David Kilcullen’s Call for a “New Lexicon”
In his multi-faceted article, “New Paradigms For 21st Century Conflict,” David Kilcullen of General David Petraeus’ senior staff in Baghdad recommends five major initiatives to be taken in developing truly effective counterterrorism (COIN) strategies, operations and tactics against al Qaeda-style Terrorism (AQST).
In briefest of terms, these are to (1) Develop a New Lexicon, (2) Get the Grand Strategy Right, (3) Remedy the Imbalance in Government Capability, (4) Identify New Strategic Services, and (5) Develop Capacity For Strategic Information Warfare. While others will comment in learned fashion on all five of these topics in due course, this commentary will concern only the first — the proposed New Lexicon.
To make a medical analogy, this is an enemy which is not in the nature of a state-based, clearly definable tumor to be neatly cut out by a scalpel but is, instead, an ideology-based cancer which been metastasizing for several decades and is attacking far-flung elements of Western Civilization simultaneously and seeking a “death by a thousand cuts” result.
The first of Kilcullen’s five steps toward an effective antidote — a worldwide chemotherapy counterattack — on the raging AQST cancer is his call for “a new lexicon based on the actual, observed characteristics of [our] real enemies …”
In so doing, he clearly recognizes that in order to meet Sun Tzu’s ancient admonition that we must “Know The Enemy,” we absolutely must have a truthful common language by which to achieve that end and then to communicate such knowledge effectively to multiple audiences.
Although he does not list particulars of this proposed new lexicon, here are more than a dozen of the Arabic and Islamic words of which he would almost surely approve. They are the words, the semantic tools and weapons, we will need to break out of the habit-of-language box (largely invented by Osama bin Laden himself) which currently depicts us as us the bad guys, the “infidels” and even “the Great Satan” — and which sanctifies suicide mass murderers as so-called jihadis and mujahideen (“holy guys”) and “martyrs” on their heroic way to Paradise.
Importantly, the ubiquitous (It’s everywhere! It’s everywhere!!) word Jihad is entered four times in order to more clearly define its several confusing and often conflicting meanings.
irhab (eer-HAB) — Arabic for terrorism, thus enabling us to call the al Qaeda-style killers irhabis, irhabists and irhabiyoun rather than the so-called “jihadis” and “jihadists” and “mujahideen” and “shahids” (martyrs) they badly want to be called. (Author’s lament: Here we are, almost six years into a life-and-death War on Terrorism, and most of us do not even know this basic Arabic for terrorism.)
Hirabah (hee-RAH-bah) — Unholy War and forbidden “war against society” or what we would today call crimes against humanity. Among the many al Qaeda-style crimes and sins which constitute this most “unholy war” are such willful, and unrepented transgressions as those enumerated in the next section of this proposed glossary of terms.
Jihad al Akbar (gee-HAHD ahl AHK-bar) — this “Greater Jihad” is a personal and spiritual struggle or striving to become closer and more faithful to Allah and his teachings as set forth in the Qur’an.
Jihad al Saghir (gee-HAHD ahl Sahg-HEER) — “Lesser Jihad” can be a physical — and even a military — struggle to protect or to free Muslims and non-Muslims from oppression, but only in strict accordance with reasonable and non-terroristic standards set forth in the Qur’an, which provides that only the Caliph (or head-of-state?) can legally declare such a Jihad. Osama bin Laden is neither.
Jihad al Kabir (gee-HAHD ahl kha-BEER) — the spiritual and intellectual quest to promote common knowledge of Divine Revelation through all of Allah’s Prophets and to carry out ijtihad (consultative efforts throughout the Umma) in applying both Revelation and Natural Law — and Reason — to human affairs.
“Jihad” (gee-HAHD, so called) — al Qaeda’s false label for both Irhab and Hirabah, which is at heart an anti-Islamic, apostate and forbidden “war against society” and a satanic assortment of “crimes against humanity,” such as the many ruthless and willful violations of Qur’anic standards listed below.
mufsiduun (moof-see-DOON) — Islam’s word for evildoers, sinners and corrupters whose criminality and sinfulness, unless ended and sincerely repented, will incur Allah’s ultimate condemnation on Judgment Day; Islam’s optimum antonym for “mujahiddin.”
munafiquun (moon-ah-fee-KOON) — hypocrites to Islam who pretend to be faithful to the Qur’an but who willfully violate many of its basic rules, mandates and prohibitions. Once again, please refer to the ten AQ-style transgressions listed below.
hizb (hizb) – a political party, as in Hizballah (Party of God), or as the senior Saudi cleric Sheik Jafar Hawali recently called this radical and arguably apostate Shi’a organization Hizb al-Shaitan (Party of Satan, Party of the Devil).
