And a memo goes out:
The answer just arrived, in the shape of a leaked memo dated March 2 from Jennifer Janin, head of the Urdu service at the Voice of America… Addressed to the Urdu radio, television, and web teams, as well as to the director and program manager of VOA’s South Asia Division, her diktat insists on no connection being drawn from Islam to politics. In gist:
Islamic terrorists: DO NOT USE. Instead use simply: terrorist.
Islamic Fundamentalism/Muslim Fundamentalists: AVOID.
Islamist: NOT NECESSARY.
Muslim Extremists: NOT NECESSARY. Extremist serves well.
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Do you think people are so extremely politically correct because we've had it so good for so long? Are we so spoiled that we don't realize that these things are real threats to us and that we could lose so mucy of what we love if we allow them to have a foothold? I saw on the news yesterday that a couple of the US credit card companies are starting divisions that cater pretty much exclusively to Islamic business. Even one of the more liberal news people suggested it may be just the beginning of Islamic control in America.
ReplyDeleteI've got no problem with banks etc adapting to different cultures that they encounter. I think though that it's dangerous to refuse to name the enemy from fear of offending people. One commentator here draws attention to this absurdity by pretending that the un-named terrorist organisations are Presbyterian- e.g. Presbyterian terrorists today attacked an airport in Pakistan. Sounds ridiculousI think though that we must resist the pressure to bend our whole culture- media, politics, legal systems- to meet the demands of one particular sub-culture. It's worrying that in Britain Sharia courts can now issue binding judgements on people who go to them. This is crazy because it undermines the whole principle of the rule of law in which theoretically the law is applied to every citizen regardless of their social status.
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