No?
Islamofacism
The term
Islamofascism is a
neologism based on
clerical fascism which draws an
analogy between the ideological characteristics of specific
Islamist movements and a broad range of
European fascist movements of the early 20th century,
neofascist movements, or
totalitarianism.
analogy between Islamism and Fascism
Proponents of the term argue that there are similarities between historical
fascism and Islam.
“ The most obvious points of comparison would be these: Both movements are based on a cult of murderous violence that exalts death and destruction and despises the life of the mind. ("Death to the intellect! Long live death!" as Gen.
Francisco Franco's sidekick
Millán Astray so pithily phrased it.) Both are hostile to modernity (except when it comes to the pursuit of weapons), and both are bitterly nostalgic for past empires and lost glories. Both are obsessed with real and imagined "humiliations" and thirsty for revenge. Both are chronically infected with the toxin of anti-Jewish paranoia (interestingly, also, with its milder cousin, anti-Freemason paranoia). Both are inclined to leader worship and to the exclusive stress on the power of one great book. Both have a strong commitment to
sexual repression—especially to the repression of any sexual "deviance"—and to its counterparts the subordination of the female and contempt for the feminine. Both despise art and literature as symptoms of degeneracy and decadence; both burn books and destroy museums and treasures.”
American author and
Richard Nixon speechwriter
William Safire wrote that the term fulfills a need for a term to distinguish traditional Islam from terrorists: "Islamofascism may have legs: the compound defines those terrorists who profess a religious mission while embracing totalitarian methods and helps separate them from devout Muslims who want no part of terrorist means."Christopher Hitchens also publicly defended the term in
Slate, noting along with the fact that he finds the comparison apt, that the names for other forms of religious fascism, like
clerical fascism have a less contested existence.
Author
Malise Ruthven, a
Scottish writer and historian who focuses his work on religion and Islamic affairs, opposes redefining Islamism as `Islamofascism`, but also finds the resemblances between the two ideologies "compelling".
Michael Howard has defended the use of the term drawing parallels between
Wahhabism and European Fascist ideology.
In an April 2010 article in
The New Republic, historian
Jeffrey Herf outlined the ideological linkage of Islamism with
World War II Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda which was broadcast to Muslims throughout the Middle East:
The alliance between the Nazis and the Arab and Islamist collaborators in wartime Berlin was not simply one of convenience based on the principle that
the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Rather, collaboration rested just as much on shared values, namely rejection of liberal democracy and, above all, hatred of the Jews and of Zionist aspirations. Though the meeting of hearts and minds in wartime Berlin was relatively short, it was an important chapter in the much longer history of political Islamism.