[Feingold] called on President Bush to stop using the term “Islamic fascism,” saying it harmed the war on terrorism. “We must avoid using misleading and offensive terms that link Islam to those who subvert this great religion or who distort its teachings to justify terrorist activity,” Feingold, who is Jewish and bidding for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, said Tuesday to applause from an Arab-American Institute delegation.If Russ Feingold had been at the Hudson Institute Conference on the UN this past Monday, he would have heard Bernard Lewis explain that militarized dictatorships characteristic of Arab nations post-WWI are not native to Arab culture, but an import from the West, specifically from the totalitarian regimes of the 1930s. The Axis nations and the Soviet empire exerted an influence in the region that is still underestimated. There's a reason it's called "Islamofascism."
(Lewis speech here. The part about the Axis influence on the Arab world is near the end, but the whole talk is well worth listening to.)
Or he could read this article written in 1946 (via the Corner):
At the end of the 18th century, Moslem power had fallen so low that a series of self-appointed Protectors of Islam appeared. One of the earliest was Napoleon, who, as governor of Egypt from 1799 to 1802, outdid the old Moslem rulers in celebrating Islamic festivals and reviving decadent customs."German" and "Nazi" do not mean the same thing. Or rather, it was/is up to the German people to make sure they do not mean the same thing. "Islam" and "Islamofascism" only mean the same thing if Muslims make them identical. If they don't want that, they should appreciate Bush and others trying to accurately define the threatening ideology, as distinct from the religion. It gives Muslims room to say "That is not us." If that's what they want to say, that is.Later, Great Britain assumed the role, but her efforts had small success because her Zionist policy antagonized the Arabs.
Then Mussolini and Hitler represented themselves as guardians of the Moslems. Axis money and intrigue proved effective in many instances, so that with the approach of war, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Rashid Ali al-Gailani of Iraq, among others, were in the Axis camp. In Iran, a group of important persons was formed into a loose political party which favored the Axis, and in Egypt the British could trust neither the king nor the premier.
The most recent claimant as Protector of Islam is the Soviet Union, which before the war showed little interest in championing religion but now realizes the value of such a rule as an instrument of policy. Thus, while the London BBC and Delhi radio have recently broadcast recitations in Arabic from the Koran and admonished the faithful to continue their devotions, Radio Moscow has told of the facilities which the Soviet Union had made available to pilgrims for traveling by air to Mecca.
Islamofascists is name that came from ex-leftists it is much more appropriate islamonazis, albeit not perfect.
I thought it was called "Islamofascism" to rhyme with "Judeobolshevism".
Gesundheit.
No one threatens the world, but Islamofascism, yes, it's facsism in the name of Islam (and the Quran) against all who are not Muslim (includes, Christians, Jews (Israel, Lebanon,911 WTC bombing, London bombing, Madrid bombing, E. Timor, Nigeria, parts of the Sudan, Pakistan, Copts in Egypt, or against non Muslim ethnic groups in part of China, etc.), Bahai (as in the Islamic republic of oppression / Iran) , Hindus (India, Kashmir), Zoroastrians (Iran), Buddhists (Southern Thailand) or 'not the "right" kind of Muslim' (as in massacres of Islamic bigotry of Shiite vs Sunni in Iraq) 'not Muslim enough...', (against the Gulf states, Taliban in Afghanistan, or Al Qaeda in the Maghreb).