Europe tells UK to avoid using the word "Muslim"

[Amelia]

Europe tells UK to avoid using the word "Muslim"

ANI

Thursday 5th July, 2007

London, July 5 : The European Union is reported to have circulated secret guidelines to its members not to link Islam and terrorism.

The Daily Express has reported how British Government ministers are being told to avoid inflammatory language when speaking about the attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith have avoided using the words Muslims or Islam during an interview and in the House of Commons.

Banned terms were said to include "jihad'', "Islamic'' or "fundamentalist".

EU officials said the "common lexicon'' is aimed at stopping the distortion of the Muslim faith and alienation of its followers in Europe.

However, Conservative MP Philip Davies said: "Whatever your view on particular words, surely everyone should agree it is completely unacceptable for people in Brussels who have already interfered too much in our lives to start to tell us what words we can and can't use.

Hugo Robinson, of Open Europe thinktank, said: "Brussels has no place telling national governments how they should deal with the real and immediate threat of terrorism: The EU's so-called non-emotive lexicon won't do anything to stop dangerous extremists targeting Britain.''

A Foreign Office source insisted the "common lexicon'' was not an exercise in "political correctness'' but an attempt to find a "common vocabulary and definitions'' for statements about terrorism.

[Woody]

PC

PC

PC

[Neil D]

Some one once told me that honesty without kindness is cruelty.