Washington, Oct 21: A US military team, dubbed as “Red Team” for challenging conventional thinking over terrorism, has said that words like ‘jihad’ and ‘Islamist’ were needed in discussing terrorism in the 21st Century, and that the federal agencies that avoid these words were “soft-pedaling” the link between religious extremism and violent acts, reported the Washington Times.

According to the daily, the report titled “Freedom of Speech in Jihad Analysis: Debunking the Myth of Offensive Words” was written by unnamed civilian analysts and contractors for the US Central Command.

“We must reject the notion that Islam and Arabic stand apart as bodies of knowledge that cannot be critiqued or discussed as elements of understanding our enemies in this conflict,” the paper quoted the report as saying.

The report added: “The fact is our enemies cite the source of Islam as the foundation for their global jihad. We are left with the responsibility of portraying our enemies in an honest and accurate fashion.”

Earlier, in January 2008, a memorandum from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties had stated, “Unidentified American Muslims recommended that the US government avoid using the terms ‘jihadist’, ‘Islamic terrorist’, ‘Islamist’ or ‘holy warrior’,” and asserted that it would create a ‘negative climate’ and spawn acts of harassment and discrimination”.

The WT report said that a second document mentioned by the report was developed for the State Department by the National Counter-terrorism Centre’s Extremist Messaging Branch.

It urged officials to use the term ‘violent extremist’ and never to use ‘jihadist’ because that will ‘legitimize’ terrorists, added the paper.

The Red Team report said the government documents in question reflected “the views and opinions of a very small [number] of Americans whose contributions may have escaped critical review. ... While there is concern that we not label all Muslims as Islamist terrorists, it is proper to address certain aspects of violence as uniquely Islamic,” the paper quoted the “Red Team” report as saying. (ANI)