When President George W. Bush recently referred to radical Muslims as “Islamic
fascists,” he shed more light on the nature of the ideology driving the neoconservative
junta, than he did on the ideology driving militant Islamic groups in various parts of the
world. This assertion, and similar ones, in some aspects, conform to a pattern of
propaganda innovated by Nazi Germany, one of the major fascists states of the 20th
century.
If we examine the assertion, we can see that the ideology driving President Bush’s
agenda shares far more with the fascist movements of the 20th century than the ideology
of any Islamic group or state he seeks to condemn. To begin, one of the principal
propaganda innovations of the fascist movement, introduced by Hitler in Mein Kampf,
and perfected by his principal propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, was the “big lie,” premised
on the idea that if one tells a big enough lie often enough and with adequate conviction,
most people will hold it to be true. The average person does not believe that anyone
would have the audacity to lie so brazenly. What is being alleged, therefore, must be true.
The allegation that so-called Islamofascists threaten Western civilization should be
considered a 21st century big lie. The extent of this lie is most pointedly revealed by the
inability of al-Qaeda’s chiefs, Ayman Zawahari, Usama Bin Laden, and the movements
they led to pose a significant threat to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, respectively. Zawahari’s
jihad group was ruthlessly crushed by the Egyptian government during the mid-1990s,
while Bin Laden’s challenge to the Saudi state in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War was
similarly thwarted. Both men eventually ended up in a cave in Afghanistan. The terrorist
acts they orchestrated in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, rather than constituting an existentialist
threat to either state, proved to be only a nuisance.
Analogously, any terrorist acts perpetrated by what has come to be known as al-Qaeda
could never pose a significant political, social, or economic threat to the integrity of
Western civilization. By way of illustration, consider that it took less than two months for
the stock markets to rebound to pre-September 11, 2001, levels after the attacks of that
fateful day. Five years later, American exports are higher; global trade levels, led by the
United States, are higher; world tourism is up; domestic air travel, the sector hardest hit
in the attacks, has surpassed pre-9/11 levels; and legal immigration to the United States is
as high as it has ever been.
How could groups that were incapable of destabilizing two middling Third World states
pose an existentialist threat to the United States, the world’s sole “superpower?”
Moreover, how could such groups ever pose an existentialist challenge to the whole of
Western civilization? The very allegation is so preposterous that we can only describe it a
fascistic big lie.
A related big lie is that Bin Laden is comparable to Hitler and Stalin. Such an allegation
is also without foundation. Both Hitler and Stalin presided over modern industrial states
with strategic resources that rivaled, and in many sectors surpassed, those of Western
fascists,” he shed more light on the nature of the ideology driving the neoconservative
junta, than he did on the ideology driving militant Islamic groups in various parts of the
world. This assertion, and similar ones, in some aspects, conform to a pattern of
propaganda innovated by Nazi Germany, one of the major fascists states of the 20th
century.
If we examine the assertion, we can see that the ideology driving President Bush’s
agenda shares far more with the fascist movements of the 20th century than the ideology
of any Islamic group or state he seeks to condemn. To begin, one of the principal
propaganda innovations of the fascist movement, introduced by Hitler in Mein Kampf,
and perfected by his principal propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, was the “big lie,” premised
on the idea that if one tells a big enough lie often enough and with adequate conviction,
most people will hold it to be true. The average person does not believe that anyone
would have the audacity to lie so brazenly. What is being alleged, therefore, must be true.
The allegation that so-called Islamofascists threaten Western civilization should be
considered a 21st century big lie. The extent of this lie is most pointedly revealed by the
inability of al-Qaeda’s chiefs, Ayman Zawahari, Usama Bin Laden, and the movements
they led to pose a significant threat to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, respectively. Zawahari’s
jihad group was ruthlessly crushed by the Egyptian government during the mid-1990s,
while Bin Laden’s challenge to the Saudi state in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War was
similarly thwarted. Both men eventually ended up in a cave in Afghanistan. The terrorist
acts they orchestrated in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, rather than constituting an existentialist
threat to either state, proved to be only a nuisance.
Analogously, any terrorist acts perpetrated by what has come to be known as al-Qaeda
could never pose a significant political, social, or economic threat to the integrity of
Western civilization. By way of illustration, consider that it took less than two months for
the stock markets to rebound to pre-September 11, 2001, levels after the attacks of that
fateful day. Five years later, American exports are higher; global trade levels, led by the
United States, are higher; world tourism is up; domestic air travel, the sector hardest hit
in the attacks, has surpassed pre-9/11 levels; and legal immigration to the United States is
as high as it has ever been.
How could groups that were incapable of destabilizing two middling Third World states
pose an existentialist threat to the United States, the world’s sole “superpower?”
Moreover, how could such groups ever pose an existentialist challenge to the whole of
Western civilization? The very allegation is so preposterous that we can only describe it a
fascistic big lie.
A related big lie is that Bin Laden is comparable to Hitler and Stalin. Such an allegation
is also without foundation. Both Hitler and Stalin presided over modern industrial states
with strategic resources that rivaled, and in many sectors surpassed, those of Western
Europe and even America. Hitler’s Germany was the most advanced state on earth in
terms of military technology. It was the first nation to employ militarily-viable ballistic
missiles, the V-2 rocket; a jet-powered tactical fighter aircraft, the Messerschmitt Me
262, and was months away from developing an atomic bomb. Stalin’s Soviet Union
possessed the largest collection of conventional armed forces on earth and would
eventually preside over a nuclear arsenal of more than 15,000 warheads, most of them
aimed at the major industrial, military, and population centers of the United States. These
warheads were situated on sophisticated land, sea, and air-based delivery systems that
posed a significant threat to the survival of the United States and Western Europe.
