Are Terrorists Fascists?

"Today you equated the religion of peace with the ugliness of fascism"
Parvez Ahmed, Chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations,
in a letter to President George W Bush

This was a response to the President's statement (regarding the terrorist plot to destroy airliners from London) that we are at "war with Islamic fascists." Tony Snow, the President's press secretary, later identified these as "tiny factions (of Islam) represented by Bin Laden, ......"

Apparently Mr. Ahmed and his Council would rather that official statements about terrorism omit any reference to Islam at all, even though every major threat to the security of the United States since Oklahoma City (1995) has come from Muslims. Moreover, countries as widely separated and different as Israel, Indonesia, India, Jordan, Egypt, Spain, England, and France have all been victims of Muslim violence.

President Bush believes that Islam is a religion of peace, but a tiny faction of violent people have tried to "hijack" it for their own ends. If Mr Bush had a smidgen of intellectual curiosity, he would wonder why men like Osama Bin Laden (Sunni) and Ayatollah Ruallah Khomeini (Shiite), who have devoted their entire lives to reading the Quran in the original Arabic, could have concluded that Islam demands jihad (holy war). Although the Quran advocates peace between Muslims, it is brimming with hostility toward infidels (non-Muslims), especially Jews (1). If there were a special game of "21" on Islam pitting Bush against Bin Laden, I would bet my home on Osama any day.

But even if we recognize that the terrorist threat faced by the US and other democracies comes from Muslims, is it appropriate to label the terrorists as "fascists?"

If "fascism" simply means the willingness to use deadly force against non-combantants to achieve political objectives, all terrorists embrace it, including non-Muslims such as Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), Timothy McVeigh, and the Tamil Tigers (of Sri Lanka). However fascsim has a specific historical meaning, some aspects of which do not fit the Islamic terrorists well.

The term "fascism", named for the ax surrounded by wooden rods that symbolized the power of imperial Rome, was coined by Italian politician Benito Mussolini after World War I. This war brought in its wake tremendous social and political changes, including the replacement of great empires by parliamentary democracies, dis-establishment of the Catholic Church, elevation of the Jews to full citizenship, and freedom of artistic and political, expression. Fascism represented total opposition to all these changes, which were deeply resented by millions of traditional Europeans. In addition, Fascism constituted a solid bulwark against Communism (which had taken over Russia) and Socialism, both of which were serious threats to wealthy Europeans.

Mussolini, who had been a leading Socialist before the War, led the first Fascist Party to power in Italy in 1922. Adolf Hitler, who had modeled his National Socialist (Nazi) Party after the Italian Fascist Party, took over in Germany in 1933. By the end of the decade, fascist parties and movements had been established in most European countries, all of them allied with Italy and Germany. Small, ineffectual fascist movements even existed in Britain and the United States (2). Before World War II, fascist parties had taken over Spain, Hungary ,and Austria. Countries occupied by Germany during the War had collaborationist fascist regimes imposed upon them.

The defeat of Germany and Italy (along with Japan) crushed fascism in Europe, although some neo-fascist parties were established here and there after the War. General Francisco Franco, the fascist ruler of Spain, the only fascist country that did not fight in World War II, held power until his death in 1975.

The Arab Baath Party, which seized power in both Syria and Iraq, implemented many features of European fascism, including virulent hostility toward the Jewish People. Elsewhere, military regimes in Greece, Argentina, Chile, and other countries in the post-War world also embodied some aspects of fascist rule.

Like fascists, the Muslim terrorists hate Jews, love killing their enemies, despise democracy, and view the world in terms of apocalyptic conflict. However, unlike fascists, who exalt loyalty to the State above all else (3), these terrorists are loyal only to the transnational "People of Islam" or "Uma" and to Allah. Whereas fascists are motivated by a desire for tangible rewards such as land and plunder, the Muslim fanatics fight for religious principle and the rewards of "The Next World."

Accordingly, the best term for the Muslim terrorist is not "fascist", but "jihadist," one devoted to Holy War.

After all, when Adolf Hitler decided to commit suicide, he took only his newly-wed wife Eva with him. A jihadist would have found some way to take down some innocent people at the same time.

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(1) The Quran says that someday Jews will hide behind rocks and trees to escape Muslim violence, and the rocks and trees will betray their locations.

(2) Leading American fascists included Father Charles E Coughlin of the Christian Front and Gerald L K Smith of the Christian Nationalist Party. US Senator Huey Long of Louisiana once predicted that "Sure we'll have fascism, only we'll call it "anti-fascism.'"

(3) The Nazis kept the German National Anthem which begain "Deutschland uber alles" meaning Germany above all.