I'm a libertarian lawyer and college professor. I blog on religion, history, constitutional law, government policy, philosophy, sexuality, and the American Founding. Everything is fair game though. Over the years, I've been involved in numerous group blogs that come and go. This blog archives almost everything I write.
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Friday, July 22, 2005
The Evil of Islamofascism:
It can be summed up in this story and pic. We really need to put Islam through an Enlightenment, whether it be done by force or persuasion.
7 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Gah, not you too! Islamofascism is a ridiculous misnomer. Not all totalarian states are fascistic.
But we don't know what it means, and thats the point. Homophobia refers to a distinct phenomenom, even if its linguistic heritage is a bit borked. Islamofascism, is totally incoherent. People(not just wackos, but mainstream writers) use it to refer to OBL, to Iran, to all the different groups in Iraq, to the bombings in London. It has become a catchall term for islamic people doing nasty things, which is terrible, because those nasty things, while all nasty, are also very different, and most of them are not fascistic in the least. I mean hell, Orwell wrote an essay on this exact misuse of language.
I have to agree with Anonymous on this. This is another one of those Rush Limbaugh intellectually vacuous fabrications right up there with Actvist Judiciary. Its purpose is to demonize a whole class of people, in this case, all moslems, not describe a particularly violent subset. The Islamofascist label colors everyone in the group, Islam, with the same broad brush. I think we need to be more selective than that if we are to have any hope of these people beginning to entertain enlightenment values.
I will start the answer to your question with a question. What do we call people like Randall Terry, James Dobson, D. James Kennedy, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and the others like them? Their fear mongering, their hate mongering, and their eliminationist rhetoric has led to people like Eric Rudolf, Terry Nichols, Timothy McVeigh, and many many others. The only difference I see between this group of "Christian" leaders and the Mullahs of Iran is that the Mullahs are in Power. And I have no doubt that if these "paragons" of Christianity gain the power to rule, there will be no discernible difference between this country and what we now see in Iran.
So, what do we call them? Do we call them Christianfascists? Certainly, they are theocrats and their vision for this country and for the world is — at best — crypto-fascist. But Christian, uh, I don't think so. Maybe Christian in name only. So, if we call them Christianfascists, we paint a whole group of people who truly are Christian with that same broad brush that you used with the label Islamofascist.
I think the dilemma is in deciding what these people really are, and whether it is Mullah Omar in Afganistan or Randall Terry in Florida, what these people really are is crypto-fascist theocrats, so let's call them crypto-fascist theocrats.
7 comments:
Gah, not you too! Islamofascism is a ridiculous misnomer. Not all totalarian states are fascistic.
I think you are being too technical. The name implies something very real and very bad.
It's like "homophobia" which technically means, "fear of one"...or that fear is at the root of all anti-gay bigotry, which isn't necessarily true.
Whatever...we know what homophobia refers to and it's not good. Ditto with Islamofascism.
But we don't know what it means, and thats the point. Homophobia refers to a distinct phenomenom, even if its linguistic heritage is a bit borked. Islamofascism, is totally incoherent. People(not just wackos, but mainstream writers) use it to refer to OBL, to Iran, to all the different groups in Iraq, to the bombings in London. It has become a catchall term for islamic people doing nasty things, which is terrible, because those nasty things, while all nasty, are also very different, and most of them are not fascistic in the least. I mean hell, Orwell wrote an essay on this exact misuse of language.
I have to agree with Anonymous on this. This is another one of those Rush Limbaugh intellectually vacuous fabrications right up there with Actvist Judiciary. Its purpose is to demonize a whole class of people, in this case, all moslems, not describe a particularly violent subset. The Islamofascist label colors everyone in the group, Islam, with the same broad brush. I think we need to be more selective than that if we are to have any hope of these people beginning to entertain enlightenment values.
So what should we call people like the ones to which I linked.
Theocrats? Totalatarian theocrats? Schmucks?
I will start the answer to your question with a question. What do we call people like Randall Terry, James Dobson, D. James Kennedy, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and the others like them? Their fear mongering, their hate mongering, and their eliminationist rhetoric has led to people like Eric Rudolf, Terry Nichols, Timothy McVeigh, and many many others. The only difference I see between this group of "Christian" leaders and the Mullahs of Iran is that the Mullahs are in Power. And I have no doubt that if these "paragons" of Christianity gain the power to rule, there will be no discernible difference between this country and what we now see in Iran.
So, what do we call them? Do we call them Christianfascists? Certainly, they are theocrats and their vision for this country and for the world is — at best — crypto-fascist. But Christian, uh, I don't think so. Maybe Christian in name only. So, if we call them Christianfascists, we paint a whole group of people who truly are Christian with that same broad brush that you used with the label Islamofascist.
I think the dilemma is in deciding what these people really are, and whether it is Mullah Omar in Afganistan or Randall Terry in Florida, what these people really are is crypto-fascist theocrats, so let's call them crypto-fascist theocrats.
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