Ruminations of an Expatriate

There’s a new one for you. Brought to you by editorialist Eric Rozenman of the Washington Times, the Moonie rag which functions as a right wing propaganda factory. Islamic imperialism? What is that? It rings with the same pitch as “Islamo-fascism”, another term of propaganda recently introduced by denizens of the right wing fringe to slur Islam, just a different timbre.

Except for the most retrogressive troglodytes, in recent years the expression of overt bigotry has fortunately become unfashionable, particularly so upon the pages of the nation’s newspapers and by other media outlets. More recently, though, bigotry aimed at Muslims has become completely acceptable.

Though such may have been motivated by the concept of “Manifest Destiny”, the idea that God intended for Christians to control the world, I don’t remember reading of USA or European colonizations of other nations referred to as Christian imperialism. Imperial aspirations, it seems to me, are normally identified with nations expressing such aspirations, not religions.

Those paying attention to USA politics have probably noticed that the term “Islamo-fascism” has increasingly crept into the lexicon of the candidates for the republican presidential nomination and their pundit promoters.

The term, I suppose, emerged from one of the so-called “institutes” or “think tanks”, which really act primarily as progenitors of “talking points” propaganda tendered by the political hacks parked within the institutions under such mellifluous job titles as “visiting scholar”.

The term, as with all terms of propaganda, through its repetition is permeating the USA consciousness; and will probably soon be taken by a majority as a matter of fate. That is, that there indeed exists an Islamo-Fascist movement.

Soon polls will indicate that 50% of the USA population supports a war on Islamo- fascism, whatever that might be. “Don’t bother me with details.  CBS, FOX, and the others have alerted me to the Islamo-fascist threat, so let’s turn the ragheads to glass”, soon will consider the uninformed, disinterested half of the USA population.

Juan Cole, an instructor of “Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan” and the most credible voice I’ve found with respect to all things Middle Eastern, regularly expresses his understanding of events at his excellent blog Informed Comment.

Those interested in the subject of so-called Islamo-fascism should read Cole’s take in “Combating Muslim Extremism” , appearing at the online version of The Nation.