Fascism:
"A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism."
I had the extremely unpleasant occasion to have an exchange with the archetypal self hating useful idiot who busied himself explaining, in sanctimonious fashion, that Islam is nothing like fascism and if we just showed Muslims more respect terrorism and such would simply evaporate. However useless the statement, this self flagellator did get me thinking about how Islam is, precisely, like fascism.
I will add yet another definition of fascism, from my beloved Wikipedia:
Islam promotes violence amongst nations demanding that jihad be conducted to spread the Islamic state and Shariah, subordinating all people to this ideology, regardless of local beliefs or customs. Islam refers to polytheists as the worst of peoples and Jews as descendants of "apes and swine". Islam institutionalizes inter-religious hostility. In summary Islam versus anyone else. This is why Islamic scholars have divided the world into two competing factions, Dar al-Islam (The Realm of Islam) and Dar al-Harb (The Realm of War). An area is either Islamic, or it is subject to the hostilities of the mujahideen commanded by the Caliph.
Now there is a slight departure here, the social Darwinism certainly does not apply to the Islamic form of fascism, but the notional ideology here is the same, namely that there is an external force exerting pressure to separate those that are "worthy" of survival and those that aren't. The social Darwinists (and I object to this being inextricably linked to fascism, but this is another matter) would say that there are environmental pressures that would shape the destiny of humanity, yet the fascist state must intervene to expedite this process by the domination and even extermination of these inferior people. Islam accepts that this external force is god, and that the Muslim is called to strive in his path to implement his will, that his religion, Islam, be spread to every part of the globe, that the inferior faiths of Christianity and Judaism be "brought low" (to quote the Qur'an) and others be exterminated or brutally oppressed. In both instances the fascist state assigns itself the right to carry out the mandate of an external and invisible force, one which places them at the pinnacle of society, to carry out the destruction and oppression of the inferior peoples.
Finally I would say the warrior mentality is common to Islam as well. Muhammad said that fighting one day of jihad is better than months upon months spent in a mosque. Ibn Qayyiam al-Jawziyya wrote in his work Zaad al-Ma'ad (Provisions for the Hereafter) that "jihad is the pinnacle of the Islamic faith, and that the Messenger experienced it in all its aspects". The warrior, the martyr, is rewarded with virgins in the hereafter, he holds the highest place in heaven. Furthermore, Islam views this state of war between the Muslims and the Kuffar (Infidels) as the natural order of the world. This is why truces are non-existent in Islamic law, save that they can be used to cease hostilities long enough for the Muslims to rearm and gain enough strength to overcome those they wish to conquer.
As we return to our definition, I have made a few edits (bolded italics):
With a few simple edits we have Islam and fascism defined. The fascism model fits Islam so perfectly, is it any wonder that Churchill said that Mein Kampf was "the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message"?
"A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism."
I had the extremely unpleasant occasion to have an exchange with the archetypal self hating useful idiot who busied himself explaining, in sanctimonious fashion, that Islam is nothing like fascism and if we just showed Muslims more respect terrorism and such would simply evaporate. However useless the statement, this self flagellator did get me thinking about how Islam is, precisely, like fascism.
I will add yet another definition of fascism, from my beloved Wikipedia:
Fascism is a radical, authoritarian nationalist ideology that aims to create a single-party state with a government led by a dictator who seeks national unity and development by requiring individuals to subordinate self-interest to the collective interest of the nation or race. Fascist movements promote violence between nations, political factions, and races as part of a social Darwinist and militarist stance that views violence between these groups as a natural and positive part of evolution. In the view of these groups being in perpetual conflict, fascists believe only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and have an aggressive warrior mentality by conquering, dominating, and eventually eliminating people deemed weak and degenerate.If we take the above definition we can see that Islam is in fact a fascist enterprise. Namely that istseeks an authoritarian single party state. Islam demands the institution of Shariah, and that the leader of such a state would be the "shadow of god on earth", meaning that he would carry out the political and military aspects of the Islamic state (while the clerics would administer Islamic justice), meaning he would be amir al-mu'mineen (Commander of the Faithful), and would command the jihad conquest of non-Muslim areas. Shariah would be the exclusive law of the land and no new law could be enacted that contradicted any aspect of Shariah.
Islam promotes violence amongst nations demanding that jihad be conducted to spread the Islamic state and Shariah, subordinating all people to this ideology, regardless of local beliefs or customs. Islam refers to polytheists as the worst of peoples and Jews as descendants of "apes and swine". Islam institutionalizes inter-religious hostility. In summary Islam versus anyone else. This is why Islamic scholars have divided the world into two competing factions, Dar al-Islam (The Realm of Islam) and Dar al-Harb (The Realm of War). An area is either Islamic, or it is subject to the hostilities of the mujahideen commanded by the Caliph.
