FeedThe ‘Anti-Fascism Is Hypocritical For Not Opposing Radical Islam’ Myth
January 1, 2000 in 1MU Mythbuster - Fascist Myths Exposed
The Myth
People who protest against the BNP and EDL are hypocrites for not protesting against radical Islamists like Anjem Choudary.
The Truth
Radical Islam in the UK, unlike the Far Right, has no political party representing its interests and does not have political representatives. Choudary set up two organisations, Al-Muhajiroun and Al Ghurabaa, that are now both illegal under anti-terrorism legislation. It is a vague and ill-defined entity that is therefore hard to organise demonstrations against in any sensible way. It does not seek power through the ballot box and does not form a monolithic body like the BNP or EDL. Choudary is in reality little more than the lone voice of a fanatic with no substantial following.
There is no ‘Radical Islamic Party‘ against which protests could be organised.
Therefore how can you realistically protest against such a thing? The only examples we have seen against ‘extreme Islam‘ recently are the English Defence League and its Scottish and Welsh brethren. These take the form of marches through areas with high Muslim populations and protests against mosques. A place of worship is apparently a sign of religious extremism. Marching through Muslim areas and protesting against mosques will of course do nothing but increase levels of Islamic extremism by inflaming the situation. More than likely the above constitute a animosity towards Muslims generally and agitation is the intent.
There appears to have been no attempt made at a display of solidarity between anti-Islamic extremism protesters, like the EDL, and moderate Muslims. In fact the attitudes shown by EDL members are that there are no such things as moderate Muslims. Recently the imam at Harrow Mosque was compared with Anjem Choudary, a religious fanatic. That’s like saying all Church of England vicars are like David Koresh!
So aside from writing letters to the newspapers or their MPs, anti-fascists are supposed to do what exactly? Stomp around through Muslim communities and outside mosques like the EDL do presumably. Isn’t that more like fascist intimidation than protesting? Would it be reasonable for Muslims to march through Christian areas, including rural villages and towns, and outside churches in protest against the BNP?
In both instances it appears that it is undemocratic and anti-British not to hold the same opinions as the BNP and EDL or to actually oppose those opinions. It is also apparently hypocritical for opponents not to behave in the same manner as the BNP and EDL do, in relation to Islam and Muslims. So if you object to fascism but don’t object to British Islam in some way, you are anti-British, anti-democratic, a hypocrite and a traitor according to the BNP and EDL it seems.
© One Million United
September 14th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Why would demonstrations against mosques increase the amount of islamists? Even if the EDL-marches might be provocative, even offensive to muslims in general, I don’t think, that outrage over this marches automatically turns moderate muslims into jihadi extremists. To assume this would imply two things I hope you do not want to imply:
1. That muslims in general are not able to deal with criticism or insults like followers of other faiths and that a muslims would turn into “the islamist hulk” as soon as he is offended.
I think, this is wrong, because I believe, that the vast majority of muslims are sane people that would not, just because of their faith is being questioned by a fringe political group, turn violent or radical. As for the lunatic fringe in islam: they would turn to islamism, whether they were insulted or not. For it is the islamist ideology that attracts them. An ideology that offers an all-encompassing, closed world view and (to islamists) is always right. An ideology that is blind to contradictions within. Therefore, the west is evil, whether there are demonstrations or not.
2. Everybody criticising islam ist (at least partly) to blame for the rise of islamism.
This, I think is an argument, that could be used to silence every critic of islamism, regardless, whether the critique is based on facts or not. In extreme cases, the victims of islamism could thus be charged with helping islamists through speaking out.
As for the question what Anti-fascists are supposed to do against radical islamism in britain: How about, e.g. protesting sharia courts settling cases of domestic violence? As long, as these courts are operating, muslim women will be forced to turn to them rather than to regular courts. As those courts have shown to be rather mild against men beating their wives, this is an unacceptable attack on womens rights! It has to be one law for all, not seperate laws for people of different religions. Protection by British law is not a privilege for white christians, it is a right every person in Britain should be entiteled to. To act on this problem, anti-fascists could protest for a ban of sharia courts. To do this, they would not have to “stomp around mosques” but organise rallies around their nearest courts, for example. This is not only something, that anti-fascists could do, it is something anti-fascists should do. For accepting different law systems for people with different ethnicities or religions is blatant, pure racism. Unfortunately, I have not witnessed anti-fascist action against this form of racism yet.
January 4th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
Is it just me that finds the invented word “Islamism” offensive and a word bandied around by EDL-ers? The word is Muslim, and it suits fine for all factions be they the 99.9999999999999% good, or the small minority of others.