The AP has revised its stylebook to no longer include the term Islamist. They explain why:

Islamist” is frequently used as a label for conservative Islamic political movements, particularly Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, the group’s Palestinian offshoot. It generally carries a negative connotation.

Has the AP thought that maybe it carries a negative connotation because fascistic movements – religious or otherwise – generally do?

The disgusting Council on American-Islamic Relations which has previously lobbied AP to drop the term because they say it “has become shorthand for ‘Muslims we don’t like'” and “is currently used in an almost exclusively pejorative context” is elated:

We believe this revision is a step in the right direction and will result in fewer negative generalizations in coverage of issues related to Islam and Muslims.

Of course Islamists and their lackeys will often interchange and conflate Islam, Muslim and Islamist in order to feign representation and to save Islam and Islamism by equating any criticism as racism and an attack on people. But Islam as a belief and Islamism as a far-Right political movement cannot be off limits to criticism.

Even if the AP drops the term by accepting the Islamist narrative and capitulating to it, we refuse.

As an aside, AP has also dropped using the term “illegal immigrant”, which is a good thing. No human being is illegal. They might be undocumented but they are not illegal. Human beings are more than their immigration status.

AP, see the difference? One is about real live human beings; the other is a far-Right political movement.

If Islamism is so concerned about  negative generalisations, it can start by ending its very indiscriminate murder and mayhem.

(News via Terry Sanderson)