Continuing the Debate

Please accept my apologies for the recent lack of posts. I was otherwise occupied for all of last week. Something like regular posting will resume this week, so be forewarned. In the meantime, my post on the validity of the term "Islamofascism" has sparked a bit of interesting discussion.

Just to keep things going, here are two interesting articles that discuss Islamism and help explain why I feel it's the best term to use for our adversary:

Terror, Islam, and Democracy
-A great essay from the April 2002 issue of the Journal of Democracy that describes Islamism and traces its origins to "Leninism, fascism, and other strains of twentieth-century thought that exalt totalitarian violence."


Coming to Terms: Fundamentalists or Islamists?
-A typically good analysis from scholar Martin Kramer on the evolution of the term "Islamism" and of some of the alternative concepts that have been offered in its place.