Islam is not an “ism”. Nor is it a geographic entity, a military force, a short-lived ideology or a movement that resurfaces temporarily and can be oppressed with the force that the superpowers are so proud of. Islam is a true religion; a faith with its unbeatable power in the hearts and minds of those who truly believe.

There is no denying the fact that since the demise of the Soviet Union, the Western media have been engaged in creating a negative perception of and attitude towards Islam. They regard Islam as an enemy to Western society and institutions. The use of the terms “Islamism”, “Islamist”, “terrorism” and “extremist” within the context of Islam and Muslims is evidence of this negativity.

The weapons at the West’s disposal in the war against Islam are hypocrisy, propaganda, military might, economic power, and social and political instability. Its propaganda machinery sustains Western hypocrisy. The West has tried to present a world view of Islam by referring to the wearing of the hijab and burkini as somehow barbaric, and to show the followers of Islam as violent, fanatical and intolerant.

What is “terrorism”, though, and who is a “terrorist”? The world has yet to agree upon a definition for this seemingly indefinable term. By the same token, is there such a person as an “Islamist”? And what is “Islamism”?

As stated above, Islam is neither an “ism” nor a short-lived ideology. I am a Muslim and my religion is Islam. Does it make me an “Islamist”? When do I stop being a Muslim and when do I become an “Islamist”? Am I a Muslim and an Islamist rolled into one? This is nonsense. Full stop.

Why has the war on terrorism boiled down to a war on the Islamic belief system? Just as “terrorism” was ill-defined enough to enable the United States and its allies to wage war on the weak and vulnerable, “Islamism” is also left vague until, I believe, everything related to Islam will be declared to be evil and subjected to banning orders in the next phase of the “war on terror”. Some Muslims are already labelled as “Islamists” for even holding such a belief.

The Muslim Brotherhood, established in Egypt by Hassan Al-Bana in the 1920s, is a victim of these imprecise and inaccurate terminology. Equating the terms “Islamism”, “terrorism” and “extremism” with the Muslim Brotherhood — deliberately so — has created the impression that everything pertaining to Muslims, the Brotherhood and their faith is negative, violent and a danger to Western norms and values.

Within the political circles of the US and its allies, support for secular governments is compulsory to ensure that there is no future for Islamic movements such as the Brotherhood. Since the Arab Spring, the group has been declared to be a “terrorist organisation” and is banned in its home country and a few other places sympathetic to the Egyptian coup.

It was portrayed fraudulently as being extremist (whatever that means) and violent. Former British Prime Minister David Cameron was put under pressure to order a review of the “philosophies and values of the Muslim Brotherhood and how it operated in different countries around the world, including in the UK, as well as its impact on Britain’s national security.”

It is about time that the world studied the flip-side of the “war on terror”. It has a distinct footprint of the world’s financial elites and the multinationals, as well as the military industrial complex. The First and Second World Wars resulted in increased powers for governments and cartels run by bankers.

The hidden agenda is to transform humanity through the destruction of race, religion, family, society and, eventually, nationhood. Humanity is thus bombarded by consumerism, sex, drugs and violence. Seemingly endless and deliberate wars are used to transform society; “terror” and “terrorism” are used to justify war.

“Terror” is also used to sway public opinion. The concept of “democracy” has been subverted and is used as a form of social control. The financial elites frame the debate in order to suggest the alternatives. As long as we live in a nominal “democracy” we cannot do much until more people see through the globalisation agenda for what it really is.

The propaganda used to demonise Muslims and Islam, using such meaningless terms as “Islamists”, “fundamentalists”, “extremists” and Islamism”, provides the pretext for the deceitful and devious “war on terror”. It is designed to advance the world’s financial elites and their governments, suppress Islam and create police states all over the globe in what has been called “global pacification”, which has little to do with actual peace. The “securitisation” of world governance comes at enormous cost to human rights and justice.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.