I’m sorry for this, Juan Cole.
Few have more important commentary on the Middle East, but I must insert this little knife into your back.
Crooks and Liars quotes Juan Cole refuting the description of Islamic fundamentalists as fascists:
Fascism involves extreme nationalism and most often racism. Muslim fundamentalist movements reject the nation-state as their primary loyalty and reject race as a basis for political action or social discrimination.
Mmmm, no. I’m sorry, but Muslim fundamentalist movements (cousins to our Christian fundamentalists) are stunningly racist. I mean, they’re just plain tribalistic to the core, and they’re entirely undiscriminatory about what factors delineate those tribes. They hate rather evenly all outside themselves. If you’re the wrong race, the wrong religion, the wrong orientation, the wrong sex, or from the wrong side of town you’re an “other” to them. They’ll make adjustments and band together occasionally for things like, for example, fighting occupying powers, but the contempt never dies.
I think it’s enough to understand that Muslim fundamentalists are about authoritarian structures, ones that are inherently anti-freedom and anti-democratic. It’s a no-brainer to conclude that America must never choose to become one, and as long as such a question is beyond the pale, America, The Idea, is completely safe.
Rightwingers started “Islamo-fascism awareness week” as a PR maneuver to try creating the idea that only raving racist goons like David Horowitz were really “serious” about the threat from the Middle East. “Liberals are sipping their lattes unaware that Sahid is coming to cut their throats!”
Yes, these are the people who have been wrong about everything in the Middle East for the past decade. Yes, you’re supposed to swallow that sausage whole on camera and post the video on the Internet.
I can argue nomenclature with Juan Cole, but we’d agree largely on the qualities of the beast and how to react to it. Listening to rightwingers, you’d think they were some war-porn fanzine club rather than human beings capably reacting to a threat.
-jb
October 24th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Jeromy. I agree with you on most things, and most of your eloquently written posts. I however, will be nitpicky on one issue.
“Mmmm, no. I’m sorry, but Muslim fundamentalist movements (cousins to our Christian fundamentalists) are stunningly racist. I mean, they’re just plain tribalistic to the core, and they’re entirely undiscriminatory about what factors delineate those tribes. They hate rather evenly all outside themselves. If you’re the wrong race, the wrong religion, the wrong orientation, the wrong sex, or from the wrong side of town you’re an “other†to them. They’ll make adjustments and band together occasionally for things like, for example, fighting occupying powers, but the contempt never dies.”
I for one, hate all fundamentalists. Be they Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jew, or any other.
However, Muslim fundamentalists aren’t racist as you describe them.
They don’t care about race. One thing that the Islamic fundamentalists follow that is true to the religion, is that they are color and race blind. If you follow their ideology and beliefs, they love you no matter what race/color/nationality you are.
It’s not like the Aryan nation, or Nation of Islam.
The former only accepting whites, and the latter only accepting those of African origin.
So, no, they are not racists.
But they ARE prejudiced and they are bigots.
They hate gays, and they hate every other religion, except Islam.
The major thing they hate is western culture. Even in their own countries they hate their pre-Islamic culture and history and destroy all remnants and traces of them.
Everything else you said is pretty much on the money.
-aa
October 24th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
That may be what they profess, but every bigot loves an Uncle Tom. They might accept a Jew if he’ll praise Allah and offer to strap on a bomb for them, but that doesn’t mean that their overall reaction to and treatment of Jews, the tension between Arab and Persian, Turkish and Kurd (although I sympathize more with Kurds), etc. are devoid of race. Any race can become a devout Muslim, yes, but conflicts between devout Muslims are ubiquitous and frivolous.
I think they’re just pure tribalists, and in practice they’ll gladly divide tribal lines by race.
And of course, I’m merely talking about the fanatic fundamentalists. I was thoroughly taken aback by the true colorblindness I experienced that one Thanksgiving with your in-laws. I’m by no means ignorant of that reality.