A Thursday segment on CNN NewsNight turned into a pointed argument over terminology after host Abby Phillip repeatedly characterized Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) use of the word “Islamism” as an attack on Islam itself.
The exchange followed a clip of Cruz saying, “And on 9/11, could anyone have imagined that comrade Mamdani would be the mayor of New York? The hate that killed Charlie Kirk, that knocked down the Twin Towers, that led to two assassination attempts on President Trump, it just keeps getting worse and worse. And we are witnessing a new and dangerous red-green alliance, Communists and Islamists coming together and sweeping over the Democrat Party. They are united because they share the same enemies. They hate Christians, they hate Jews, they hate capitalism, they hate the Constitution, and they hate America.”
Phillip responded by asking, “So, there’s commentary, obviously, about socialism, Communism, we’ve been talking about that. But the real theme there was Islam as the enemy. Why, why, why is an entire religion an enemy?”
National Review senior writer Noah Rothman pushed back, saying Cruz was referring specifically to figures like New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed. “He’s giving as good as he got. He’s talking about Mamdani, as well as El-Sayed, but mostly Mamdani. And he’s talking about Mamdani because Mamdani does things like campaign with Hasan Piker,” Rothman said.
Phillip pressed further: “Why is the religion in and of itself being described as the enemy of the United States?” Rothman replied, “You’re putting words in his mouth there. … What he’s describing is the Islamism that Mamdani and El-Sayed are both very comfortable with.”
Phillip then asked, “What is Islamism, other than a religion?” and later said, “I’m asking why Ted Cruz and you seem to want to make an entire religion anti-American.”
“You’re putting words in my mouth, and I can’t say it enough, the people who support radical Islamist violence are the people he’s talking about,” Rothman said.
Phillip countered, “He didn’t say radical Islamist violence, he said Islamism. That’s what he said. What does that mean?”
Rothman and former RNC national spokesperson Elizabeth Pipko both noted that Phillip appeared to be conceding, by her own framing, that Cruz had not actually said the word “Islam.” Phillip then asked, “So, you’re saying radical Islamic terrorism and Islamism are the same thing?” When Rothman said the two terms are not the same, Phillip replied, “That is a ridiculous argument, Noah.” Rothman said he was surprised she had not encountered that distinction made before.
Later in the segment, Phillip asked, “Why does he keep using the term ‘Islam’ as a slur?” Rothman again said Cruz had not done that.
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“Abby Phillip repeatedly characterized Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) use of the word “Islamism” as an attack on Islam itself.” If it was not, it SHUDDA BEEN!
Point of fact, America’s constitution should not be read as some ‘suicide pact.’ That First Amendment’s ‘FREEDOM of religion’ should not be an open invitation for some ‘faux’ religion, as is Islam, to enter the country and carry out its Theocratic ideology of ‘Death to Israel, the little Satan, and death to America, the great Satan!’ Any “Muslims,” radical or “Peaceful,” that practice that (non)religion Islam, should be removed from the country to any of those 7th Century bastions of idiocy they would have America become!
There are over 2 BILLION Muslims in the world, and NONE of them know how or why their ‘faux’ religion Islam came to be. They worship a “false prophet” that the Bible warns of in Matthew 7:15
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
Call me an Islamaphobe for I believe: “Islam is a caustic blend of paganism and twisted Bible stories. Muhammad, its lone “prophet”, who made no prophecies, conceived his religion to satiate his lust for power, sex, and money. He was a terrorist.” BIBLE PROBE As Ripley would say, “BELIEVE IT OR NOT.”
Islamism is not just a term used by the West. It was used by Muslims to describe the belief that political leaders in nations ruled by Muslims should be religious leaders. There has been some disagreement among Muslims about the roles of religious and political leadership in response to the West surpassing the Ummah in modernity. One path is modernizing by copying western industrialization and government. Another is more strict religious control of all sources of power and militant revisionism of the international order. Many in the West arguing over terminology are enemies of confronting the issue or defending their social orders.