Counter-terrorism advisers and Muslim community leaders have raised serious concerns about Prime Minister Tony Abbott's obsessive use of the phrase "death cult" to describe Islamic State, saying it is counter-productive, ineffective and does some of the terror group's marketing for them.
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Of all the existential threats to the Australian way of life, none seem to have captured the Prime Minister's attention like the "death cult", otherwise known as Islamic State, ISIL or ISIS.
An analysis by Fairfax Media of all press releases, transcripts, speeches, interviews and YouTube videos uploaded by the Prime Minister's Office as well as Hansard reveals that Tony Abbott has used the term "death cult" 346 times since September.
In contrast, domestic violence rated a mention just 43 times in the same period.
Ebola was worth 63 mentions, ice was worth 53. Mr Abbott said the dreaded phrase "liberal spill" just seven times.
Illustration: Simon Letch.
However, experts say the incessant use of "death cult" is a misfire by the Prime Minister that may have dangerous ramifications.
"Osama Bin Laden used to say, 'you love life, we love death'. Dying a martyr is their badge of honour, it's a huge push factor for young Australians and the Prime Minister is putting that front and centre," said Dr Anne Aly, from Curtin University, who had advised governments on counter-terrorism policy.
"I don't know who he's talking to when he says death cult because the people who are thinking about going over there are laughing and walking away."
Mr Abbott first coined the phrase on September 1 when announcing that Australia would enter Iraq.
It wasn't a nod to a heavy metal band or '80s horror movie but an attempt to delegitimise the Islamic caliphate that the terror group aspires to create.
"I refuse to call this hideous movement an 'Islamic state' because it is not a state; it is a death cult," he told parliament.
Illustration: Simon Letch.
Mr Abbott has since mentioned "death cult" in 103 of the 516 press releases, transcripts, speeches and videos released by his office.
He managed to weave it into 36 interviews and speeches that had nothing to do with national security, from press conferences with NSW Premier Mike Baird on WestConnex to doorstops in Boronia about pharmaceuticals.
His record is 17 times in one press conference – a March 3 briefing on military operations in Iraq – and he has answered 20 questions without notice on "death cult" since September, compared to just one on ice, one on domestic violence and three on ebola.
No other world leader has followed suit. US President Barack Obama, like most others, also argues that the group is neither Islamic nor a legitimate state but prefers to stay neutral with ISIL or ISIS, acronyms for the earlier incarnation, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
At least 22 other Coalition MPs have followed their leader and mentioned "death cult" in parliament using adventurous variations like murderous death cult, bloodthirsty death cult and even apocalyptic death cult.
Illustration: Simon Letch.
"The term has two effects," said Kuranda Seyit, a Muslim youth worker and secretary of the Islamic Council of Victoria.
"For mainstream Australians it creates a perception that these people are violent psychopaths. For the more impressionable sympathetic ear, say a young man angry with the world, the term has little meaning. Death cult is an out-dated term [without] the same connotations it had in the '80s or '90s."
Professor Michele Grossman, a cultural diversity researcher from Victoria University, said it was dangerous to use a term that only reflected one small part of the reality of Islamic State.
Illustration: Simon Letch.
"It's too easy to overlook the elements of the IS narrative that focus on building a new world and a new order, promising action, power and engagement," she said. "This holds enormous potential appeal, especially for the young."
A spokesman for Mr Abbott said on Monday that he makes no apologies – "because that's what it is: a cult that rejoices in death".