Compared to the resources possessed by those states, militant Islamic groups have
nothing. Only one Muslim country, Pakistan, possesses a handful of nuclear weapons,
which are neutralized by neighboring India’s larger and more sophisticated nuclear
arsenal, as well as Israel’s estimated 200 nuclear bombs. By all reasonable estimates, Iran
is at least five years away from developing a nuclear bomb, and possesses no delivery
system capable of reaching Western Europe, to say nothing of America. As for non-state
radical Islamic groups, they possess neither a nuclear weapon nor any delivery systems.
To justify our current level of fear, we are left only with the oft-mentioned threat of a
militant group or state acquiring a small nuclear device and detonating it in the United
States. Such an eventuality itself is no more or less probable than any random act of
terrorism carried out by an unimaginable array of actors. Defense against such an act can
only be done with good intelligence, smart police work, and policies that defuse the anger
that breeds individuals with a propensity to undertake terrorist actions. Brutal
occupations, a destructive militarism, and rapacious economic policies will only
exacerbate the violence we claim we can control with greater violence.
Another pertinent aspect of fascism is its glorification of the nation, which necessitates
that fascistic governments vehemently oppose all forces that counter the ability of the
nation to consolidate its control, both over the territory under its sway, and over the lives
of individual citizens. The following slogan uttered by Mussolini reminds us of this
imperative and demonstrates that, since its inception, fascism has been one of the greatest
threats to individual liberties in the Western world : “The Italian nation is an organism
having ends, life, and means of action superior to those of the separate individuals or
groups of individuals which compose it.” In this formulation, the individual must be
ready at any moment to sacrifice his life and liberty for the good of the nation. Whether
such sacrifices are justified is not a question to be countenanced.
Does this description of a nation-state centric ideology conform more closely to the
neoconservative advocates of the Bush agenda, or to the agendas of militant Muslim
groups? The answer should be quite clear. As John Gray argues in Al Qaeda and What It
Means to Be Modern, “Al-Qaeda’s closest precursors are the revolutionary anarchists of
late nineteenth-century Europe.”1 Most radical Islamic groups subscribe to a transnational
ideology that sees the nation-state as a western innovation imposed on the
Muslim people via European colonization of Muslim lands. Like many of the early
1 John Gray, Al Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern (New York, London: The New Press, 2003), p. 2.
terms of military technology. It was the first nation to employ militarily-viable ballistic
missiles, the V-2 rocket; a jet-powered tactical fighter aircraft, the Messerschmitt Me
262, and was months away from developing an atomic bomb. Stalin’s Soviet Union
possessed the largest collection of conventional armed forces on earth and would
eventually preside over a nuclear arsenal of more than 15,000 warheads, most of them
aimed at the major industrial, military, and population centers of the United States. These
warheads were situated on sophisticated land, sea, and air-based delivery systems that
posed a significant threat to the survival of the United States and Western Europe.
Compared to the resources possessed by those states, militant Islamic groups have
nothing. Only one Muslim country, Pakistan, possesses a handful of nuclear weapons,
which are neutralized by neighboring India’s larger and more sophisticated nuclear
arsenal, as well as Israel’s estimated 200 nuclear bombs. By all reasonable estimates, Iran
is at least five years away from developing a nuclear bomb, and possesses no delivery
system capable of reaching Western Europe, to say nothing of America. As for non-state
radical Islamic groups, they possess neither a nuclear weapon nor any delivery systems.
To justify our current level of fear, we are left only with the oft-mentioned threat of a
militant group or state acquiring a small nuclear device and detonating it in the United
States. Such an eventuality itself is no more or less probable than any random act of
terrorism carried out by an unimaginable array of actors. Defense against such an act can
only be done with good intelligence, smart police work, and policies that defuse the anger
that breeds individuals with a propensity to undertake terrorist actions. Brutal
occupations, a destructive militarism, and rapacious economic policies will only
exacerbate the violence we claim we can control with greater violence.
Another pertinent aspect of fascism is its glorification of the nation, which necessitates
that fascistic governments vehemently oppose all forces that counter the ability of the
nation to consolidate its control, both over the territory under its sway, and over the lives
of individual citizens. The following slogan uttered by Mussolini reminds us of this
imperative and demonstrates that, since its inception, fascism has been one of the greatest
threats to individual liberties in the Western world : “The Italian nation is an organism
having ends, life, and means of action superior to those of the separate individuals or
groups of individuals which compose it.” In this formulation, the individual must be
ready at any moment to sacrifice his life and liberty for the good of the nation. Whether
such sacrifices are justified is not a question to be countenanced.
Does this description of a nation-state centric ideology conform more closely to the
neoconservative advocates of the Bush agenda, or to the agendas of militant Muslim
groups? The answer should be quite clear. As John Gray argues in Al Qaeda and What It
Means to Be Modern, “Al-Qaeda’s closest precursors are the revolutionary anarchists of
late nineteenth-century Europe.”1 Most radical Islamic groups subscribe to a transnational
ideology that sees the nation-state as a western innovation imposed on the
Muslim people via European colonization of Muslim lands. Like many of the early
1 John Gray, Al Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern (New York, London: The New Press, 2003), p. 2.
