In much the same way, jihad is a traditional Muslim idea connoting struggle—sometimes a personal spiritual struggle, sometimes a struggle against an external enemy. Jihadism, however, is something else entirely: It is the doctrine of using force to spread Islamism.
President Barack Obama
and many liberal-minded commentators have been hesitant to call this
Islamist ideology by its proper name. They seem to fear that both Muslim
communities and the religiously intolerant will hear the word “Islam”
and simply assume that all Muslims are being held responsible for the
excesses of the jihadist few.
I call this the Voldemort effect, after the villain in J.K. Rowling’s
Harry Potter books. Many well-meaning people in Ms. Rowling’s fictional
world are so petrified of Voldemort’s evil that they do two things:
They refuse to call Voldemort by name, instead referring to “He Who Must
Not Be Named,” and they deny that he exists in the first place. Such
dread only increases public hysteria, thus magnifying the appeal of
Voldemort’s power.
The same hysteria about Islamism is unfolding before our eyes. But no strategy intended to defeat Islamism can succeed if Islamism itself and its violent expression in jihadism are not first named, isolated and understood. It is as disingenuous to argue that Islamic State is entirely divorced from Islam as it is to assert that it is synonymous with Islam. Islamic State does indeed have something to do with Islam—not nothing, not everything, but something. That something is the way in which all Islamists justify their arguments using Islamic scripture and seek to recruit from Muslims."
The same hysteria about Islamism is unfolding before our eyes. But no strategy intended to defeat Islamism can succeed if Islamism itself and its violent expression in jihadism are not first named, isolated and understood. It is as disingenuous to argue that Islamic State is entirely divorced from Islam as it is to assert that it is synonymous with Islam. Islamic State does indeed have something to do with Islam—not nothing, not everything, but something. That something is the way in which all Islamists justify their arguments using Islamic scripture and seek to recruit from Muslims."
The above is from the following article by a self-described former "leader of a global Islamist group that advocated the return of a caliphate."
"How to Beat Islamic State
To win against the jihadists, isolate them, undercut their appeal to Muslims and avoid a ‘clash of civilizations’"
For the rest of the article see:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-beat-islamic-state-1449850833
Using names is the potential for clarity and for skillful action; it is also fraught with the potential of blinding us. Therefore, I cite the following excerpt from the poem "Please Call Me by My True Names" by Thich Nath Hanh:
“I am the
child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as
thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am
the arms merchant,
selling
deadly weapons to Uganda.
I am the twelve-year-old
girl,
refugee on
a small boat,
who throws
herself into the ocean
after
being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am
the pirate,
my heart
not yet capable
of seeing
and loving.
I am a
member of the politburo,
with
plenty of power in my hands.
And I am
the man who has to pay
a "debt
of blood" to my people,
dying
slowly in a forced labor camp.”
And I am the pirate,
