{"id":227,"date":"2009-02-05T13:04:49","date_gmt":"2009-02-05T13:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/replacing-the-war-on-terror-wo.html"},"modified":"2009-02-05T13:04:49","modified_gmt":"2009-02-05T13:04:49","slug":"replacing-the-war-on-terror-wo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/replacing-the-war-on-terror-wo.html","title":{"rendered":"replacing the War on Terror (WOT) with a WOMBAT"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the context of my earlier thoughts<\/a> about how the muslim community can help combat extremism, one more thing occurs to me; perhaps what is also needed is a
\nrebranding of the War on Terror. You cannot wage war against an emotion
\nor a tactic, and the Bush Administration’s alternative slogan of
\n“Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism” (GSAVE<\/a>) isn’t much better. I propose the following: War On Muharib; Brave Against Terror (WOMBAT<\/b>).<\/p>\n

First, the war is explicitly on the muharib<\/i><\/a>, not Islam or
\nmuslims but rather a specific group that is condemned in the Qur’an itself.
\nThis lets us communicate exactly what our intentions are to the muslim
\nworld. Second, the right response to terror is not to run screaming or
\nindulge in feel-good symbolism like taking shoes off or demanding
\nloyalty tests of your fellow citizens; that stuff is truly letting the
\nterrorists win. Instead you simply want to remain brave in the face of
\nterror. (Brave is also a verb, as in to brave against something, so
\nit’s actually pretty concise yet meaningful). Lastly, the imagery is great, you don’t want to mess with a
\nwombat. <\/p>\n

I think if all muslims
\nbegan using WOMBAT as our acronym of choice immediately it would help a
\ngreat deal. Ok I admit this is a bit silly, but far less so than WOT\/GSAVE.
\nIn contrast, WOMBAT actually makes sense. <\/p>\n

Think about it; it grows on
\nyou. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the context of my earlier thoughts about how the muslim community can help combat extremism, one more thing occurs to me; perhaps what is also needed is a rebranding of the War on Terror. You cannot wage war against an emotion or a tactic, and the Bush Administration’s alternative slogan of “Global Struggle Against…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[121,158,124,26,71,35],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirabah-watch","tag-foreign-policy","tag-hirabah","tag-pli","tag-politics","tag-terrorism","tag-wombat"],"yoast_head":"\nreplacing the War on Terror (WOT) with a WOMBAT - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"replacing the War on Terror (WOT) with a WOMBAT - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the context of my earlier thoughts about how the muslim community can help combat extremism, one more thing occurs to me; perhaps what is also needed is a rebranding of the War on Terror. You cannot wage war against an emotion or a tactic, and the Bush Administration’s alternative slogan of “Global Struggle Against…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/replacing-the-war-on-terror-wo.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-05T13:04:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"replacing the War on Terror (WOT) with a WOMBAT - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"replacing the War on Terror (WOT) with a WOMBAT - City of Brass","og_description":"In the context of my earlier thoughts about how the muslim community can help combat extremism, one more thing occurs to me; perhaps what is also needed is a rebranding of the War on Terror. You cannot wage war against an emotion or a tactic, and the Bush Administration’s alternative slogan of “Global Struggle Against…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/replacing-the-war-on-terror-wo.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2009-02-05T13:04:49+00:00","author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/replacing-the-war-on-terror-wo.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/replacing-the-war-on-terror-wo.html","name":"replacing the War on Terror (WOT) with a WOMBAT - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-02-05T13:04:49+00:00","dateModified":"2009-02-05T13:04:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/replacing-the-war-on-terror-wo.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/replacing-the-war-on-terror-wo.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/02\/replacing-the-war-on-terror-wo.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"replacing the War on Terror (WOT) with a WOMBAT"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}