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This article does bring up the very true point that the US and the west have not been able to effectively defeat terrorists on the ideological front. Their manipulation of Islam to further their goals has frequently been met with bumbling on the part of the US. Many in the Muslim world today see the war on terror as a war on Islam, that has been one of the biggest successes that terrorists have met with and a real cause for worry. While I wholeheartedly agree with the warnings in the above article that improper use of religous terminology could backfire, I also think that this is an area that the west needs to engage the Muslim world in. Referring to terrorists as martyrs as opposed to "mufsiduun" does have a negative impact. I hope that we are able to see an effective campaign to discredit the misappropriation of Islamic terminology by terrorists. If the day comes that ignorant, illiterate, and impoverished teenagers from Pakistan stop buying the crap about 72 virgins then that would really make a difference in the long term.
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