Doublespeak is language that deliberately distorts or even reverses the meaning of words. For example, when critics of radical Islam expose this extremism for what is it, their critics call them “Islamophobes;” when those who call themselves “social justice warriors” campaigning for tolerance exhibit just the opposite (i.e., intolerance) by shutting down any conversation with which they don’t agree; when others force their religious beliefs (i.e., blasphemy laws) upon others in the name of religion (as in Canada’s new motion against criticism of Islam); or when perpetrators of crimes frame themselves as victims.

Doublespeak often leads to doublethink, as George Orwell writes in his seminal novel Nineteen Eight-Four: “To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient.” In the novel, people explicitly learn doublethink due to peer pressure and a desire to fit in or gain status with in the “Party.”

With these definitions in mind, Clarion Project launches a week-long expose of some of the worst offenders:

The recent Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) conference in Chicago was a breathtaking exercise in doublespeak – namely, by turning perpetrators of terror into victims. Speakers hammered this topic so often that it is unimaginable that participants in the Islamist conference failed to believe this ruse.

As thoroughly documented by John Rossomando in The Algemeiner, ISNA speaker Cyris McGoldrick used his platform to advocate for such “victims” – or as he called them “people who were framed” or “entrapped” by law enforcement. “I’m talking about Imam Jamil Al-Amin, I’m talking about Tarek Mehanna, I’m talking about Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. A number, hundreds, hundreds of leaders who, and Muslims who are in prison right now,” the former Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) official said.

Let’s consider for a moment the individuals named by McGoldrick.

Muslim cleric Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin

Formerly known as H.Rap Brown, Al-Amin was a Black Panther in the 1960s who gunned down a sheriff’s deputy in 2002 who was in the process of serving him an arrest warrant. In the ‘60s as the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he advocated using violence, calling it “as American as cherry pie.” Al-Amin opened fire on the officer with an assault rifle and then shot him three times with a handgun as the officer lay bleeding on the ground. He also shot a second officer who survived. Al-Amin was sentenced in 2002 to life in prison without parole.

Tarek Mehanna

Mehanna was convicted in 2011 of four terrorism-related charges and three charges of providing false information to the government. He conspired to to kill Americans, provide material support to al-Qaeda and recruit others to fight for al-Qaeda. “From his travel to Yemen to receive training to kill American soldiers to his material support for terrorism at home, Mr. Mehanna’s efforts to use and support violence followed no pre-defined path and knew no bounds,” said the special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston.

Aafia Siddiqui

An MIT-trained neuroscientist, Siddiqui, known as “Lady al-Qaeda,” was arrested in Afghanistan and convicted of trying to kill Americans, armed assault, using and carrying a firearm and assault of U.S. officers. She was reportedly one of Osama bin Laden’s “facilitators.” At her trial, she demanded that Jews be excluded from the jury, charging, “This is a verdict coming from Israel.” Before beheading journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, ISIS said they would exchange these Americans for Siddiqui. The Taliban as well as other terror groups also proposed receiving Siddiqui for American hostages.

Other speakers at the ISNA conference included Covenants of the Prophet Foundation Director John Morrow who asked, “How do you ensure that the public continues to support the War on Terror, which is really a war on Islam and Muslims?”

Answering his own rhetorical question, Morrow blamed Western colonialists for fabricating terror attacks to oppress Muslims: “By means of terrorist attacks, by means of false flag operations — that way the eternal endless war of the globalist totalitarian fascists continues unabated to the pleasure of big brother, or as we know him in Islam, the one-eyed liar. The philosophy is clear. Keep the focus on fear.”

Then there was the quintessential purveyor of this twisted weltanschauung, Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) San Francisco director Zahra Billoo, who warned that Muslims may soon be sent to concentration camps by the current government.

“We [know they have done this] with other communities, that they’re going to send us to concentration camps,” she said.

Billoo is known for justifying Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel by comparing them to fighting off a rapist. She has referred to the U.S. military as the “US Occupying Army” and the arrest of an American convert for planning to join terrorists in Syria as “another FBI terror plot.”

Activist Linda Sarsour, who essentially defined patriotism as overthrowing the government at the conference, also spouted the canard that “white supremacists have killed more people [in America] since 9/11 than Muslims have.”

Islamists deflect blame from themselves – and the terror they incite — by portraying themselves as victims. Riling up their followers through this tactic is of prime importance.

From there, they claim the righteousness of their cause. It’s all part of the process in implementing their ultimate goal: the exchange of democracy for sharia-based governance.

Declassified FBI memos reveal that ISNA was identified as a Brotherhood front as early as 1987. In 2007, ISNA was designated as an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, a charity shut down by the U.S. government for financing Hamas.

Unfortunately, until other Muslim groups that do not have an Islamist agenda step up and challenge them, they will garner support from the Muslim community – either because they will have convinced American Muslims that they represent them (through the ruse of their civil rights work and the doublespeak they engage in) or because there is simply no alternative.