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Islamofascism

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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.

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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. Organizations that have been labeled "Islamofascist" include Al-Qaeda (and its supporters such as the Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat, JI in Indonesia, etc.), the current Iranian government, the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and Hezbollah. Critics of the term argue that associating the religion of Islam with fascism is an offensive and inaccurate political epithet. The word is recognized by 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".

Application

Some commentators see Islamofascism as a movement defined by Islamists who seek both a return to Sharia law and the violent creation of a new Caliphate spanning the former Islamic empire, from Spain to Central Asia. . A few scholars have cautiously used the term fascism to discuss certain forms of militant Islamic fundamentalism, or militant Islam. (See Neofascism and religion.)

The term is not generally used to describe historic fascist organizations that had Muslim members.

Origins and usage

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".

Michael Savage, host of the U.S. nationally syndicated radio show, the Savage Nation, has repeatedly maintained on his radio show that he had coined the term "islamofascism."

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).

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. 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.
  • "We're at war with Islamic fascism...These people are after us not because we've oppressed them, not because of the state of Israel...It's because we stand for everything they hate." — Rick Santorum.

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 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, 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 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."

United Press International columnist, Jim Lobe, writing for the Asia Times 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."

See also

References

  1. "Mortal threat". The Washington Times. 2006-01-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. 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)
  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. Schwartz, Stephen. "What Is 'Islamofascism'?". TCS Daily. Retrieved 2006-09-14.
  5. Safire, W. (2006). "Islamofascism Anyone?" The New York Times, Language section. Retrieved November 25, 2006.
  6. "President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy". Retrieved 2006-04-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)
  7. Sobran, Joe. "Words in Wartime". Retrieved 2006-04-18.
  8. BBC News
  9. The Big Lie About 'Islamic Fascism'
  10. Fascists? Look who's talking
  11. Ingrid Mattson: 43rd Annual Convention of the Islamic Society of North America

External Links

Further reading

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