linguistic tolerance

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 3/16/04 9:27:25 PM, rkmck at EARTHLINK.NET writes:


> ... one has to take
> control of how one is defined.  A most prominent example at the
> moment is Islam - and who gets to define it.  Perhaps if more of the
> "moderate" Muslims and Muslim countries would reclaim the name, Islam
> would not be hijacked by the terrorists.
> 
> Rima
> 
I don't understand what "moderate" Moslems are supposed to do, exactly, to 
"reclaim the name" of Islam; moreover, the idea of "reclaiming" a name that one 
has (in one's own view) never lost is not very attractive. In the end, it is 
not the labels that are the issue, but the behavior. 

It has always seemed to me an unhappy turn of events when self-proclaimed 
"Christians" make pronouncements that exclude other self-proclaimed Christians 
from the fold, rather than discussing the differences in beliefs that separate 
them. The attempt at appropritating language exclusively for one's own use is a 
kind of prescriptivism that I'm not comfortable with.