Naming an adversary is itself a contested act of moral framing

Evidence

“Islamic jihadists” implies an Islamic religious war. To avoid being semantically lured into a war with Islam, President Obama dubbed ISIS “violent extremists.” His critics objected to what they regarded as “evasive” language that, in their view, minimized the threat of terrorists masking criminality in the name of Islamic theology (Shane, 2015). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2476

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concrete case of how language choice (jihadist vs. violent extremist) itself carries moral-disengagement and moral-engagement stakes — naming as strategic framing.
• XREF: connects to: Moral outrage over sacred-value violations depends heavily on rhetorical framing. — Philip E. Tetlock, Thinking the unthinkable: sacred values…, 1; Naming an idol as such provokes anger in those attached to it — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 182; Naming and categorizing contention shapes how authorities and publics respond — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1342