Truth About Islam and Fascism

Many folks, whether people of the Left or Middle, seem to argue that Trump's travel ban is xenophobic and racist and that it "demonizes" Islam. Also, that the travel ban (and many other issues) represent a turn of the United States toward "Fascism". 

The Mainstream Media is full of such commentary.

There's an underlying premise here in these arguments, and that is that all cultures are the same, in the end, because all people are the same, bottom line. Sort of like George W. Bush's idea that Muslims everywhere were really wanting "tolerant" Western-style democracies. (I'm sure the Left would find it abhorrent to have anything in common with Bush.) Or that Islam is a good thing, or at least no worse than, say, Methodist or Lutherans are. 

Bush insisted Islam was a good thing. After 9/11, Bush said "Islam" means "Peace". Of course it doesn't. It means "Submission." Somehow Bush didn't know that. (Or, more likely, didn't dare say it.)

In fact, today it is considered outrageous, colonial, racist, and God-knows-what-else to bring up any criticism of Islam.

This "we're all equal" is an underlying premise of all "multi-kulti" ideas. For example, a Leftist I know wrote, "sctotus has just approved trump's ban of travel from seven muslim countries. this is worse than islamophobia, it's demonisation of islam," [sic]

To that I'd answer in specifics:

A: The majority of Muslim nations are not on the travel ban.

B. Many exceptions exist even for the countries that are on the ban.

C. We don't need to "demonize" Islam. It does that itself. Check this article out:

An excerpt: This Cost of Non-Europe report argues that since 2004, terrorism has cost the EU about €185 billion in lost Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and around €5.6 billion in lost lives, injuries, and damage to infrastructure.

Now that is, of course, a bottom line that Western intellectuals and leaders have to finally come to terms with. And they must do so whether they like it or not, or whether it is politically correct or not. It is also a bottom line that the actual European-born people have to actually pay -- in money (and in blood)!

And it is insane. Europe is -- purely in financial terms, leaving aside all the personal pain and cultural disruption -- bleeding itself to death trying to keep local Muslims in control, and more Muslims out. The next couple of decades will decide whether Europe continues to exist at all, and that is the ultimate "bottom line".

So no, no non-Muslim needs to demonize Islam. Far too many Muslims (a minority, but a large minority) are only too willing to demonize it themselves. Therefore, it seems the underlying premise that Muslims are no different than anyone else is flawed. (This naturally refers to the aggregate, not various individuals you may know, or think you know.)

Personally, I've been studying Islam (and the monotheistic religions in general) for a solid 40 years now, and all I can say is that someone who has not read the famous philosopher, mystic, and theologian Al-Ghazali (the Gazelle) 1058 – 1111, or who isn't conversant with the battle between the Asherites and the Mutazilites that went on from the two centuries before Al-Ghazali, just doesn't know enough about Islam to say much of anything.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say it is cultural imperialism NOT to study and understand all this. If you don't study Islam, you don't respect it. Ultimately, far too many Westerners think both religion and philosophy unimportant -- all religions, all philosophy. They could not be more wrong.

This is extremely important. The Asherites won that battle and Islam became essentially an anti-intellectual creed, and this manifests itself today in myriads of ways. The famous Spanish Muslim philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes, 1126 - 1198), born only 15 years after Al-Ghazali died, his life is also extremely important to know, as how he suffered when the Asherites finally came to Muslim Spain. It's the reason ibn Rushd was the last famous Muslim philosopher.

The other issue I'd bring up is "Fascism". Mussolini coined the term post-WWI, when he, an old-time Communist, created the whole Fascist idea, crossing Socialism with Nationalism. Fascism isn't something of the "Right" but the Left. Hitler was once asked why, since he was a National Socialist, he didn't nationalize the German companies. He laughed and said he had nationalized the German people, and so didn't need to nationalize the companies.

And ironically, the first true Fascist state was created in the United States when then President Woodrow Wilson took the U.S. into World War I. It became a crime to criticize that decision, and U.S. citizens who were German-speakers were penalized and spied on, and children in school (not just German-speaking kids) were encouraged to spy on their parents. The Irish in the US were also singled out this way. 

Woody was a Democrat, too, not a Republican.

Of course, the word "fascism" hadn't even been coined yet.

Now we have massive evidence that the Obama administration "weaponized" the IRS, the FBI, the CIA, and so  on, to spy on Americans involved in political campaigns. People used to make fun of Trump for saying he was spied on. Turns out he was spied on. But this also happened "back in the day". Lyndon Baines Johnson used the FBI to spy on the Nixon campaign, but Nixon, in his turn, hired private contractors to do that, and he was caught and "Watergate" ensued, but LBJ, who "weaponized" the FBI then, and who got us massively involved in Vietnam, was never brought to account.

In other words, "fascism" is a useless term to toss around, except as a weapon. I used to like Garrison Keillor, the US public radio "Prairie Home Companion" funnyman. But then about four or so years ago, before he was brought down by a sexual harassment allegation, I heard him say of Republicans that they were "Brownshirts in pinstripes".

Nothing could be more grotesque, nothing more stupid, nothing more asinine.

Nothing, in short, could be more ignorant. And damning.

RC