Misplaced Pages

Islamofascism

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Francis Schonken (talk | contribs) at 07:12, 2 September 2006 (rv, merger is still an option). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 07:12, 2 September 2006 by Francis Schonken (talk | contribs) (rv, merger is still an option)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
It has been suggested that this article be merged into Islamic fascism. (Discuss)
This article is about the term "Islamofascism"; Compare Islamic fascism, and the broader treatment of possible relations between religion and fascism in Clerical fascism and Neofascism and religion.

Islamofascism is a neologism and political epithet used to induce 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. Organizations that have been labeled "Islamofascist" include Al-Qaeda, the current Iranian government, the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and Hezbollah. None label themselves fascist, however, and critics of the term argue that associating the religion of Islam with fascism is both offensive and historically inaccurate.

Application

Some commentators see Islamofascism as a movement defined by Islamists who seek both a return to Sharia law and the violent restoration of a new Caliphate spanning the former Islamic empire, from Spain to Central Asia. .

Other writers have used "Islamofascism" to refer strictly to Islamic movements whose doctrines reflect the influence of propaganda promoted by the Nazis, especially the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion . Yet others have applied it to all highly politicized strains of Islam, including Shi'a radicalism as practised in Iran .

While several modern political and militant organizations describe themselves as "Islamist", none refer to themselves as "fascist." Some view the term as an historically inaccurate metaphor. The term is generally not used to describe historic fascist organizations that had Muslim members. A few scholars have cautiously used the term fascism to discuss certain forms of militant Islamic fundamentalism. (See: Neofascism and religion.)

The more widely used term for politicized strains of Islam that seek to place governments in Muslim countries under the guidance of Sharia law is Islamist or for violent groups, militant Islamism.

Origins and usage

The origins of the term are unclear, but appear to date back to an article, "Construing Islam as a language", by Malise Ruthven that appeared on September 8, 1990 in The Independent, where he 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.

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".

Radio talk show host Michael Savage has used the term "Islamofascism" frequently on his program () and in his books (Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder: Savage Solutions, Chapter 2—Unmasking Islamofascism, ISBN 1-5955-5006-2). The context suggests the invocation of Islam to justify fascist-like activities.

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..." Frank Gaffney, Jewish World Review .
  • "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." Clifford May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
  • "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, President of the United States speaking before the National Endowment for Democracy, October 6 2005
  • "Far too many people on the Left are inclined to make excuses for Islamic fundamentalism. They accept its misogyny so long as it doesn’t target Western women. They accept its fascism so long as it is anti-American fascism. We now have a Stop the War coalition led by Islamic fascists and Marxist-Leninists, and much of the Left is silent about it. Acknowledging the horrors of Islamic fundamentalism would sully their consciences, which they want to keep clean for the battle against America ... Much of the Stop the War coalition now actually supports a fascist resistance movement and ignores their Iraqi comrades entirely. You have to look back to the Hitler-Stalin pact for a historical parallel. The concept of fascism is being lost. It’s something you hear about on the history channels. But Islamic fascism is still fascism ... Islamofascism has been ripping through the Arab world, often supported by America, and it should be the Left’s worst nightmare. It’s everything the Left has resisted since the French revolution. To equivocate in the face of it would be an absolute abdication of intellectual responsibility ... " — Nick Cohen, The Observer.

Other U.S. politicians who have used the term include congresswoman Katherine Harris (R-FL), , congressman J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), Rep. David Dreier (R-CA), , Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (R-FL) , Rep. Phil English (R-PA), and Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO).

Criticism of the use of the term

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 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, author of A Brief History of Blasphemy: liberalism, censorship and 'The Satanic Verses' writing in the New Statesman .

According to New York University professor Chris Matthew Sciabarra, writing about the influence of Sayyid Qutb, "(w)hatever totalitarian echoes one sees in the Qutbian vision, there are distinctions that disqualify the usage of the word "Islamofascism" to describe it, or to describe Islamic fundamentalism in general." See Neofascism and religion.

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 August 2006 in the aftermath of the arrest in Britain of people suspected of plotting to bomb planes travelling to the US, George Bush described the fight against terrosists 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.

See also

References

  1. "Mortal threat". The Washington Times. 2006-01-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Sobran, Joe. "Words in Wartime". Retrieved 2006-04-18.
  3. Scardino, Albert. "1-0 in the propaganda war". The Guardian. Retrieved 2006-04-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)
  4. "President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy". Retrieved 2006-04-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)

External links

Categories: