlation between the language used by those in power, including the media, and subsequent attacks on the Muslim community,” Hussain alleged. “Using terms such as ‘Islamist’ and ‘jihadi’ when referring to terrorist attacks does not help the dialogue and only causes further tension. The media and those in positions of power must act responsibly when speaking about such incidents and the labels that they use.”

However, Sunder Katwala, director of migration thinktank British Future, warned the change would need “careful thought” and could potentially cause more harm than good if done in a “clumsy way”.

“(The change) would damage public confidence if this came across as an evasive exercise in denial about the ideological motives behind terrorist groups,” he told Eastern Eye. “Some of the alternatives, like “faith-claimed terrorism” fail this test of clarity.” Instead he suggested there should be an emphasis on specific groups, such as al-Qaeda or Daesh-inspired terrorism.

“There will also be occasions when descriptive umbrella terms are more relevant if discussing the terror threat from extreme Islamist groups over the two decades since 9/11,” Katwala said. “That reflects how descriptive, generic terms are used for other ideological motives for terrorism, such as Irish nationalism or the far right.”

David Toube, director of policy for counter-extremism think tank Quilliam, echoed his sentiments. “People don’t like to feel that they are being told only the partial truth,” Toube said. “There is a serious problem with Islamist terrorism. The use of any term that obscures that fact risks damaging public trust in the police.”