Islamist has a definite usage that means political Islam. The better word might be Islamofascist, but that was deemed to be too hurtful, for whatever reason.
Islamist is a neutral term that the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood used for himself.It is not derogatory in any way, not inflammatory and avoids any reference to fundamentalist Islam, which would include many traditional Islamic practices.
Islamist is not my own coinage, but is common usage to describe political Islam which seeks to set up an Islamic state with a caliphate in a return to some golden past with Islamic sharia law.
And no, that return to the golden past is not Moorish Spain. Ask any Egyptian Copt how pluralistic and tolerant life was under Muslimb Brotherhood rule.
The term is much larger than what would be included by the terms 'terrorist' or 'radical', but serves to explain how groups like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood can get elected among a population that is neither especially radical nor inclined to terrorism in the numbers that it would take to deliver an election.
Before ISIS began crucifying Christians, Hamas made a law that executed Christian criminals would be crucified.
If by help what is being asked for is a prayer campaign, none of this matters. Private prayer hardly needs a discussion thread to carry it through.
But if help is to include something other than prayer, it is first necessary to define who the enemy is, and thereby who it is not.
In this case, for example, Kurds(Muslims) are definitely not Islamist, definitely not the enemy, and someone that could use western support very much.
