I do respect reporting from Reuters and in most cases have found their reports to be well-written and informative. I in no way condone, accept or approve of the actions of Major Nidal Malik Hasan but the wording of this particular report does not sit right with me.
The title of the 9 November report is “US had Islamist Intelligence on Army Shooter” which is about Army officer Major Nidal Malik Hasan who instead of performing his duties as an Army psychiatrist last week went on a shooting spree at Ft. Hood, Texas. I have another post forthcoming on this incident but this spontaneous post is to highlight and elicit comments from readers on some of the wordings and descriptions found in the Reuters report.
First of all, what exactly is “Islamist” intelligence? I have always thought intelligence is intelligence in the sense of a government organization whether it be FBI, CIA or NSA or other organization, having perishable information which is not in the public domain and of an interest to a nation’s national security. Now there are subsets and categories of intelligence? And if that is the case, then how would Islamist intelligence differ from Muslim or Islamic intelligence or American intelligence for that matter. From whom or what kind of source would one gather “Islamist” intelligence? When I hear the phrase “Islamist” intelligence it seems to be a discriminatory phrase against Muslims and Islam to me.
The report further states that Hasan had purported contact with anti-American Islamists. Couldn’t this phrase have been reworded that he had purported contact with factions from (location or region) who were known to have anti-American sentiments rather than using that word Islamists again?
When I looked up the word “Islamist” on www.dictionary.com the following is what comes up:
Is·lam·ism
 (ĭs-lä’mĭz’əm, ĭz-, ĭs’lə-, ĭz’-)  n.
Is·lam’ist adj. & n. |
I also wonder how dictionary.com came up with the specific definitions as well. For example, scientologist is not found although scientology is. I guess it may depend on what term is perceived as politically relevent?
Not surprisingly fact finding missions are now being conducted to determine what information and clues were available about Hasan and his contacts. Some governmental organization will likely be singled out as a fall-guy. Since the incident occurred within the United States and by an American officer from within the Armed Forces, I have no doubt extensive scrutiny, spotlight and questions will be asked of relevent offices within the Army itself followed by the FBI given that Hasan is an American citizen. I emphasize that Hasan is an American citizen where differing procedures of investigation would apply.
The report concludes that American Muslims express their regret and stress the incident was carried out by a single disturbed individual. So why are groups of Americans who follow Islam referred to as American Muslims and distinctive from an Islamist? What are the distinctions between Islamic, Islam, Islamist and Muslim?
Filed under: America, Saudi Arabia, culture, islam, politics, religion, terrorism | Tagged: America, history, islam, KSA, places, religion, Saudi, Saudi Arabia, terrorism
Bad wording indead, but I knew what it meant right off. Things might be wrong and common thoughts and thinking misdirected, but it is important to read such things and think of them with the current “Zeitgiest” in mind.
Sometimes you have to go into these things thinking “if I was an ignorant American who knew nothing of the Islamic world, how would I react and think?” When you do that………you often get what they are trying to say even if it is WAY off the mark on the part of the authors.
If you approach much of what is in the Western media about Muslims and Islam from an aspect where you are familiar with Muslims, Islamic history and Muslim cultures, you’ll get so confused and so hung up on the inaccuracies you wont get anything out of it.
Opps………..indeed! }:>)
wow…that is a good question. I can give you my take on it but i am curious to see what others will say.
As for American Muslim…perhaps it is a way of distinguishing themselves from Muslims from other countries? Maybe it is similar to African American…a way to describe a race (african) linked with their nationality (american) so one knows that the person is of the black race which is all over the world, but specifically comes from the USA.
“What are the distinctions between Islamic, Islam, Islamist and Muslim?”
To me (who is non Muslim) they mean in order:
Islamic-having to do with or pertain to Islam or something of Islam.
Islam-the religion
Islamist-OK I admit I was a bit stumped here as i thought it meant a person who practiced the faith of Islam..sort of interchangeable with Muslim, but with a bit more “action” to the meaning like say an activist or someone who might who might actively advocate for the religion through an organization or something…so one could say Islamist rather than Muslim activist. I looked it up in several online dictionaries and it seems to be linked with Islamism in all of them…so i guess it means that.
