Siding With the Oppressor? The Left and Islam

[gsa]

OneLawForAll, an anti-sharia campaign organization in the UK, has a fascinating report available online detailing the ways in which some Left wing UK organizations promote Islamism at the expense of minority rights, free speech and feminism. How and why is this accomplished?

1. Conflation of "Islamophobia" with racism. By creating a boogeyman of irrational animus, any criticism of Islam can be reduced to racial antagonism or irrational anti-Muslim bias. This has the effect of silencing critics, and in extreme cases anti-free speech laws in the Western countries can even be used to accomplish state censorship.

2. A romanticized and erroneous view of Islamism. By equating Islamism with "anti-imperialism," some leftists see Islamism as a force for "social justice" in the so-called "colonies." This racist caricature of Muslim countries ignores the manipulation of Islam for political purposes by the elite within those countries and leaves minorities within them at the mercy of Islamists.

The linked article contains a link in PDF form to the full report. It is a fascinating must-read for anyone concerned about the rise of Islamism. And it is written from a left wing perspective as well.

 

[jeager106]

I once watched an experiement in suvival dynamics among animals, one a preditor the other obvious prey.
In this case the preditore was a contstrictor snake, like a boa of some sort, the prey a small rat.
The einvornoment was a glass cage used to house the snake.
The live rate was introduced into the cage, the lid secured.
The rat seemed in a panic running about crazily looking for the way out.
There was no way out.
Exhausted the rat then began to snuggle with the not hungry for now snake.
Eventually the rat drank water, ate rat food and slept with his snake buddy.
This went on for several days with the rat snuggling and sleeping with his new found buddy. Perhaps the snake would "like" the rat and not harm it.
The snake grabbed a mouthful of rat, coiled around it crushing and swollowing the rat.
Group think: humans: when there is no will to fight the enemy living among you then make buddies, using any form of self deception in the hope the enemy won't kill and eat you, destroy your culture, and assimilate survivors into the ememy camp.
The enemy is clever and patient and will never cease.
Snakes abound. Who wants to be a rat?

 

[gsa]

I'm not terribly concerned about them taking over Europe or the Americas or East Asia, honestly. At the end of the day, this is the Left's problem: If the left won't stand up for its own values, the right will pretend to, and it will handle it on its own terms, consistent with its own values.

 

[Laika]

Some on the left make the mistake of thinking defending Islamism for defending equality. I think Liberals call it the "paradox of tolerance"; you can only tolerate those who are tolerant, otherwise tolerance becomes self-defeating.

I don't think you need to worry about an Islamic Caliphate in Europe anytime soon. As a rule, Small bands of fanatics acting as the 'vanguard' simply "get lucky" because of how weak conditions are and aren't able to change the situation. they just ride the wave. that's sounds like happened with ISIS- it just stepped into a power vacuum. it would take mass conversions to make it even possible for such a state to exist in America, and really there is nothing that calls for that.
Islamism is not an existential threat to western civilization unless they get nuclear weapons. I think that's what really scares the c**p out of everyone as you can be pretty sure they'd use them. if you can recruit suicide bombers, mutually assured destruction is just a question of scale.

[gets chills] evil f**k-ups.

 

[gsa]

Some on the left make the mistake of thinking defending Islamism for defending equality. I think Liberals call it the "paradox of tolerance"; you can only tolerate those who are tolerant, otherwise tolerance becomes self-defeating.

I don't think you need to worry about an Islamic Caliphate in Europe anytime soon. As a rule, Small bands of fanatics acting as the 'vanguard' simply "get lucky" because of how weak conditions are and aren't able to change the situation. they just ride the wave. that's sounds like happened with ISIS- it just stepped into a power vacuum. it would take mass conversions to make it even possible for such a state to exist in America, and really there is nothing that calls for that.
Islamism is not an existential threat to western civilization unless they get nuclear weapons. I think that's what really scares the c**p out of everyone as you can be pretty sure they'd use them. if you can recruit suicide bombers, mutually assured destruction is just a question of scale.

