• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Chertoff’s ‘Islam PC’ rankles fed officials

Feb 11, 2007 6:01 am By Robert Spencer

Michael Chertoff has been breathing in the same PC fog as has Frank Pastore. But in Chertoff’s case, he is in a position to have immense influence over policy.

From WorldNetDaily.com, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Citing recent internal memos, Department of Homeland Security employees complain their boss Michael Chertoff is hamstringing counter-terror operations with pro-Islamic political correctness.

They say headquarters has cautioned officials not to describe Islamic terrorism as Islamic and to respect Islam as a “religion of peace.”

“It’s constantly drilled into us that Islam is not the enemy, and that the terrorists are merely a minority of ‘extremists’ distorting Islam,” said one official who wished to go unnamed.

DHS Secretary Chertoff set the tone in a staffwide memo last year, when he described as “extremists” the two dozen Muslim terrorists who plotted to blow up 10 airliners over the Atlantic. Unlike British authorities, Chertoff did not mention the religious motivation of the terrorists. Nowhere in the one-page memo were the terms “Muslim” or “Islamic” used.

In this he cuts off for his staff the chance to learn a tremendous amount of information about why the jihadists are acting, what they regard as acceptable and unacceptable behavior, what they might do and not do, and much more — because it is all tied up with Islamic law.

WND has obtained a copy of the internal alert from Chertoff, which was distributed to staff at 7:57 a.m. Aug. 10 — within hours, it says, of the arrests of “a significant number of extremists engaged in a substantial plot to destroy multiple aircraft flying from the United Kingdom to the United States.”

“It’s ridiculous. ‘Extremists’ could mean anyone. Who are we talking about here? Neo-Nazi extremists? Environmental extremists?” another DHS official said. “It’s so politically correct. If the head of Homeland Security can’t say it, who can?”

We can. And we must. Comfortable fictions get us nowhere. Abandoning truths because of fear and political correctness gets us nowhere.

He noted that as a Jew, Chertoff is especially sensitive to charges of bigotry leveled by Muslim-rights groups.

In a press conference on the sky-terror plot, President Bush called the British terrorists and their ilk “Islamic fascists” but quickly backed off the remark after the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other Muslim groups complained.

Longtime Bush confidante Karen Hughes warned the blunt phrase was hurting her efforts at the State Department to improve the U.S. image in the Muslim world. The president has not used the term again, opting instead for the generic “extremists.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also has toned down her war rhetoric.

Last month she referred to the terrorist group Hamas as a “resistance movement,” even though the group has been on her department’s official terror blacklist for a dozen years.

A former senior CIA analyst says America is losing the war on Islamic terror because of such political correctness.

“We are losing in Iraq and Afghanistan because the political leaders in both parties — and their politically correct acolytes in the media, the academy and the general officer corps — refuse to square with the American people about the enemy’s motivation,” said Michael F. Scheuer, who headed the CIA’s bin Laden unit.

He says the enemy is motivated by faith in Islam and is carrying out a jihad, or holy war, against the West.

Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes says it’s strategically important for the U.S. and its war allies to accurately identify the enemy.

“You cannot diagnose and treat a disease without first identifying and naming it,” he said. “So, a strategist cannot defeat an enemy without first identifying it and naming it.”

Still, in a report issued last month, the Homeland Security’s Advisory Council recommended DHS continue to soften its language when referring to the enemy.

“The Department should work with subject matter experts to ensure that the lexicon used within public statements is clear, precise and does not play into the hands of the extremists,” the advisory report said.

The report, released by the DHS Advisory Council’s Task Force on Future Terrorism, also recommended implementing more “Muslim outreach programs.”

“Broader avenues of dialogue with the Muslim community should be identified and pursued by the department to foster mutual respect and understanding, and ultimately trust,” the report urged.

[…]

DHS stresses to field agents that the majority of Muslims don’t believe in violence and to avoid profiling them as terrorists. CBP agents are told in daily musters that “violence is against the teachings of the Quran,” according to official briefing documents obtained by WND that train inspectors in proper techniques for interviewing potential foreign terrorists entering the U.S.

It would be interesting to see them try to make their case by actually referring to the Qur’an as it is used within Islamic tradition. But I’m sure they don’t, because they can’t.

“Key points: Not all violent true believers are Muslim. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are considered to be violent true believers,” emphasizes a January 2004 briefing document marked “For Official Use Only.”

“The majority of Muslims are not terrorists,” it adds, “and believe violence is against the teachings of the Quran.”

So once again the hapless McVeigh is trotted out to stand alone against hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Islamic jihadists. And I’ll wager that no one involved in preparing this briefing document noted how absurd their own argument was based on numbers alone. Nor is there any Christian Church or sect that teaches McVeighism, while jihad and Islamic supremacy are mainstream, and are taught by all orthodox Islamic sects.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Uncategorized


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Crusades Were Right on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • William Garrison on The Fantasy Islam of Rice University’s Craig Considine (Part 3)
  • Vladimir on Islamic Republic of Iran: Turkey’s Erdogan champions Islam only as a tool to further his own interests
  • John on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • Vladimir on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.