Islamofascism

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.

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". Critics of the term argue that associating the religion of Islam with fascism is offensive and inaccurate.

Origins and usage

Comparisons were made between fascism and Islam, as far back as 1937, when the German Catholic emigré 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 historian Maxime Rodinson to describe the Iranian Revolution of 1978. Scruton claims that Rodinson "was a Marxist, who described as 'fascist' any movement of which he disapproved", but credits him with inventing a "convenient way of announcing that you are not against Islam but only against its perversion by the terrorists." .

In 1990 Malise Ruthven wrote, in The Independent:

"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."

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).

Some commentators including Paul Berman believe there are similarities between historical fascism and Islamofacism:

• rage against historical humiliation;
• 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 -- or "a fanatical determination to get on top of history after being underfoot for so many generations" -- with an all-encompassing (totalitarian) social, political, economic system;
• belief that malicious, predatory alien forces (Jews in the case of Nazi Fascists or Islamofascists) 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;
• offensive military, (or armed) campaign to reestablish the power and rightful international domination of the nation/community.

Examples of use in public discourse

The following are examples of use of the term:

• "In the wake of July's London transport bombings by home-grown British Islamists, the dangers of mistaking one type of Muslim community for another have become obvious. Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has gone from ignoring Islamofascists in its midst — if not actually accommodating their efforts to proselytize and recruit in Britain — to cracking down forcefully on their activities and presence in the United Kingdom." - Frank J. Gaffrey

• "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." - Cliff May

• "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

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 critics such as Joseph Sobran and Richard Allan Greene 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."

See also

• Eurabia
• Islamism
• Islamic fundamentalism
• Neo-fascism and religion
• Islamist terrorism
• Islamophobia
• Clerical fascism
• Haghani Circle

• Islamic State
• Theocracy
• Fascism
• Neofascism
• Fascist (epithet)
• Dave Emory
• Talibanization
• Al-Qaedaism

External links

• Walter Laqueur. The Origins of Fascism: Islamic Fascism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Oxford University Press blog.

Further reading

• Burleigh, Michael. "Islamofascists: a dangerous label", The Sunday Times, October 1, 2006.
• Ignatius, David. "Toward a Definition of 'Islamic Fascism'", Daily Star (Lebanon), August 19 2006
• Marty, Martin. "Irony and Islamofascism", Christian Post, August 21 2006.
• Nunberg, Geoffrey. '"Islamo-Creeps' Would Be More Accurate", L.A. Times, August 17, 2006
• Nyquist, J.R. "Islam and Fascism".
• Pollitt, Katha. "Wrong War, Wrong Word", The Nation, August 24, 2006.
• Scardino, Albert. "1-0 in the propaganda war", The Guardian, February 4 2005.
• Andrew Sullivan 'Interview' (satire) from INDC Journal