.
.
N.B. Many Muslims who have immigrated to Western nations have fled Islamist violence and its accompanying socio-economic dysfunction. Wanting only a better life, they continue to suffer the side effects of their host populations' understandable distrust of those associated with socially-dysfunctional, violent Islamist youth.
. Originally used by North Korea since the
.
, the phrase is [DIS]translated into English as the less crude "Down with America." The
has come to be employed by various anti-American groups and protesters worldwide.
Islamism (also often called
political Islam) is a
religio-political ideology. The advocates of Islamism, also known as "al-Islamiyyun", are dedicated to realizing their ideological interpretation of
Islam within the context of the state or society. The majority of them are affiliated with Islamic institutions or social mobilization movements, often designated as "al-harakat al-Islamiyyah." Islamists emphasize the implementation of
sharia,
pan-Islamic political unity, the creation of
Islamic states, (eventually unified), and rejection of
non-Muslim influences—particularly Western or
universal economic, military, political, social, or cultural.
In its original formulation, Islamism described an ideology seeking to revive Islam to its 'past assertiveness and glory, purifying it of foreign elements, reasserting its role' into "social and political as well as personal life"; and in particular "reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam" (i.e. Sharia). According to at least one observer (author
Robin Wright), Islamist movements have "arguably altered the Middle East more than any trend since the modern states gained independence", redefining "politics and even borders".
...Supporters of
Hezbollah, the
Shi'a Islamic [Islamist] militant group based in
Lebanon that is closely aligned to Iran, regularly chant "Death to America" in street demonstrations. A week before the March 20, 2003
U.S. invasion of Iraq, Hezbollah Secretary General
Hassan Nasrallah declared, "In the past, when the
Marines were in Beirut, we screamed, 'Death to America!' Today, when the region is being filled with hundreds of thousands of American soldiers,
'Death to America!' was, is and will stay our slogan."
The slogan of the
Houthis, a
Shi'a rebel group in
Yemen also supported by Iran, is
"God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, A curse upon the Jews, Victory to Islam."
Iranian officials generally
explain claim that the [
"Death to America"] slogan in its historical context has been provoked by the U.S. government's hostile policies towards Iran and expresses outrage at those policies, and [
LIE that it] does not wish for literal death for American people themselves. In a speech to university students, Iran's
Supreme Leader,
Khamenei, interpreted the slogan as "death to the U.S.'s policies, death to
arrogance." Following a meeting with Army and Air Force commanders, Khamenei
declared prevaricated that the Iranian people are not against American people, but that "Death to America" means down with American leaders, [at the time,
DUH (UNpresident)],
John Bolton (
National Security Advisor), and
Mike Pompeo (
Secretary of State).
