After noting the oddities of Roger L. Simon’s latest piece on why the “War against Islamofascism” leads him to support gay marriage, Glenn Greenwald raises an important point that I think often goes overlooked.
Every now and then, it is worth noting that substantial portions of the right-wing political movement in the United States — the Pajamas Media/right-wing-blogosphere/Fox News/Michelle Malkin/Rush-Limbaugh-listener strain — actually believe that Islamists are going to take over the U.S. and impose sharia law on all of us. And then we will have to be Muslims and “our women” will be forced into burkas and there will be no more music or gay bars or churches or blogs. This is an actual fear that they have — not a theoretical fear but one that is pressing, urgent, at the forefront of their worldview.
And their key political beliefs — from Iraq to Iran to executive power and surveillance theories at home — are animated by the belief that all of this is going to happen. The Republican presidential primary is, for much of the “base,” a search for who will be the toughest and strongest in protecting us from the Islamic invasion — a term that is not figurative or symbolic, but literal: the formidable effort by Islamic radicals to invade the U.S. and take over our institutions and dismantle our government and force us to submit to Islamic rule or else be killed.
They actually think this is going to happen (“read Zawahiri’s speeches about the Plan for Caliphate!!”) and believe that we must do everything in our power — without limits — to stop it.
Bingo. Glenn couldn’t be more correct about this. I read quite a few conservative blogs every day for one of my other gigs, and I’ve found that this belief is pervasive in shaping the far-right worldview. The fear of a global Islamic takeover buttresses their opinions about almost everything.
For example, I frequently visit a very conservative site called Dr. Sanity, a psychiatrist, who highlighted this article today.
More than 70,000 members of a hardline Muslim group held a rally in Indonesia that heard calls for a caliphate — or Islamic rule — to govern the world.
The supporters of the Hizbut Tahrir group filled up most of an 80,000-seat sports stadium in the capital Jakarta, waving flags as they heard fiery speeches saying it was “time for the caliphate to reign.”
The meeting was held as part of “civic education” for Indonesian Muslims, said Muhammad Ismail Yusanto, a spokesman for Hizbut Tahrir.
The organisation advocates Islamic rule and is banned in several Middle Eastern countries.
Now, Dr. Sanity notes that, in her medical practice, she has to take seriously patients who talk about committing acts of violence, and as such, we must, in turn, take Hizbut Tahrir supporters seriously, because they’re hell-bent on global domination.
All you have to do is listen to the 70,000 attendees at the rally quoted above. (70,000 !!!) They intend to force us to submit to their religion.
They mean it. They have intent to do what they say. They have demonstrated repeatedly over the last decade and more that they have the means to make it happen; and that there is no aspect of civilized behavior they are not willing to suspend; no level of murderous rage and homicide/suicidal behavior that is closed to them. They fervently believe that their god gives them permission to force us to submit to them or to kill us — in his name.
And all the wishful thinking and talking about “peace” and “brotherhood” and “common values” blah blah blah are pure, unadulterated psychological denial on the part of the intended victim.
When she refers to “they,” I get the sense she’s referring to radicalized Muslims, not Hizbut Tahrir specifically. In this sense, the argument is that all enraged Muslims around the world are exactly the same, all want the same thing (global domination), all use the same tactics (terrorism), all are inspired by the same motivation (their faith), and all read from the same playbook (Koran). If we (the West), don’t stop them, they’ll succeed.
Naturally, the argument then takes the next logical step. If you disagree — about the nature of Islam, or the war in Iraq, or the president’s national security policies, etc. — then you necessarily are helping advance the Islamists’ drive for international hegemony. It’s one of the reasons why the right is comfortable throwing around words such as “treason” and “traitor.”
When reading far-right sites, it’s a perspective to keep in mind. These folks take it seriously.