Daily Telegraph – 18 November 2007

Charles Moore is right to stress the role of doctrine as the basis of contemporary terrorism but wrong to criticise the dropping of adjectives such as "Islamic" or even "Islamist" to describe it (Comment, November 17).

The best way of characterising terrorists is to do so in a manner infuriating to the guilty without smearing the innocent: namely, as "un-Islamic" extremists, which is exactly what they are. No Muslim who opposes them can object to terrorists being described as un-Islamic; no terrorist can possibly rejoice in that accolade, and no political commentator can complain that the context is being airbrushed by the authorities for reasons of political correctness.

Dr JULIAN LEWIS MP
Shadow Defence Minister
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA