The media, with a few exceptions was abuzz in recent weeks condemning the Islamofascism Awareness Week, held last week across College and University campuses in America . The event was organized by former communist turned conservative activist, David Horowitz, and his Freedom Centre.
This event was marked to create awareness about the danger of Islamic extremism and terrorism, the oppression of women (polygamy, honour-killings, & genital mutilations) and persecution of minorities in Islamic countries, and the fanatical Jew-hatred among Muslims etc.
Horowitz's Freedom Centre also takes aim at the American left, who have made the educational institutions as exclusive forts of their propaganda, impregnable to contrary views. He also accuses the left of forming an unassailable alliance with the dangerous Islamists, who will make every effort to destroy the very ideals--secularism, democracy, liberalism, human rights, and rights of homosexuals etc.--which they hold dear.
Looking at what is happening in Islamic countries; Horowitz is not at all wrong about his apprehensions of what would transpire when Muslims become dominant in western countries, which they will at least in Europe by 2050. Horowitz rightly regrets that the left is staunchly against his campaign, when they should be on his side. I think it is the left who should take the lead in this awareness campaign.
The major focus of criticism of Horowitz's Islamofascism Week is that the term, Islamofascism, tends to lump all Muslims together as fascists or terrorists. Fox News Channel anchor Alan Colmes, told Horowitz that "The words, the phrase 'Islamo-fascism' is hate speech. It equates an entire religion with fascism." Although it became popular after President Bush once uttered it, the term "Islamo-fascism" was coined by secular Muslims to describe the murderous ideology and activities of the Islamic radicals in the bloody civil war-stricken Algeria.
Horowitz, however, has been at pains trying to explain that he does not put all Muslims in the same balance. In stead, his message is targeted at a segment of Muslims, who use a fascistic and violent strain within Islam. He went on to explain in an interview that although not all Italians were fascists in the 1930-40s, yet Italian fascism was a widely accepted phrase. Italian fascism did not mean that all Italians were fascists. So, it is groundless that Islamofascism lumps all Muslims together as fascists. But neither of his detractors, the Muslims and the leftists, would ever listen.
The result turned out just as expected. The left on campuses ganged up with the Muslim Students Association--founded, according to Journalist Joe Kaufman, by the militant Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood--to disrupt the Islamofascism Week talks. They created disruption and chaos in most campuses making it impossible for Horowitz and his co-speakers express their views.
Quite correctly, Horowitz calls American university and colleges the impregnable forts of leftist propaganda. Amidst deafening shouting and jeers at his Emory lecture, a frustrated Horowitz said with good deal of justification that "This is exactly what the fascists did in Germany in the 1930s." And ironically, organizations like the National Project to Defend Dissent & Critical Thinking in Academia joined hands in creating these fascist-style disruptions. Can Horowitz be faulted for condemning the left for forming an unholy alliance with the dangerous Islamists?
Let us now have a brief look at what Muslims have brought to the West. In November 2005, Muslim youths in France rioted and vandalized cars, homes and properties for weeks, leading to even death of an elderly man. Some 100,000 cars were vandalized or set on fire by French Muslim rioters in one year. Taking cues from their French brethren in action, Muslims in Belgium took it up on them to spread the Intifada in Brussels at the time.
Muslims in Netherlands engaged in similar Intifada by rioting and setting cars on fire for more than a week since October 14, protesting the death of a young Muslim, who was shot dead as he started stabbing two policewomen entering a police station in Amsterdam. The two policemen, critically wounded, narrowly escaped death.
At the same time, Turkish immigrants engaged in vandalism of Armenian properties and attacking Armenians in Brussels , protesting the U.S. initiative for recognizing the Turkish genocide of the Armenians. This was followed by another round of riots, attacking buses and trams and destroying cars and shops, in Brussels 's Turkish quarters over the rising tensions between Turkey and Kurdish rebels along Iraqi borders.
Such riots and vandalism are becoming increasingly common across Europe in areas with high density of Muslims. Muslims have been creating more and more ghettos ridden with violence and crimes, which have become no-go zones for non-Muslim Europeans, even for the police. If a non-Muslim girl happens to stray in those ghettos, there is a high possibility that she will come out raped.
The term, Islamofascism , is not acceptable. Fair enough! But how about a Stop Islamization of Europe rally, which one transnational European group, wanted to bring about in Brussels to commemorate 9/11 this year? The secular-liberal fabric of western societies--from New Zealand to Australia to Canada to Europe--are being aggressively Islamized by Muslim immigrants. To give a few examples: airports must have a mosque; canteens in jails must have separate quarters, cutlery and menu for Muslim inmates; school and university canteens must remove pork and even alcohol from their premises; and they must have separate public swimming pools or specific days of the week exclusively for them. A poll in 2006 found some 40% British Muslims would prefer an Islamic Sharia law based governance to replace the secular-democracy, while another poll in 2004 found 61% Muslims want the Sharia court system in the U.K..
It was then very reasonable for those Europeans, seeking to protect the secular and liberal fabric of their society from invasion by often repressive and cruel Islamic values and cultures, to hold a Stop Islamization of Europe rally. But this is not acceptable to Muslims either. For them, this rally also lumps all Muslims together and stigmatize them. They were determined to prevent the rally with violence if needed. The leftist mayor of Brussels, heavily dependent on Muslim votes, took firm steps to prevent the rally, for the duel reasons of not upsetting his Muslim vote-bank and of the fear of violence by Muslims. Yet, he had no qualms about a militant Islamist group, who say the 9/11 was done by the Bush administration, to bring out a rally on 11th September to condemn the war on terrorism.
The mayor rightly feared the likely unleashing of violence by Muslims if the rally went ahead. The Danish chapter of the Stop Islamization of Europe brought out a small rally on 21st November in Copenhagen , a city having much fewer Muslims than Brussels with 25-30% Muslims. Anders Gravers, the organizer of the event, and his three associates, including two women, as they arrived for the rally, came under attack by Muslim thugs, armed with knifes and iron-rods, which left three associates hospitalized with bloodied headd and faced. Anders Gravers was probably saved by a bullet-proof vest he was wearing.
To these should be added the murder of Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, for making a film on the mistreatment of Muslim women in Islam, the death warrants and widespread violent demonstrations over publishing Prophet Muhammad's cartoons in a Danish paper in 2005, and the death-threats and large-scale vandalism over Salman Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses (1989). There are numerous terrorist cells, directly or ideologically allied with the Al-Qaeda in western countries. Apart from the Madrid (March 2004) and London (July 2005) bombings, numerous terrorist plots often against civilian targets have been aborted in Europe , Australia, Canada and the U.S. The law enforcement agencies are watching 5000 Muslims for terrorist activities in Britain and 2000 in Australia--a phenomenon which extends across all western countries.
The Little Mermaid statue at the entrance of Copenhagen harbour was found draped in an Islamic veil in May, while naked statues across Germany were found veiled with Islamic garb in September. These veiling incidents, which are becoming increasingly common across Europe , highlight how Muslims would change the western liberal societies to fit Islamic life-style and culture. When Muslims cannot tolerate lifeless statues in their natural state, how long will they tolerate the liberally (scantily) dressed real women who walk on the streets of Europe?
What should one call these activities brought to the West exclusively by Muslim immigrants? Whatever name you give, these are all acts and signs of fascism with no doubt. Other immigrants, such as the Chinese or the Hindus, have not brought the same troubles. Muslims differ from them only in their religion. If any logical or sensible name is to be given to this brand of fascism, it got to be Islamofascism or Muslim fascism. Islamofascism associates it with a strain of radical thoughts within the ideology of Islam, while Muslim fascism obviously lumps all Muslims together. When Islamofascism is unacceptable, Muslim fascism is going to be even less acceptable to Muslims and their leftist allies.
You give it a name or not, there is no doubt that a brand of fascism, brought by Muslim immigrants, has been spreading across western nations with increasing intensity. While chatting about these issues with Mr. Jamal Hasan, a coeditor of Beyond Jihad--Critical Voices from Inside Islam , he told me: "Have you considered what would have transpired if Salman Rushdie's novel or Prophet Muhammad's cartoons were published after a few decades, when Muslims are projected to become the dominant population in Europe?" One agrees or not, this is one singular issue, all westerners, the liberal-left in particular, should be most concerned about.
Alamgir Hussain (PhD) is a researcher. He is a contributor in Beyond Jihad--Critical Voices from Inside Islam . He has completed a new book, History of Islam--Separating Myths from Reality.
