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Revision as of 23:32, 9 July 2007

This article is about the term "Islamofascism"; See the broader treatment of possible relations between religion and fascism in Clerical fascism and Neofascism and religion.

Islamofascism is a controversial neologism suggesting an association of the ideological or operational characteristics of certain modern Islamist movements with European fascist movements of the early 20th century, neofascist movements, or totalitarianism.

Critics of the term argue that associating the religion of Islam with fascism is an offensive and inaccurate political epithet. The word is included in the New Oxford American Dictionary, defining it as "a controversial term equating some modern Islamic movements with the European fascist movements of the early twentieth century".

Origins and usage

Comparisons were made between fascism with Islam as far back as 1937, when the German Catholic emigre Edgar Alexander compared National Socialism with "Mohammedanism", and again, in 1939, when psychologist Carl Jung said about Adolf Hitler, "he is like Mohammed. The emotion in Germany is Islamic, warlike and Islamic. They are all drunk with a wild god."

According to Roger Scruton of the Wall Street Journal, the term was introduced by the French Marxist Maxime Rodinson to describe the Iranian Revolution of 1978.

The origins of the term are unclear but appear to date back to an article which was published on September 8, 1990 in The Independent. In the article, "Construing Islam as a language," Malise Ruthven wrote:

Nevertheless there is what might be called a political problem affecting the Muslim world. In contrast to the heirs of some other non-Western traditions, including Hinduism, Shintoism and Buddhism, Islamic societies seem to have found it particularly hard to institutionalise divergences politically: authoritarian government, not to say Islamo-fascism, is the rule rather than the exception from Morocco to Pakistan.

On the other hand, Albert Scardino of the The Guardian attributes the term to an article by Muslim scholar Khalid Duran in the Washington Times, where he used it to describe the push by some Islamist clerics to "impose religious orthodoxy on the state and the citizenry".

The related term, Islamic fascism, was adopted by journalists including Stephen Schwartz and Christopher Hitchens, who intended it to refer to Islamist extremists, including terrorist groups such as al Qaeda, although he more often tends to use the phrases "theocratic fascism" or "fascism with an Islamic face" (a play on Susan Sontag's phrase "fascism with a human face", referring to the declaration of martial law in Poland in 1981).

Paul Berman believes there are similarities between historical fascism and Islamofacism:

inspiration from what is believed to be an earlier golden age (one or more of the first few Caliphates in the case of Islamism);
a desire to restore the perceived glory of this age with an all-encompassing (totalitarian) social, political, economic system, or Sharia;
belief that malicious, predatory alien forces are conspiring against and within the nation/community, and that violent revolution is necessary to defeat and expel these forces;
belief in the decadence and weakness of the malicious, predatory enemy forces (this applies to bin Laden and Qutb, though Khomeini does not seem to have mentioned it);
and offensive military, (or armed) campaign to reestablish the power and rightful international domination of the nation/community.

Some commentators see Islamofascism as a movement by Sunni Islamists who seek the violent creation of a new Caliphate and a return to Sharia law.

Examples of use in public discourse

The following are examples of use of the term:

"...Islamofascists are hard at work here as well, seeking to dominate their co-religionists as the prerequisite for forcing the rest of us to submit to a new, global Caliphate under an unforgiving religious law called Shari'a..."

"What we have to understand is ... this is not really a war against terrorism, this is not really a war against al Qaeda, this is a war against movements and ideologies that are jihadist, that are Islamofascists, that aim to destroy the Western world."

"Islamic terrorist attacks serve a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs and goals that are evil, but not insane. Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant Jihadism; still others, Islamo-fascism. Whatever it's called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam. This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision: the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom." — George W Bush

Other U.S. politicians who have used the term include Representative Katherine Harris, Rep. J. D. Hayworth, Rep. David Dreier, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Rep. Phil English, and Senator Kit Bond

Criticism

Some argue that grouping disparate ideologies into one single idea of "Islamofascism" may lead to an oversimplification of the causes of terrorism.

"The idea that there is some kind of autonomous "Islamofascism" that can be crushed, or that the west may defend itself against the terrorists who threaten it by cultivating that eagerness to kill militant Muslims which Christopher Hitchens urges upon us, is a dangerous delusion. The symptoms that have led some to apply the label of "Islamofascism" are not reasons to forget root causes. They are reasons for us to examine even more carefully what those root causes actually are." He adds "'Saddam, Arafat and the Saudis hate the Jews and want to see them destroyed' . . . or so says the right-wing writer Andrew Sullivan. And he has a point. Does the western left really grasp the extent of anti-Semitism in the Middle East? But does the right grasp the role of Europeans in creating such hatred?" — Richard Webster

The use of the term "Islamofascist" by proponents of the War on Terror has prompted some critics to argue that the term is a typical example of wartime propaganda.

