Mr. Durrani (Free For All, November 23), who complained about the phrase "Islamist barbarians," confused the term Islamic—followers of Islam—with Islamist—those who promote violent jihad in pursuit of a world caliphate. While Islamic barbarian (or Zionist barbarian) would qualify as hate speech, Islamists are, almost by definition, barbarians.

   Rather than denying the problem—that there are people who commit violence and claim their actions are justified by the Koran—by calling the naming of it hate speech, Mr. Durrani would do better to emphasize the distinction between Islamics and Islamists, and work within the Muslim mainstream to deny the Koranic legitimacy of the latter.

RICHARD N. FREEDMAN
Germantown