Lagniappe

 

 

 

Daniel Mandel: Islamo Fascism revisited

In September 2006, I contributed my two cents to the debate surrounding what proved to be President George W. Bush’s short-lived inclination to describe Islamist terrorists as ‘Islamic fascists' and the ideology that guides them as ‘Islamo-fascism.’ I argued that, for all its obvious shortcomings, the term ‘Islamofascism’ has merit, as Islamism does indeed bear comparison to fascist and communist totalitarianism, since all three can be said to be similar … in their pursuit of a utopian re-ordering of the world; a willingness to use unbridled violence and terror to bring it about; and in anchoring justification for the consequent barbarism in immutable, iron laws. Consequently, all three have claimed to know where history is, or should be, headed and decreed the complete obliteration of all opponents – whether whole classes, peoples or states – as the necessary and beneficent prelude to an epoch of orderliness and justice.”

The term itself is not new. It was helpfully evolved by a Marxist, Maxime Rodinson, at the time of Ayatollah Khomeini’s take-over of Iran, intending to disabuse his fellow Marxists of their predilection for a new anti-Western tyrant. With much the same purpose of rallying the leftist conscience as to the nature of the fight, left-wing figures like Christopher Hitchens and Paul Berman have deployed the term today. Martin Kramer has analysed its use over the decades and concluded that it “has ample and even distinguished academic precedents.”

Accordingly, Bush was on to something when he first referred to ‘Islamo-fascism’ in October 2005 and when he referred to ‘Islamic fascists’ as late as August 2006.

However, in September 2006, Condoleezza Rice and Karen Hughes urged Bush to drop the ‘Islamo-fascism’ term; indirectly, so did Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who damned it as form of Islamophobia. It thereafter disappeared from Bush’s vocabulary, even as he has retained the general idea (for example, in a June 2007 speech, he pointed to parallels between the murderous ideologies of Islamist terrorists and communists).

Hitchens has now renewed the case for its use, while noting its limitations. Its usefulness, as Roger Scruton argued last year, is “that enables people on the left to denounce our common enemy.” Given the importance of possessing the broadest possible front in dealing with this latest totalitarian challenge, further thought should be given to its merits and application.

 

Daniel Mandel is associate director of the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia, director of the Zionist Organization of America's Center for Middle East Policy, a fellow in history at Melbourne University and author of H.V. Evatt and the Establishment of Israel: The Undercover Zionist (London: Routledge, 2004). Petroleumworld not necessarily share these views.

Editor's Note: This commentary was originally published in History News Network, on October 23, 2007. Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers.

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Petroleumworld News 10/25/07

Copyright© 2007 Daniel Mandel. All rights reserved.

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