I was intrigued to see Mario Goveia's repeated references to "Islamo-Facsism" and hence embarked on a short cybersearch.
This blog -- http://regularstaple.blogspot.com/2005/03/is-islamo-fascist-really-accurate.html -- has an interesting debate that analysis the use of this term. It says: so let's recap the characteristics of islamofascists: 1. may have hall of fame 2. anti-pepsi 3. nihilists 4. unconcerned with international borders 5. raised in failed 12th century societies 6. extreme to the extreme 7. geeky at first glance, i'd say that no.s 5 and 7 are in conflict with each other. but that's just me. let's compare those qualities with the qualities of 'real' fascism, which is a system of government marked by: 1. centralization of authority under a dictator 2. stringent socioeconomic controls 3. suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship 4. typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. at first glance, i'd say that no.s 5 and 7 are in conflict with each other. but that's just me.... Another interesting set of perspectives and explanations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamofascist "Islamofascism is nothing but an empty propaganda term. And wartime propaganda is usually, if not always, crafted to produce hysteria, the destruction of any sense of proportion. Such words, undefined and unmeasured, are used by people more interested in making us lose our heads than in keeping their own." [13]. Joseph Sobran, conservative Catholic commentator. "It is hard to see the difference between the bigotry of anti-Semitism as an evil and the bigotry that [Michael] Medved displays toward Islam. It is more offensive than I can say for him to use the word "Islamo-fascist." Islam is a sacred term to 1.3 billion people in the world. It enshrines their highest ideals. To combine it with the word "fascist" in one phrase is a desecration and a form of hate speech. Are there Muslims who are fascists? Sure. But there is no Islamic fascism, since "Islam" has to do with the highest ideals of the religion. In the same way, there have been lots of Christian fascists, but to speak of Christo-Fascism is just offensive." [14] Juan Cole, professor of modern Middle East and South Asian history at the University of Michigan. "The idea that there is some kind of autonomous "Islamofascism" that can be crushed, or that the west may defend itself against the terrorists who threaten it by cultivating that eagerness to kill militant Muslims which Hitchens urges upon us, is a dangerous delusion. The symptoms that have led some to apply the label of "Islamofascism" are not reasons to forget root causes. They are reasons for us to examine even more carefully what those root causes actually are." He adds "'Saddam, Arafat and the Saudis hate the Jews and want to see them destroyed' . . . or so says the right-wing writer Andrew Sullivan. And he has a point. Does the western left really grasp the extent of anti-Semitism in the Middle East? But does the right grasp the role of Europeans in creating such hatred?" [15] Richard Webster, author of A Brief History of Blasphemy: liberalism, censorship and 'The Satanic Verses'writing in the New Statesman. If we opt to deploy the Hitchinsonian language and logic of 'clash of civilisations' and go about acting as if it's true, then we could be helping to convert this into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Incidentally, the Wikipedia page (above) shows more links between Christianity and Fascism, than between Islam and this ideology (Hinduism also has some links). But then, I guess it's easy to insult *somebody else's* religion. FN
