The Liberal ‘Islamofacist’ Phobia
Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold says President Bush should stop referring to terrorists as “Islamic fascists,” saying it is offensive to Muslims and has nothing to do with terrorists fighting the United States.
“We must avoid using misleading and offensive terms that link Islam with those who subvert this great religion or who distort its teachings to justify terrorist activities.”
“Fascist ideology doesn’t have anything to do with the way global terrorist networks think or operate and it doesn’t have anything to do with the overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world who practice the peaceful teachings of Islam.”
Great religion? Peaceful teachings of Islam? That’s debatable. Arab American Institute president James Zogby added:
“It indicates no understanding of Islam, and it actually degrades the meaning of the word fascism. That’s not what fascism means. Fascism means national socialism. It doesn’t refer to a gang of criminal terrorists who are using a cult-like ideology to murder people.”
Apparently these liberals aren’t the only ones who feel this way. The Islamofascists who kidnapped Fox journalist Steve Centanni and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig agree. Immediately following Centanni and Wiig’s forced conversion to Islam, they were videotaped reading a prepared statement that read, in part:
CENTANNI: “I have a message for Pres. Bush as well. Islam is not fascism. Words like that only serve to deepen a great chasm between peoples and fan the flames of anger and distrust that already burn in the Muslim world.”
WIIG: “America and George Bush are seen as being evil in some people’s eyes in this part of the world. And statements from George Bush like we’re at war with Islamic fascists doesn’t help. It’s time that the leaders of the West listen to the people, take notice of the millions protesting in the streets, stop hiding behind the ‘I don’t negotiate with terrorists’ myth.”
Good heavens. Feingold and Zogby are saying word for word what the Islmofa… terrorists are saying.
Let’s define “fascism”. According to Webster, “fascism” is:
a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
AND/OR
a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control fascism and brutality –
That’s the “fascist” part. Enter “Islamo”. If the enemy we’re fighting isn’t a religious movement or regime that exalts its religion above the individual and that stands for a centralized theocracy headed by a dictatorial leader, then we don’t really know our enemy. Or at least Russ Feingold doesn’t.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited the US in July of 2006 and gave a speech to the Congress. In part he said:
I know that some of you here question whether Iraq is part of the war on terror. Let me be very clear: This is a battle between true Islam, for which a person’s liberty and rights constitute essential cornerstones, and terrorism, which wraps itself in a fake Islamic cloak; in reality, waging a war on Islam and Muslims and values.
The truth is that terrorism has no religion. Our faith says that who kills an innocent, as if they have killed all mankind.
That’s pretty clear from the “good Muslim” side of the aisle. Should they be called “freedom fighters” or just plain “terrorists”? What’s really behind the reluctance to say “Islamofascist”? It’s pretty simple; George W. Bush came up with the term.
Cross-posted at Amy’s Blog/Bottom Line Up Front