Abstract
Current discussions and disputes about the character of radical Islam and Islamic fundamentalism would benefit from an awareness of earlier assessments of these matters by important Western scholars and thinkers. Some of these conflicting assessments are reminiscent of past disputes about the nature of Communist systems that used to divide Western intellectuals. As will be recalled, there were deep disagreements between those favorably disposed toward Communist systems and movements and those critical of them. A similar divide exists today with regard to radical Islam, perhaps not quite so deep. In both cases, central to the disagreements have been the questions: to what degree do beliefs and ideologies determine policies or behavior? How closely do ideas shape actions?
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Notes
Charles Watson, The Muslim World 28, no. 1 (January 1938): 1–107, 6.
G. -H. Bousquet, L’Ethique sexuelle de l’Islam, (1966; Paris, 1990), p. 10.
C. Snouck Hurgronje, Selected Works, ed. G. -H. Bousqet and Joseph Schacht (Leiden, The Netherlands, 1957), p. 264.
Bertrand Russell, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (London, 1920), pp. 5, 29, 114.
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Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind (New York, 1959), pp. 51–77.
Carl Jung, The Collected Works: Volume 18, The Symbolic Life (Princeton, 1939), p. 281.
Karl Barth, The Church and the Political Problem of Our Day (New York, 1939), pp. 43, 64–65. (I owe these references to Dr. Andrew Bostom).
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ManfredHalpern, Politics of Social Change in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton, 1963), quoted in Martin Kramer, “Islamism and Fascism: Date to Compare,” on his web site, http://www.geocities.com/martinkramerorg/2006_09_20.htm [accessed on October 22, 2007].
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Martin Kramer, Ivory Towers on Sand. The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America, (Washington, D.C., 2001), p. 49.
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All quotes in the last three paragraphs are from Campus Watch, “Esposito: Apologist for Militant Islam,” FrontPage Magazine, September 3, 2002.
Robert Conquest, The Great Terror (London, 1968), pp. 678–679.
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Quoted in James Burnham, Suicide of the West. An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism (Chicago, 1985), pp. 75–76.
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All three quoted in Alan B. Krueger and Jitka Maleckova, “Seeking the Roots of Terrorism,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 6, 2003.
The discussion of poverty and militant Islam leans heavily on the article by Daniel Pipes, “God and Mammon: Does Poverty Cause Militant Islam?” National Interest, Winter 2002.
Benjamin Netanyahu, “Today, We Are all Americans,” in New York Post, September 21, 2001.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Fighting Terrorism (New York, 1995) quoted in
Douglas Murray, Neoconservativism: Why We Need It (New York, 2006), pp. 118–119.
Quoted by Steven Emerson, “International Terrorism and Immigration Policy,” United States House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims, January 25, 2000.
Christopher Hitchens, “The Left and Islamic Fascism,” The Nation, September 2001.
Daniel Freedman, “Bernard Lewis: U.S. May Lose War on Terror,” New York Sun, September 13, 2006.
Christian Godin, La Fin de l’Humanité (Seyssel, France, 2003), p. 71.
Sayeed Abdul A’la Maududi, Jihad in Islam, 7th Edition (Lahore, Pakistan, 2001) p. 8, 9.
Quoted in Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: The Economist as Savior. A Biography. 1920–1937, vol. 2 (Harmondsworth, UK, 1995), p. 520.
Daniel Bell, “The Fight for the 20th Century: Raymond Aron Versus Jean-Paul Sartre,” New York Times Book Review, February 18, 1990, 1, quoted in
Paul Hollander, The End of Commitment. Intellectuals, Revolutionaries, and Political Morality, (Chicago, 2006), p. 3.
Mary Ann Weaver, A Portrait of Egypt. A Journey Through the World of Militant Islam (New York, 2001). Interview on www.theatlantic.com/unbound/bookauth/ba990217.htm.
Étienne Mantoux, The Carthaginian Peace or the Economic Consequences of Mr Keynes (London, 1946).
Andrew Roberts, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 (New York, 2007), p. 161. Emphasis added.
Brandon Crocker, “Moral Equivalence Rides Again,” The American Spectator, June 14, 2005.
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© 2008 Paul Hollander
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Warraq, I. (2008). Apologists of Totalitarianism: From Communism to Islam. In: Hollander, P. (eds) Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230616240_12
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