Jahannam (jyah-HAH-nahm) — Islam’s antonym for Paradise and meaning the Eternal Hellfire to which Allah on Judgment Day condemns unrepentant, unforgiven evildoers and hypocrites of the unholy war variety.
khawarij (kha-WAH-reej) — outside-the-religion and outside-the-community individuals and activities; derived from the ancient al Qaeda-like militant Khawar or Kharajite sect, eventually suppressed and expelled as apostates and enemies of authentic, Qur’anic Islam.
istihlal (eesh-tee-LAHL) — Islam’s cardinal sin of “playing God,” as Osama bin Laden is doing when he attempts to pervert Islam into his own suicide mass murderous image, and turning it into nothing but a perpetual killing machine — of all Christians, all Jews and all Muslims who happen to disagree.
irtidad (eer-tee-DAHD) or ridda (REE-dah) — apostasy, a certifiably correct conviction for which is punishable by death in this life and by Allah’s eternal damnation in the next, with al Qaeda’s murderous extremism eventually to be labeled “The al Qaeda Apostasy.”
takfir (takh-FEER) — the Wahhabi and al Qaeda-style practice of making wholesale (and largely false and baseless) accusations of apostasy and disbelief toward Allah and the Qur’an. Those radicals, absolutists and judgmental fanatics who engage in this divisive practice of false witness are called “takfiri.”
Shaitan and shaitaniyah (shy-TAHN and shy-TAHN-ee-yah) — Islam’s Arabic words for Satan and satanic [example: Osama Abd’ al-Shaitan, Osama Slave or Servant of Satan]
While there are at least as many more, even dozens more, Arabic and Islamic words which could and will be added to any such “New Lexicon” of anti-Terrorism, this is at least a decent start. It consists mainly of words and meanings that the al Qaeda, al-Sadr and al-Shaitan killers do not want us to know or to use in making them, rather than us, the real enemies authentic, Quranic Islam.
It comes at a time when (even after almost six years of the GWOT) there is no US Government-approved lexicon or glossary of terms at all. Not in the Pentagon. Not in the State Department. Not in the White House. Not even in the Intelligence Community. In both the ongoing “war of words” and the overlapping “war of ideas” this is definitely NOT a good idea.
Benefits of the New Lexicon
So, what is the point of this new and improved lexicon of Arabic and Islamic words and frames of reference? In terms of the vital “hearts, minds and souls” aspects of the Long War (or is it the Endless War?) on AQ-style Terrorism about which Dr. Kilcullen is so appropriately concerned, the rewards could be great, indeed.
Just for starters, imagine the khawarij (outside the religion) al Qaeda’s great difficulty in winning the approval of any truly devout and faithful Muslims whatever once these genocidal irhabis (terrorists) come to be viewed by the Umma (the Muslim World) as mufsiduun (evildoers) engaged in Hirabah (unholy war) and in murtadd (apostasy) against the Qur’an’s God of Abraham — and as surely on their way to Jahannam (Eternal Hellfire) for their Satanic ways.
In this context of truth-in-language and truth-in-Islam, bin Ladenism’s so-called “Jihadi Martyrdom” becomes Irhabi Murderdom (Genocidal Terrorism), instead, with it a hot ticket to Hellfire rather than to Paradise. And is this not precisely the powerful disincentive we need for the unholy cancer of suicide mass murder?
Of course, to sustain the validity of such condemnatory labels, there must be a true-to-the-Quran basis for their application to the al Qaeda, al Sadr, Hizballah, Hamas and assorted other Terrorists.
This is readily available in the fact that at the heart of AQST’s own false labels and false promises of a sex-orgy Paradise is a pattern of plainly satanic and cultic violation of many of the fundamental precepts of authentic, Qur’anic Islam — including such sinful transgressions and such de facto desecrations of the Qur’an as:
– Wanton killing of innocents and noncombatants, including many peaceful Muslims
– Decapitating the live and desecrating the dead bodies of perceived enemies
– Committing and enticing others to commit suicide for reasons of intimidation
– Fomenting hatred among communities, nations, religions and civilizations
– Ruthless warring against nations in which Islam is freely practiced
– Issuing and inspiring unauthorized and un-Islamic fatwas (religious edicts)
– Using some mosques as weapons depots and battle stations, while destroying others
– Forcing extremist and absolutist versions (and perversions) of Islam on Muslims, when the Qur’an clearly says that there shall be “no compulsion in religion”
– Distorting the word “infidels” to include all Christians, all Jews and many Muslims, as well — when the Qur’an calls them all “Children of the Book” (the Old Testament) and “Sons of Abraham,” and calls Jesus one of Islam’s five main Prophets
– Deliberate misreading, ignoring and perverting of passages of the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Islamic Jurisprudence (the Fiqh)
If all of these ruthless and unrepented evils (and many more, too numerous to list here) do not constitute a monumental Apostasy against the “peaceful, compassionate, merciful, beneficent and just” Allah who is repeatedly so described by the Qur’an, then there is no such thing.
But, of course, there is such a thing in Islam and its proper name in Dave Kilcullen’s proposed New Lexicon should be “al Murtadd al Qaeda” (The al Qaeda Apostasy) — not by the pseud–Islamic standards of the “takfiri”-prone Salafi and Wahhabi cults which gave birth to Bin Ladenism but as Allah’s just punishment for the many ruthless and unrepented transgressions and desecrations of the Qur’an listed above.
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Jim Guirard — TrueSpeak Institute 703-768-0957 [email protected] … and Truespeak.org
A DC-area attorney, writer, lecturer and anti-Terrorism strategist, Jim Guirard was longtime Chief of Staff to former US Senators Allen Ellender and Russell Long. His TrueSpeak Institute website is devoted to truth-in-language and truth-in-history in public discourse.
