Activist-Actor Tim Robbins addressed the protesters of the War on Iraq in New York's Central Park a few weeks ago. The text of his comments, directed against fundamentalism, both here and abroad, are online over at the Nation.

One paragraph stood out to us in particlar:

"I do not like fundamentalism of any kind. Any movement that connects violence with God loses me, whether it's the murder of a doctor at an abortion clinic or the murder of busboys, firemen or businessmen in the World Trade Center. Radical fundamentalism at its core hates all the things I love: art, free expression, music, independent women, theater, good movies. We must be very wise in the way we frame our argument and how we proceed as we resist this new war."

Robbins goes on to discuss fundamentalism in our government and his belief that the war on Iraq is about business and oil, and about "distracting American attention from Enron and Halliburton, the financial scandals that directly connect this Administration to the heart of what is now wrong with the American economy."

We thought he was going somewhere else after the quoted paragraph. And since he didn't really go there, we will. We keep hearing people discuss the "religious right" and the "Christian right." There is nothing religious or holy or even Christian about these groups' political beliefs. By using these terms to refer to them, we endow them with a legitimacy to which they are not entitled. We would like to prevent them from connecting their radical political beliefs to religion.

Several years ago, we joined with other liberal groups in requesting people to stop referring to ultra-right wing fundamentalists as the Christian Right or Religious Right, and begin calling them what what they really are: "The Radical Right."

"Radical" does not convey a positive image to most Americans. Be it right or left, radicals are considered extremists and dangerous. Which is how we view, and want the public to view, right wing fundamentalists in this country.

Robbins is right that we have to be careful how we frame the argument. Since there is nothing religious about the "Christian Right," we hope to lessen their legitimacy in the eyes of the public by ceasing to use positive religious terms to describe or refer to them.

As to the fundamentalists who call themselves Islamic, we suggest we refrain from describing them as "Muslim" or "Islamic" and simply call them what they are, "radical fundamentalists."

Don't forget to go read Tim Robbins.