"Islamofascism is nothing but an empty propaganda term. And wartime propaganda is usually, if not always, crafted to produce hysteria, the destruction of any sense of proportion. Such words, undefined and unmeasured, are used by people more interested in making us lose our heads than in keeping their own." —Joseph Sobran, syndicated columnist.

In the aftermath of the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot, George Bush described the fight against terrorists as a battle against "Islamic fascists... will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom". The Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote to him to complain, saying that the use of the term "feeds the perception that the war on terror is actually a war on Islam".

Security expert Daniel Benjamin of the Center for Strategic and International Studies claims the term was meaningless. "There is no sense in which jihadists embrace fascist ideology as it was developed by Mussolini or anyone else who was associated with the term," he said.

Journalist Eric Margolis agrees: "There is nothing in any part of the Muslim World that resembles the corporate fascist states of western history. In fact, clan and tribal-based traditional Islamic society, with its fragmented power structures, local loyalties, and consensus decision-making, is about as far as possible from western industrial state fascism. The Muslim World is replete with brutal dictatorships, feudal monarchies, and corrupt military-run states, but none of these regimes, however deplorable, fits the standard definition of fascism. Most, in fact, are America’s allies."

Jim Lobe remarked that "As noted by the Associated Press (AP) this week, "fascism" or "Islamic fascism", a phrase used by Bush himself two weeks ago and used to encompass everything from Sunni insurgents, al-Qaeda and Hamas to Shi'ite Hezbollah and Iran to secular Syria, has become the "new buzzword" for Republicans."

The head of the Islamic Society of North America, Ingrid Mattson, said that recasting the war on terrorism as "a war against Islamic fascism" by U.S. President George W. Bush and other Republicans was inaccurate and added to a misunderstanding of the religion. Mattson did acknowledge, however, that terrorist groups "do misuse and use Islamic concepts and terms to justify their violence."

References

"The Origins of Fascism: Islamic Fascism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism". 2006-10-26. Retrieved 2007-02-27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
"Religious Fundamentalism and Political Extremism". 2003-03-04. Retrieved 2007-02-27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Citing The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 10 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), p.281
Scruton, Roger (August 20, 2006). "'Islamofascism' - Beware of a religion without irony". OpinionJournal.com. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Scardino, Albert. "1-0 in the propaganda war". The Guardian. Retrieved 2006-04-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)
Schwartz, Stephen. "What Is 'Islamofascism'?". TCS Daily. Retrieved 2006-09-14.
Safire, W. (2006). "Islamofascism Anyone?" The New York Times, Language section. Retrieved November 25, 2006.
Berman, Paul (2003). Terror and Liberalism. W W Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-05775-5.
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. (July 12, 2005). "The Jewish State-icide". Jewish World Review. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
Steven Vincent (October 26, 2004). "Rootless, Grandiose and Islamofascist". FrontPageMagazine.com. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen (June 16, 2006). "The Truth about the Muslim Brotherhood". FrontPageMagazine.com. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. (August 30, 2005). "Don't go there, Mrs. Hughes". Jewish World Review. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
Clifford May (October 12, 2004). "News from CNN with Wolf Blitzer". CNN News Transcript. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
"President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy". Retrieved 2006-04-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)
"H. CON. RES. 437: Expressing the sense of Congress that United States officials who leak sensitive classified national security secrets should be vigorously investigated and, if need be, brought to justice". June 27, 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
"Congressional Record". Retrieved 2007-06-28.
"Congressional Record". Retrieved 2007-06-28.
"Congressional Record". Retrieved 2007-06-28.
,"Congressional Record". Retrieved 2007-06-28.
"Congressional Record". Retrieved 2007-06-28.
Richard Webster. "Israel, Palestine and the tiger of terrorism: anti-semitism and history". New Statesman. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
Sobran, Joe. "Words in Wartime". Retrieved 2006-04-18.
^ Richard Allen Greene (12 August 2006). "Bush's language angers US Muslims". Retrieved 2007-06-28.
Eric Margolis (August 2006). "The Big Lie About 'Islamic Fascism'". Retrieved 2007-06-28.
Jim Lobe (September 2, 2006). "Fascists? Look who's talking". Asia Times. Retrieved 2007-06-28.
"U.S. Muslim group's head says Bush's term 'Islamic fascism' adds to misunderstanding of Islam". The Associated Press. September 1, 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-28.

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