From the BBC’s on-line news service, the UK’s Home Secretary is quoted talking about the recently unravelled air terror threat:
The world was faced by a form of “intolerant and violent totalitarianism”, he added, which was subverting a religion, Islam, whose very name stood for peace.
Submission. “Islam” does not mean peace, it means “submission.” “Salaam” is peace.
I’m a little surprised that the Home Secretary doesn’t know this. I wonder if he’s been misled, or whether he’s trying to be misleading – it’d be hard to argue that he’s attempting to win Islamist hearts and minds.
They, at least, are aware of the difference.
I’m just trying to “visualise whirled peas”.
Since we’re on the topic of precision, let’s “push the throttle up.”:
From our friends at Wikipedia, may peace be upon them:
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In Arabic, Islam derives from the triconsonantal root S?Ѭ
Since we’re on the topic of precision, let’s “push the throttle up.”:
From our friends at Wikipedia, may peace be upon them:
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In Arabic, Islam derives from the triconsonantal root Sīn-Lām-Mīm, with a basic meaning of “to surrender”. Islam is an abstract nominal derived from this root, and literally means “submission to ‘The God’ (Arabic:Allah)”. The legislative meaning is to submit to God by singling Him out in all acts of worship, to yield obediently to Him and to free and disassociate oneself from Polytheism and its people. Other Arabic words derived from the same root include:
* Salaam, meaning “peace” or “safety”, also part of a common salutation, assalamu alaikum (“peace be upon you”).
* Muslim, an agentive noun meaning “one who submits wholeheartedly [to God]“.
* Salamah, meaning “safety”, also used in the common farewell ma’ as-salamah (“[go] with safety”).
* Aslam (with a short “a” vowel) also means “I submit”, since the addition of a hamza to the beginning of the triliteral root, followed by the first two consonants, a short vowel, and the final consonant, is the first-person singular imperfect tense in Arabic. (For example, from Sĩn-Kãf-Nũn, the word “‘askun” means “I live” [reside].)
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So, if you believe what these guys say (and why not? it’s on the internets after all…) it seems that the Arabic for “peace” derives from the same root that “submission to ‘The God’” (i.e., “Islam”). So, are we splitting hairs with our precision here? Or is there really something profound to be made of this distinction? After all, in the interest of precision, submission to God, as opposed to following your own way, is a core Christian concept as well.
Well maybe you’ve got a point, and maybe not: The latin “pax” is the root of both the words “peace” and “pacify.”
The second can have a much more sinister implication, and in their own words, when applied by our Islamist adversaries against the West refers either to “submission” to the will of a strange god, or else the “peace of the dead” at the hands of his disciples.
Concur. I’ve noticed that you cite Mr. Jeff Goldstein from time-to-time, and you pointed me in the direction of his notes on “intentionalism” – a good read ifIdoSaySo.
With intentionalism in mind, maybe the question is, just what do THEY mean when they say “Islam”, with all its subtleties and nuance (‘they’ being our friends adhering to “Islam”, our pax be upon them). How many flavors of “they” are there in “Islam” (e.g., run-of-the-mill muslim vs. so-called Islamofacists)? Do “they” all mean something different when they say it?
Why should I care since, whatever the Islamofacisists’ internal justifications for trying to kill me are, and apparently the plain ‘ol Muslims seem to support them by failing to take to the streets and denounce a supposed hijacking of their religion?
I see it this way: I can live with them, but for some reason (and I don’t care what) they (the big Islamic collective) can’t live with me. So we gots to do what we gots to do.
The Home Secretary is obviously just trying to “look good in the shower” with his Euro-inclusive mushyspeak. After all, he did say that the name STOOD [past tense?] for peace. Just bad thinking. I don’t care if Islam was ever inherently peaceful! I don’t care if it has been hijacked! Mundane details! It is what it is: a threat to our existence. If they can fix their religion and its effects, great. However they want to do that is their business. Meantime, we need to be putting our pax (PACIFY, that is) on them. We’d be nuts to wait and see how any new Islamic Enligtenments turn out. Clowns.
Le Juste Mo PePe Le Pew!!!!!!