Transcript Secular Left Liberal Critique of Islamism: Examining

Secular Left Liberal Critique
of Islamism: Examining the
Work of Paul Berman
Terror and Liberalism 2002
Flight of the Intellectuals 2010
Controversial Work establishes a
synthesis between Islamism and
Fascism: Key Points








Both a reaction to Liberal Secular Enlightenment and its attack against
Traditionalism and Religion
Both rooted in the irrational mystical side of human beings and the
collective need for personal self-transcendence through nihilistic violence
and glory
Both embrace a culture of death
Both are millennial traditions promising global destruction of evil and the
construction of a earthly paradise
Both embrace a conspiratorial world view of group subjugation and eternal
struggle and global violent emancipation
Both embrace cult of personality
Both reject western values and individual liberty
Berman is considered to be a pariah by much of the academic world that
sees Islamism as the ideal solution to the problem of radicalism
Critique of Muslim Brotherhood






Writings of Sayyid Qutb in Milestones and Shades of the Quran embrace
Jihad, purge of Western influence, imposition of Shariah and the pan
Islamic caliphate
Ultimate end is the construction of Islamic state that fuses earthly and
spiritual (Go back to a purer 7th century Islam freed from Western
contamination)
Qutb’s concept of hideous schizophrenia central to his analysis of the
Muslim predicament under Western Colonialism and Influence. Islam is the
solution to this problem.
War against the Jahili barbarians (Egypt’s Pan Arabists are like the
Polytheists Muhammad fought in the 7th century)
Revolutionary vanguard liberates and unites long oppressed Muslim
peoples. Today they are the suicidal warriors of jihad who eagerly
anticipate the gates of paradise.
Caliphate will wage final war against the decadent far enemy and spread
Islam throughout the world
Muslim Brotherhood Islamists: Past and
Present: “Hitler put the Jews their place.
It is their divine punishment”.
Hassan al Banna
Qutb
Qaradawi
Nazism and Islamism











Hassan al Banna support for the Nazis, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the
Egyptian Green Shirts
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini : Chief Propagandist for the Nazis during the War
Arab Waffen SS Brigade in Bosnia formed by Grand Mufti that engaged in ethnic cleansing of
Bosnian Jews and Serbs
Grand Mufti hailed as returning hero after war in Muslim World
Hassan al Banna was a great supporter of the Mufti of Jerusalem
Incorporation of Nazi anti-Semitic Propaghanda in Islamist circles
Hamas 1987 Charter and its call for the destruction of the Jews
Media rock star and respected Islamic scholar Yusuf al Qawadari repeated calls for jihad and
suicide bombing against Zionists
Qawadari draws a million people in Tahrir Square after Mubarak’s fall
Qawadari is a leading thinker asociated with the “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood. Qatari based
Egyptian who has one of the most popular TV shows in the Arab world and believes that the
Holocaust is divine punishment for the sins of the Jews.
Movement
Nazism
Islamism
Ideal to be Achieved
Purified Volk liberated
from foreigners
Purified Dar al Islam liberated
from foreign influence
Means to by which
Ideal is achieved
Lightening War to the
West and East
Jihad against Near and Far
Enemy
Eternal Enemies
Jews, Bolsheviks and
Westerners
Muslim Apostates, Jews and
Crusaders
Critique of “Moderate” Islamism











Trojan Horse of peaceful evolutionary Islamism is elaborate plot to seize power
Islamists double discourse and double face: say one think to the West and another to their
followers
Islamist charity is an effort to create a parallel state and movement to seize power
Hamas 2006 Consolidation of Power
1979 Revolution devours its own children
Hezbollah manipulation of democratic rules of the game
Italian Fascists in 1922 and the Nazis in 1933 pledged to defend parliamentary democracy:
Both believed that they could be absorbed in the democratic system
Muslim Brotherhood has clandestine agenda to create a totalitarian state
Western Liberals have lost the will to fight, are convulsed by colonial guilt and delude
themselves that Islamic radicalism can be best resolved by “moderate Islamism”. They have
nothing but contempt for Berman and Muslim liberals like Salman Rushdie and Hisi Ali
whose outright rejection of Islamism is considered “racist and offensive.
Moderate Islamism paves the way for radicalization and a loss of individual freedom
Today’s Turkey ran by moderate Islamists for a decade is less free today and more antiWestern.
Berman’s Critique of Tariq Ramadan







Swiss born Tariq Ramadan is grandson of Hassan al Banna whose philosophical
musings are hailed as an example of Islamist co-existence with the West and the
best antidote to radicalism.
Has written many books like Islam, the West and the Challenges of Modernity
Ramadan argues for salafi reformism typing traditional Islam to modern thought
and is seen as accepting democracy, individual freedom and women’s rights
Berman says like most moderate Islamists he engages in a double discourse to fool
gullible Western elites that Islam is capable of reconciling itself with Western
liberalism
Ramadan for example calls himself an Islamic feminist who sees restriction on
women as a celebration of their special place in Islam
Berman argues that Ramadan has failed to acknowledge his grandfathers ties to
Nazism, violent extremism and Sayyid Qutb
His admiration of Yusaf al Qaradawi and his refusal to urge the abolition of honor
killings are part of a sinister hidden agenda
Berman says Muslims must liberate themselves from the delusion that Islam can be
reconciled with Western secular liberalism and that religion should be confined to a
private real of society as it is in Judaism and Christianity
Arab Rebellions Today are likely to
set the stage for Greater Conflict








Fall of Monarchies and Pan Arabic Dictatorships set the stage for Liberal
Democratic and Islamist Rivalry
Islamists are advantaged by superior organization and finances
Liberals are highly motivated, under financed and highly factionalized
Al Qaeda and Iran’s influence will soar in the short and medium term
Western intellectual elite, once again ,gets it wrong and sells our enemies
the rope that they will use to hang us.
U.S. influence collapses and actionable intelligence dries up setting the
stage for a wave of attacks against the West
Obama Administration perpetual confusion, inaction and half measures
only exacerbates these tendencies
Israel becomes more and more isolated and will develop a Bunker
mentality