The Evil that dare not speak its name (in the EU)

The EU has come up with a brilliant plan to fight terror: Forbidding calling the enemy by its name:

BERLIN— The European Union, tiptoeing through a minefield of religious and cultural sensitivities, is discreetly reviewing the language it uses to describe terrorists who claim to act in the name of Islam.

EU officials are working on what they call a "lexicon" for public communication on terrorism and Islam, designed to make clear that there is nothing in the religion to justify outrages like the September 11 attacks or the bombings of Madrid and London.
The lexicon would set down guidelines for EU officials and politicians.

"Certainly 'Islamic terrorism' is something we will not use ... we talk about 'terrorists who abusively invoke Islam'," an EU official told Reuters.

I suppose if that proved unwieldy  and people start calling the enemy TWAII, they'll ban that, too.

The twisting of language to hide truth is a modern statist's tool. I don't think it works all that well. Like prohibitions on free speech, it simply drives things underground where  there can be no open debate which might expose fallacies  and , as a consequence, unreasoned hatred festers.

In this case, it's worse for it deliberately obscures the danger and the enemy. Imagine if in 1941 Europeans had been forced to call the Nazis those who abusely invoke national socialism! 

In the meantime, good luck to Europe in its War Against Terrorists Who Abusively Invoke Islam.

Clarice Feldman   4 11 06