Blog Post #3

Andrew Docktor

Media and Politics

11/12/15

Islamic Terrorism

            Following the brutal and ruthless attacks in Paris over the past weekend, the world sat and watched in horror as new details continued to leak out from France and the horrible stories get even worse. While we have discussed in class, the ways for politicians to word and change their speeches in order to make sure that they do not directly affect a certain group of people. This was all too evident this past weekend, however, after terrorists wrecked havoc throughout the streets of Paris, shooting and bombing innocent civilians that were out enjoying their Friday night.  Following these horrible attacks, President Obama released a statement discussing them and proclaiming to the world that the United States and its allies would respond accordingly. Furthermore, he talked about combatting these terrorists and that always democracy will prevail. Yet throughout his speech he refused to do one thing. Label these terrorists as radical Islamic extremists. During his statement that he gave following the attacks, he continued to just label them as just terrorists, “We’re going to do whatever it takes to work with the French people and with nations around the world to bring these terrorists to justice, and to go after any terrorist networks that go after our people[1]”. So far all of the terrorists that have been named are Muslim. I know, you may jump to conclusion in the fact that people may think I am being derogatory towards all Muslims, but I am not. I don’t have a vendetta and I am not discriminatory towards Muslims in any sense of the way. But why has he continually refused to call a spade a spade. When is the last time there was a terrorist attack of this nature and the attackers weren’t Muslim? People can argue that a school shooting is a terrorist attack but it no one labels it as one. Throughout his candidacy, President Obama has not once labeled these extremists as Muslim. Throughout our class, we have discussed how politicians change up their wording to make it sound better to their audience. Just like the country saw with Bill Clinton, Obama has constantly side stepped around using the wording, meanwhile the attackers continue to be Muslim. Is some of his reasoning due to the fact that he is trying not to isolate a certain group of people in America? While I completely understand this action and it very much makes sense to me, wouldn’t it help to point our country in the right direction if we could isolate and attack a certain group of people. Rather than just talking about a vague group of terrorists. Muslims from around the world would be able to help the United States and our allies because we would no longer be associating the terrorists with their general religion. Yes, I know this is completely politically incorrect, but by isolating a certain group of people within the religion is not harmful to Islam in itself. Just like the world labels Christian extremists, Obama still has not called it like it is. He has utilized the same technique that all politicians use, which is saying just enough to get their point across, but not to offend anyone. The terrorists that attacked in Paris stormed through the Bataclan theater chanting Islamic sayings as described in the New York Times, “Suddenly, four men brandishing AK-47 assault rifles entered the hall. There were shouts of “Allahu akbar” just before the gunmen opened fire, and for about 20 minutes there was carnage.[2]” All the evidence points to Islamic extremists, however, in his statement there was no word on their religion. The United States needs to label them as Islamic extremists because it will help to isolate and combat a small group of people within the religion of Islam.  

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[1] www.whitehouse.gov

[2] Nossiter, Adam. ‘Scene of Carnage” Inside Sold-Out Paris Concert Hall’ www.nytimes.com