Mr. “Islamo-Fascism” stirs in his sleep

David Horowitz is to be congratulated for his remarkable intellectual acuity. After publishing scores of articles by Andrew Bostom, me, and other Islam critics over the last several years showing how the beliefs and actions of today’s Islamic extremists are based on the teachings and models of historical Islam, it’s just dawned on Horowitz for the first time that the “Islamo-fascism” he endlessly trumpets as a mortal threat to freedom is in fact inseparable from … historical Islam. Which means that the very notion of “Islamo-fascism,” as a modern ideology distinct from historical Islam, is false, since that which Horowitz keeps calling “Islamo-fascism” is none other than Islam itself. Which means that the problem is not “Islamo-fascism” or “Islamic extremism” or “Islamic radicalism” but Islam. Talk about being on the caboose of societal evolution. Talk about, uh, reading the articles one publishes.

Horowitz writes at his blog:

Is Islam a problem? You tell me.

Consider the portability of modern weapons; take into account the vast oil and opium wealth available to Islamic jihadists; read carefully the precedents set by Islam’s prophet [italics added] for this terrorist leader [Muhammad Taher Al-Farouq]; and then tell me that one can speak of the Islamo-fascist threat in all its existential dimensions without speaking of Islam as well.

(Also, read up on how Horowitz, the supposed arch-foe of leftist PC, betrayed me, who had been a regular contributor at his site and a frequent e-mail correspondent of his for five years, to a leftist enemy.)

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 21, 2007 10:54 AM | Send