Muslim-someone of the Muslim faith.
Very good and thought provoking question.
oops… for the last definition…meant to say someone of the Islamic faith rather than Muslim faith.
You asked where they got the definitions. Dictionary.reference.com does give sources. For Islamist it gives:
” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.”
I concur with oby in all of her definitions but I have always understood ‘Islamist’ as being used to distinguish between Muslim extremist ideology with the agenda of global political domination and your regular everyday Muslim.
Has anyone ever heard that word used when discussing your average, everyday, moderate Muslim? I have not. Do you disagree that there should be a distinction between the two?
@lynn,
I have heard it said that all Muslims are interested in global domination………the “moderate” Muslims just hide it better.
I guess it all depends on who you are talking to.
The article you referenced says:
“The sources did not identify who Hasan contacted but described them as Islamists associated with and sympathetic toward al Qaeda.”
This article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33807907/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times/
says a lot more about the individual in Yemen who he was in contact with and describes him as:
-an American citizen born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, -since leaving the U.S. in 2002 for London, and later Yemen, Mr. Awlaki has become a prominent proponent of militant Islam via his Web site, http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com. -“He’s one of the most popular figures among hard-line, English-speaking jihadis around the world,” said Jarret Brachman, author of “Global Jihadism” and a terrorism consultant to the government. -Mr. Brachman said Mr. Awlaki is especially appealing to young Muslims who are curious about radical ideas but not yet committed. “He’s American, he’s funny, and he speaks in a very understandable way,” Mr. Brachman said.
Awlaki is also quoted as praising Maj. Hasan’s actions, saying he was “a hero.” The cleric said, “He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.”
He added, “The only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the U.S. Army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal.”
It appears the word Islamist was used to differentiate this type of speech purported to represent Muslim thought from other more moderate Muslim voices and therefore information straight from such a person (his webiste) could be called Islamist intelligence info.
You know, Abu Sinan, the more I’ve learned about the religion the more I believe what you said is probably actually true! I’ll have to remember that.
It was bugging me that it seems I have the wrong understanding of Islamist…so instead of going to online dictinaries as I had before, I typed in: what is an Islamist…that brought up a whole page of defininitions…among them…
a scholar who is knowledgeable in Islamic studies
an orthodox Muslim
A person who espouses Islamic fundamentalist beliefs; A Muslim, particularly an orthodox Muslim; A person who specializes in Islamic studies; Motivated by Islamic beliefs, particularly in the political sphere (eg a supporter of the introduction of sharia law);
is a term used to identify a Muslim fundamentalist.
So there, on one page are at least 4 definaitions of Islamist ( I was way off!). those who are better informed than I what would the correct definition be?
@oby,
I’m glad you also checked on the definition. What bothers me is that there does not seem to be a standard. In addition I just don’t like the classifications attached to an individual who happens to practice a particular type of religion.
Unless it is proven beyond doubt that his religion infulenced him to murder people i don’t think there should be mention of it.
he’s just a mass murderer and a loser, nothing more . Anyone who can take so many lives in cold blood , that too lives of friends or people he’s associated with deserves to rot in hell in a lot of pain.
As for deifnition of islamist – all i can infer is it’s something to do with an individual being muslim an widely read .
The heading from Reuters threw me of as well as the first thing I noticed was the suffix–ist. Not only is the heading offesive it is improper English. The author ought to study the use of suffixes.
@oby
All those definitions are correct. English is like that. I will note that older dictionaries (anything written before the mid 1960’s) do not include the political definitions. Even the recent Shorter English dictionary (5th edition is the latest I have) doesn’t include the political definition.
The headline was badly written but one cannot expect everyone to be happy with news headlines. If I wrote a headline “Catholic Bishop hides sexual deviant priests” would I be expected to sanitize the headline to make the Vatican happy? The murderer was suspected of ties to militant groups, those militant groups weren’t communists or the shining path.
Those are the facts.
