Please define an "Islamist'

Submitted by Mahfooz ur Rahman (Bangladesh), Feb 23, 2010 at 09:41

The Western media, including this blog, often refers to a person as an 'Islamist'. I also read here, that one blogger asked the rhetorical question as to if the current US President was a crypto- Ismalist. How does a true blue Islamist differ from a crypto one and vice versa. However, he did not mention, if the US President is indeed so, what penal process such as impeachment would follow or would not. How does the President be proved or not proved as an Islamist? Which authority in the US will frame the charge sheet and under what code or statute? Such questions boggle the mind of neutral readers from across the world.

Since this word appears to indicate a derogatory and an alarmist undertone at the least, I wonder what behavior pattern or any other character traits are signified by this term. It also signifies some form of criminality, such as a person has not been allowed entry into a Western country because he or she is reputed to be an 'Islamist.' Do the acts that purportedly turns one into an Islamist are contrary to the penal code of the country in question? Does a legal or at the least generally accepted definition exist?

Would the editors or anyone else using this term enlighten? Perhaps if so informed, one may avoid such acts and in turn save him/herself from being defined as an Islamist. If not, then this term will certainly mean nothing other than a figment of base propaganda and a concrete evidence of mass media ignorance.

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