The language suggested that Islam itself was the true enemy of democracy. The new vocabulary was controversial from the beginning, but the decision to employ it was likely a political calculation that depended on larger assumptions held by many in the West about the inability of Islam to embrace democracy.

DEFINE: Explains the politically loaded language connecting the War on Terror framing to assumptions about Islam's compatibility with democracy.

Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Intro…, loc. 290