One of the more odd sets of bedfellows today is the Western left and Islam. While it might seem that the two groups should be diametrically opposed, they in fact find themselves in bed together more often than not. But there are some good reasons for all this.
One of the better explanations which can be appealed to here comes from Pamela Geller of AtlasShrugs.com. The director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative has just penned a new book which looks at creeping sharia in the US, Stop the Islamization of America (WND Books, 2011). In it she warns of the dangerous alliance between the left and Islam. She is worth quoting at length:
“I think it is important to point out that Islamic supremacism could never have advanced so far and so fast without its alliance with the left. And while it seems counterintuitive on its face that the left would be carrying water for the most extreme and radical ideology on the planet, it is not. The left traditionally aligns itself with the totalitarian ideology of the day, whether it is Stalinism, Communism in other parts of the world (i.e., Maoism, the Pol Pot regime, etc.), or National Socialism (Nazism), all of which resulted in the murder of millions. The left is all about control. The Sharia is also about control. The Sharia exerts total control over the people, which is the very thing that the left desires and demands.
“Leftists are sympathetic and even positive toward Islam because of Islam’s obvious ability to subdue people, compelling them to obey and even to practice self-censorship so as to avoid the threats and abuse that inevitably come to those who resist. So the left recognizes Islam’s usefulness in advancing its authoritarian, totalitarian agenda. Islam’s transnational, supranational quality also aids the left’s desire to obliterate the sovereignty of individual nations and establish international rule that would destroy Constitutionally-protected American freedoms.
“So while ‘Queers for Palestine’ may sound insane and illogical considering the brutal treatment (and murder) of gays living in Muslim countries under the Sharia, it is consistent with leftism and statism.
“We see the effects of the Islamic/leftist alliance in the advance of cultural jihad initiatives all over the country. The left has been joining forces with Islamic supremacists since 9/11 to protest the Bush Doctrine, operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the existence of Israel. Every anti-war and anti-Israel rally was hosted by a leftist/Islamic cabal…”
It is all about common enemies, in other words. The left hates America and the West, as does Islam, so they are quite happy to work together to achieve their aims. Of course the left is being naive if it thinks this alliance can be anything other than temporary and limited.
Whenever the Islamists get into power, all opposition is ruthlessly crushed. And surely among the first to go in this unholy alliance will be the secular leftists, homosexual activists, social engineers, and the like. So the left is quite foolish to think it can actually dine with the devil here.
Of course others have noted this diabolical union. Indeed, a number of books have been written to document this alarming phenomenon. Let me mention just two important studies. The first is the 2004 volume by David Horowitz entitled Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left (Regnery).
Horowitz is a former leftist who some decades ago made a clean break with his radical past. In this important work he argues that the political left is unashamed to be cavorting with radical Islam. Instead of condemning the barbarism of militant Islam, Western leftwing intellectuals are excusing and condoning it. Indeed, the West is condemned for causing the problems, while militant Islam is let off the hook.
He offers plenty of documentation of how leftists are working arm in arm with Islamists to undermine American freedom and democracy. In the 300 pages of evidence he demonstrates the old dictum, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Leftists and Islamists are united in their hatred of the West in general and America in particular.
Indeed, the second volume worth calling your attention to takes up this very theme: United in Hate: The Left’s Romance With Tyranny and Terror, by Jamie Glazov (WND Books, 2009). I have actually already reviewed this book elsewhere: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2009/09/16/a-review-of-united-in-hate-by-jamie-glazov/
But a few quotes are worth offering from this important book. Glazov was born into a family of Russian dissidents, and knows first-hand the importance of fighting against tyranny and oppression. Thus when he and his family fled to the US he was amazed to see leftist intellectuals siding with tyranny and oppression!
He came to the US to experience freedom and democracy, yet found many Americans denigrating and attacking such social goods. Islam is just the latest example of this, but the left has been siding with tyranny for decades now. Says Glazov:
“Throughout the twentieth century, the Western Left supported one totalitarian killing machine after another. Prominent intellectuals from George Bernard Shaw to Bertolt Brecht to Susan Sontag venerated mass murderers such as Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and Ho Chi Minh, habitually excusing their atrocities while blaming America, and even the victims, for the crimes.”
He too documents plenty of examples of this, including the Western left’s love affair with all things Islamist and anti-Israel. It all makes for scary reading. One is reminded of the phrase uttered by Malcolm Muggeridge, “the great liberal death wish”.
And that is just what this is. As Glazov states in the last paragraph of his book: “And so we come to the end of our tale of the Left’s romance with tyranny and terror. Just like the Western intellectuals who journeyed to Russia during and after the Bolshevik revolution, so too present-day Jewish, feminist, and homosexual believers continue the long tradition of members of the political faith in waging war on themselves and, ultimately, lusting for their own annihilation inside a totalitarian dream – and nightmare. This is the story of the Left: a long and horrifying journey into the heart of darkness, destruction, and death.”
Quite so. Of course, if the lefties want to commit their own suicide, so be it, but the trouble is, they want to take the rest of us down with themselves. That is something I will resist steadfastly. And so should all of us.
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