There is an interesting thread mentioned on Instapundit. I find this post from The Belmont Club most prompts me to post it.

I always found it entertaining that no one would say Voldermort's name in the Harry Potter series - no one but Harry and Dumbledore that is. There is this spirit of conjuring that comes from stating the true name of the enemy.

We're not fighting a war on terror. We're fighting Wahabiist Islam. We're doing everything we can to end the religious sect and its peripheral follower's attempt to re-establish a reactionary Sunni Islamic Caliphate.

I'm still bemused that naming its name upsets so many apple carts - economically, socially, and politically.

We were attacked by a religious group for old fashioned religious reasons - think Holy Roman Empire type reasons. We've declared war on a religion and its new for at least this chapter of American History. Also, let me stop short an opposition argument. We're smarter than to say we're after Islam. It be like arguing we were after all middle European Christians when we were really after the National Socialists.

Update: Interestingly, the 9/11 commission didn't shy away from naming the problem accurately.