Now there is a slight departure here, the social Darwinism certainly does not apply to the Islamic form of fascism, but the notional ideology here is the same, namely that there is an external force exerting pressure to separate those that are "worthy" of survival and those that aren't. The social Darwinists (and I object to this being inextricably linked to fascism, but this is another matter) would say that there are environmental pressures that would shape the destiny of humanity, yet the fascist state must intervene to expedite this process by the domination and even extermination of these inferior people. Islam accepts that this external force is god, and that the Muslim is called to strive in his path to implement his will, that his religion, Islam, be spread to every part of the globe, that the inferior faiths of Christianity and Judaism be "brought low" (to quote the Qur'an) and others be exterminated or brutally oppressed. In both instances the fascist state assigns itself the right to carry out the mandate of an external and invisible force, one which places them at the pinnacle of society, to carry out the destruction and oppression of the inferior peoples.
Finally I would say the warrior mentality is common to Islam as well. Muhammad said that fighting one day of jihad is better than months upon months spent in a mosque. Ibn Qayyiam al-Jawziyya wrote in his work Zaad al-Ma'ad (Provisions for the Hereafter) that "jihad is the pinnacle of the Islamic faith, and that the Messenger experienced it in all its aspects". The warrior, the martyr, is rewarded with virgins in the hereafter, he holds the highest place in heaven. Furthermore, Islam views this state of war between the Muslims and the Kuffar (Infidels) as the natural order of the world. This is why truces are non-existent in Islamic law, save that they can be used to cease hostilities long enough for the Muslims to rearm and gain enough strength to overcome those they wish to conquer.
As we return to our definition, I have made a few edits (bolded italics):
Islamic Fascism is a radical, authoritarian religio-nationalist ideology that aims to create a single-party religious state with a government led by a Caliph who seeks national unity and development by requiring individuals to subordinate self-interest to the collective interest of the Islamic state. Islamic Fascist movements promote violence between nations and religions as part of a theologically militarist stance that views violence between these groups as a natural and positive part of divine order. In the view of these groups being in perpetual conflict, Islamic fascists believe only the divinely chosen can survive by being healthy, vital, and have an aggressive jihad mentality by conquering, dominating, and eventually eliminating people deemed religiously inferior and degenerate.
With a few simple edits we have Islam and fascism defined. The fascism model fits Islam so perfectly, is it any wonder that Churchill said that Mein Kampf was "the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message"?
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5 comments:
Excellent article. Taking the definition and showing how it applies point-by-point makes the conclusion inescapable. But most people I know who would read this wouldn't believe it, because they know next to nothing about Islam and they'll assume you're making it all up, and because they don't want to believe this they won't Google for more information.
Very nice. I agree completely. Your point here is inarguable. This is why the idea of setting up a democratic government in an Islamic country makes no sense and will never really work. Now, go make an "Islamic fascism" Wiki page with just that one paragraph and see how long it lasts.
The mistake made when including social Darwinism as part of fascism is that in doing so one conflates particulars of certain kinds of 20th century fascism with the base ideology.
Anonymous,
Good point. I could go through the manuals of Islamic law, the Qur'an, and the Hadith to point this out to people but it would get long and boring for the layman.
I made none of it up, unfortunately. These things are all found in manuals of Shariah and in statements by Islamic clerics.
What would you suggest I do to make people "get it"?
Islam (when not diluted until it no longer is Islam) is certainly and inescapably fascist. This fact is only denied because fascism has aquired negative connatations which actually aren't indispensible to its definiton, and the word is denied even though the definition matches exactly; a contrary example of this being that brutal dictatorships generally call themselves 'People's Democratic Republic of Mbongo'.
So much for words... 'Tibet Autonomous Region' is one of my favourites..
I didn't say there was an easy solution. ;-)
But perhaps the general impression could be changed a lot by for example adding links to pages discussing the relevant bits of the Quran and Hadith. Of course people might not read all the links thoroughly but if they read the ones they're interested in most and they think they check out, links could give an article a nicely sourced feel.
Another thing that might be useful is links to material about how it plays out in practice, newspaper articles perhaps, or relevant speeches of Islamic scholars if any have been stupid enough to get caught on video.
But as you say, you'll probably want to avoid the sea of words effect, so I think links would work better, perhaps with something along the lines of ‘I can back up my claims - see the links for more information’?
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