By Nawab Khan BRUSSELS, Sept 17 (KUNA) -- The European Union's top anti-terrorism official said here Thursday that there should not be any stigmatization of any people or religion in the fight against terrorism.
Much more work is needed over "the way we use the wording. Words are weapons in media communication. We should not say 'Islamic terrorism'. The Muslim world is very sensitive about this," EU counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove told a conference on terrorism.
The figure was responding to a KUNA question on the rampant use of terms like "Islamic terrorism" and "Muslim terrorists" by western politicians, officials, and the media.
"Words can be misleading. We can perhaps say 'Al-Qaeda terrorism' but not Islamic terrorism," he stressed.
On his part Jiri Sedivy, who chairs NATO's anti-terrorism task force, pointed out that the alliance does not use adjectives with terrorism.
Kerchove noted that there was no terror attack in the EU since the London bombings of 2005 due to the high vigilance and cooperation of security and intelligence services in Europe.
The conference titled "what future for the EU in counterterrorism?" was organized by the Brussels-based think tank European Policy Centre.(end) nk.wsa KUNA 171556 Sep 09NNNN