Poring over the new no-Islam lexicon, brought to you by the US government--which everyone should read for himself at The Investigative Project--I was struck by a particularly egregious example of taqiyya, or Islamic deception. This is not something we should expect in a US government document, but welcome to "A Global Struggle for Security and Progress" (once known, lamely enough, as "the war on terror"). 

It is contained in "Expert Recommendation 6--Pay Attention to the discourse on takfirism" blah blah, which is supposed to be the new PC-acceptable word for the bad things jihadists do (NB: it's called " jihad").

The significant part of the government entry concerns the import of a 2005 conference of  leading clerics convened in Jordan by King Abdullah. It tells about a "welcome" and unanimous ruling issued by the clerics.This ruling is "known as the The Amman Message, specifically forbidding the practice of takfir. Since then, over 500 Islamic scholars have adopted the ruling. "

The government calls this "just one step" but it nonetheless attaches bogus significance both to the ruling--the fatwa, I'd say--and to the promising qualities of the using the word "takfir" itself with  Islamic populations.

Why bogus? For one thing, it ignores the factual import of the clerics' gathering. I know this because I recall the disappointed column that Judea Pearl, father of jihad-murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl, wrote after attending the conference. He cut through all the "takfir" to the point, writing:

The final communiqué of the Amman conference, issued July 6, states explicitly: "It is not possible to declare as apostates any group of Muslims who believes in Allah the Mighty and Sublime and His Messenger (may Peace and Blessings be upon him) and the pillars of faith, and respects the pillars of Islam and does not deny any necessary article of religion."

In other words, belief in basic tenets of faith provides an immutable protection from charges of apostasy; anti-Islamic behavior, including the advocacy of mass murder in the name of religion, cannot remove that protection. Bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the murderers of Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg will remain bona fide members of the Muslim faith, as long as they do not explicitly renounce it.

Is anyone in our government awake? Or is Uncle Sam abdicating all responsibilities to  the "experts"?

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