linguistic tolerance

[Dennis Baron]

Is this a reference to what I've just been noticing on the news the
last couple of days--the term"Islamists" being used to identify
(self-identify?) Muslim radical or extremist groups? Is this a new
usage? I haven't been paying attention.

Dennis

On Mar 16, 2004, at 8:47 PM, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       RonButters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      linguistic tolerance
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> 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.=A0 A most prominent example at the
>> moment is Islam - and who gets to define it.=A0 Perhaps if more of the
>> "moderate" Muslims and Muslim countries would reclaim the name, Islam
>> would not be hijacked by the terrorists.
>> =20
>> Rima
>> =20
> I don't understand what "moderate" Moslems are supposed to do,
> exactly, to=20
> "reclaim the name" of Islam; moreover, the idea of "reclaiming" a name
> that=20=
> one=20
> has (in one's own view) never lost is not very attractive. In the end,
> it is=
> =20
> not the labels that are the issue, but the behavior.=20
>
> It has always seemed to me an unhappy turn of events when
> self-proclaimed=20
> "Christians" make pronouncements that exclude other self-proclaimed
> Christia=
> ns=20
> from the fold, rather than discussing the differences in beliefs that
> separa=
> te=20
> them. The attempt at appropritating language exclusively for one's own
> use i=
> s a=20
> kind of prescriptivism that I'm not comfortable with.
>