[gets chills] evil f**k-ups.

One word: Pakistan.

 

[Laika]

One word: Pakistan.

I hate "the system" for what it does to people, but I have nothing but sympathy for the poor guy whose working away in any of the intelligence services trying to keep track of fissionable material. they will never get the credit for nothing happening and will get all the blame if there is even a hint of something goes wrong. it must be hell. we need more people like that and fewer reasons for such a job to even exist.

 

[gsa]

Some on the left make the mistake of thinking defending Islamism for defending equality. I think Liberals call it the "paradox of tolerance"; you can only tolerate those who are tolerant, otherwise tolerance becomes self-defeating.

I don't think you need to worry about an Islamic Caliphate in Europe anytime soon. As a rule, Small bands of fanatics acting as the 'vanguard' simply "get lucky" because of how weak conditions are and aren't able to change the situation. they just ride the wave. that's sounds like happened with ISIS- it just stepped into a power vacuum. it would take mass conversions to make it even possible for such a state to exist in America, and really there is nothing that calls for that.
Islamism is not an existential threat to western civilization unless they get nuclear weapons. I think that's what really scares the c**p out of everyone as you can be pretty sure they'd use them. if you can recruit suicide bombers, mutually assured destruction is just a question of scale.

[gets chills] evil f**k-ups.

I think the more pressing problem with the European left's approach to Islam is with the right. The right will combine the liberal criticism of Islamism with nativism and anti-Muslim animus for political points, if people believe the left will not defend free speech and secularism.

 

[Laika]

I think the more pressing problem with the European left's approach to Islam is with the right. The right will combine the liberal criticism of Islamism with nativism and anti-Muslim animus for political points, if people believe the left will not defend free speech and secularism.

yeah, it's bizzare. I don't know a huge amount about the far right (for today at least- I know a fair bit about the 1930's), but I have heard a suggestion that they would just want to "leave them alone" to do what the hell they want in "their" country (as long as they're ok with vice versa). A strange and twisted alliance to say the least.

the left appears to be in crisis as the pervasive sense of "there is no alternative" means it doesn't have much to strive for but only to defend past gains. Being "opposed" to something like capitalism, racism, sexism etc is not enough as you need a positive vision to strive for in order for it to be rewarding. The far left is virtually extinct and it would easily take decades for it to recover. it's probably the fact we feel so defensive that makes it hard to support free speech which may be interpreted as hostile.

 

[Simplelogic]

OneLawForAll, an anti-sharia campaign organization in the UK, has a fascinating report available online detailing the ways in which some Left wing UK organizations promote Islamism at the expense of minority rights, free speech and feminism. How and why is this accomplished?

1. Conflation of "Islamophobia" with racism. By creating a boogeyman of irrational animus, any criticism of Islam can be reduced to racial antagonism or irrational anti-Muslim bias. This has the effect of silencing critics, and in extreme cases anti-free speech laws in the Western countries can even be used to accomplish state censorship.

2. A romanticized and erroneous view of Islamism. By equating Islamism with "anti-imperialism," some leftists see Islamism as a force for "social justice" in the so-called "colonies." This racist caricature of Muslim countries ignores the manipulation of Islam for political purposes by the elite within those countries and leaves minorities within them at the mercy of Islamists.

The linked article contains a link in PDF form to the full report. It is a fascinating must-read for anyone concerned about the rise of Islamism. And it is written from a left wing perspective as well.

Nice post. The world is filled with Islamophobia-phobia.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

1. Conflation of "Islamophobia" with racism. By creating a boogeyman of irrational animus, ...

Can you offer a couple of examples where associating Islamophobia with racism creates "a boogeyman of irrational animus" …

… or why the effort to disassociate Islamophobia and racism should not be seen as bigoted apologetics?​

 

[MD]

The Left has been complicit in allowing Islamism to thrive and grow in the west. They are the reason why Islamism is a growing problem in the West. They also spew a lot of anti semitic hate against Jews.

 

[Yerda]

The left is polluted with the same breed of sociopaths who lead the right.