The outrage should be that the US had intelligence on this man and did nothing to protect people from him due to fears of seeming ‘politically incorrect’ THAT is what needs to stop. Lives are at stake, we should not be overly concerned about political correctness. I hate to see the fallout if those reports turn out to be true.
lol you people still believe the same 10 years old “had links with alqaeieieieieieieieida” crap ??
if america is in a war against Muslims then i do not understand why it will NOT use its media as a tool against the Muslims. but this is alll normal. stupidity is when Muslims believe the media and stand up against their own people…
people who are so ignorant tht they are willing to travel thousands of miles fighting against “extremists” yet they dont wanna put a little effort digging the truth OR hearing the other side…
YQ
The reason that america will not use it’s media as a tool is because IMO they want to take extreme care not to slander people (Muslims) who are not of the extremist ideology. Because you think that america has a war against Muslims you don’t understand what the war is about. It is not about Muslims…people who live peaceably with their fellow citizens should not be lumped in with those who would do whatever they could to get rid of those who do not adhere to their own extremist ideologies and that would include other Muslims who believe in coexistence.
The problem with attitudes like yours is that you believe because we have issues with terrorists that kill and bomb not only non Muslims but vast amounts of Muslims as well, that we are against ALL Muslims as a whole. Ridiculous. And because care is taken (sometimes to the extreme of political correctness) to try to weed out the extremists from the NON who don’t deserve the slander, sometimes extremists slip through.
I enjoy linguistic puzzles, and I am wondering if the word Muslim has connotations in the USA regarding “Black Muslims” as in “Nation of Islam”.
Islamist does seem to connote a formal movement with violence at its core.
Interesting, I wonder if the perpetrator went to medical school paid for by the US ignoring the fact that the US had been at war in the ME for 8 years Did he think he would not have to serve??
Funny enough…as far as i know there is no such word in arabic…its a completely made up english word….and if memory serves me correctly…the media made it up…rather like they made up Holy War for Jihad.
Islamist is a totally stupid meaningless word that attempts to Anglicize an Arabic word, advertise it as intellectual and with deep meaning while actually only superficially pretending to bypass the connotations that are invariably associated with it by its religious context. In reality, it’s those connotations and the religious context which are being manipulated to put the religion of Islam in a hateful, bigoted, misrepresented terminology
I think you guys are avoiding the difficult questions. Hasan gave a presentation to colleagues on a ‘medical issue’ and he chose the relationship between Muslims in the American military and America fighting wars in Muslim countries, and the potential for conflict, including violence, as a result.
He was extremely clear in his presentation, drawing a connection between conflicts of loyalties for Muslims and Muslim doctrines, fatwas, etc.
If you don’t think this is an issue specifically related to Islam, argue with him and his presentation. Here it is:
http://tinyurl.com/yjbszhm
I looked at it, it looks pretty well grounded to me.
“I have heard it said that all Muslims are interested in global domination………the “moderate” Muslims just hide it better.”
My “moderate” Muslim friend swears up and down this is not the case at all. He says, “Did you ever get this impression from me or your other Syrian friends?” He swears they don’t even want a country run by sharia after seeing how disagreeable so-called Muslim countries have been … all the while calling themselves “Islamic countries.”
Carol, I often think of an Islamist as one who is more militant in his Muslim beliefs. That’s the connotation I’ve gotten from reading things the last few years. If they are talking about peaceful Muslims – the vast majority, they use Muslims. “Islamist” militarizes it.
Susanne, I’m sure Abu Sinan was just kidding. BUT, those ‘Islamists’ would say that he and your friends are not truly Muslims if they didn’t feel that way and if your friends were in a face to face meeting with them they’d probably find themselves nodding in agreement with most things that the Islamists had to say.
anon, ‘Islamist is a totally stupid meaningless word…’
Much the same as the made up word ‘Islamophobe’ eh?
American Muslims part is the easier one – since the incident took place in the US, “American Muslims” refers to the Muslims in the US who expressed regrets etc.
About the title with Islamist Intelligence, I guess in their effort to make it concised, they made the title cryptic – what they seem to have meant is that the US had intelligence information of the contact of this army shooter with an Islamist group. Of course it should have been worded differently.
An Islamist may be understood as an extremist, orthodox person who is using Islam for anti-humanitarian activities. In contrast, a Muslim may or may not be orthodox in a religious sense, but is not anti-humanitarian.