Black is white; white, black

In March, I reported on the news that the EU had called on its vassals national governments to stop using the phrase "Islamic terrorists", in favour of the term "terrorists who abusively invoke Islam". As the (sadly, ex)-blogger Michael Cadwallader commented, it "just rolls off the tongue".

Well, now I read that our beloved government has gone one better. Today's terrorists no longer merely "abusively invoke Islam"; rather they are positively Islamophobic. Well, at least that allows the liberals to designate them as a legitimate enemy...

Ministers have adopted a new language for declarations on Islamic terrorism.

In future, fanatics will be referred to as pursuing "anti-Islamic activity".

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that extremists were behaving contrary to their faith, rather than acting in the name of Islam.

Security officials believe that directly linking terrorism to Islam is inflammatory, and risks alienating mainstream Muslim opinion.

In her first major speech on radicalisation, Miss Smith repeatedly used the phrase "anti-Islamic".

In one passage she said: "As so many Muslims in the UK and across the world have pointed out, there is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorise, nothing Islamic about plotting murder, pain and grief.

"Indeed, if anything, these actions are anti-Islamic'.

Another section referred to enlisting the Muslim community against "anti-Islamic activity".

It is marvellous, isn't it, that our government is filled with such experts in Islamic theology as the Imam Jacqui Smith. We must all be grateful that she knows so much more about Islam than, er, Muslims.

The fact is, that Islamic terrorists are committing terror attacks because they are Muslims. This is not to say that all Muslims are terrorists. But it is to say that the acts of murder or attempted murder committed by some Muslims are carried out in the name of Islam, and under the banner of Islam, rather than for any other reason, or in the name of any other cause. These terrorists target those whom they perceive as being genuinely "anti-Islamic", and view themselves as being "Islamic terrorists" (which, being Muslims who engage in terrorist activities, is what they are). If they themselves were really "anti-Islamic", then they would actually target Muslims. It is simply irrational to deny this. But the government seems determined to try.

Some Muslims may well find it offensive when Islamic terrorists are linked to the Islamic religion. But this is hardly the fault of those who make the obvious link. Rather, it is the fault of those who actually carry out these crimes under the Islamic aegis. Those Muslims who take offence at the linking of their religion with terrorism should focus their anger on those among their coreligionists who commit or support terrorist attacks, rather than upon the westerners who remark upon the abundantly evident connection between Islam and terrorist violence.

Meanwhile, I am driven to ask, if people who bomb non-Muslims in the name of Islam are now "anti-Islamic", what does that make those of us who genuinely oppose and dislike Islam? Are we now Islamophiles?

Hat-tip: Jihad Watch; thanks also to Homophobic Horse