On October 16, 2008 the GW Chapter of the Young America’s Foundation hosted writer and public speaker Nonie Darwish as the conclusion to their series of events for Islamo-Facsism Awareness week.
Overall the event went well as Ms. Darwish spoke of her experiences with Islam and some of its more radical elements. A few points that resonated with me was an account she gave that after the September 11, 2001 attacks she called several people she knew in Egypt asking them how they felt about the attack and that it was perpetrated by Arabs. She noted that no one believed that this attack was done by Arabs and that is was merely a Jewish conspiracy.
She also commented on how Saudi Arabia is building mosques around the world in an effort to spread Islam because, as she said, once a mosque is built it can never be destroyed and that any country that belongs to Islam belongs to it forever. She views the influx of Saudi money around the world as an attempt to spread Islam, an attempt that is hypocritical since no Arab Muslim country allows organizations to create endowed chairs on Christianity or other religions at universities.
Considering the events of this week and GW’s history with this event last year, I would like to point out that the event was not about hate or bashing Muslims. It was about peace. Although Ms. Darwish may have used some extreme examples it does bring attention to a growing problem in world affairs as how to address the affects of radical minorities and religions. I want to stress the term radical religions as not pertaining only to Islam, but that any form of violent extremism is something that needs to be addressed.
- Timothy Little, Editor-in-Chief
Tim,
Although I do agree that much of what Ms. Darwish has to say about Islam is well researched and often offers up unique discourse, the fact remains that this lecture was given as part of the Young America’s Foundation’s Islamo-fascism week. There are more then a handful of better terms that this group could have chosen, but instead they chose a term that is not only inflammatory but also highly misleading. From the first use of this term several years ago, there have been very few in the academic or government community that have given it any credence, instead most see it as misguided attempt to associate modern Islamic radicalism with fascism, one of the clear enemies of the United States in the 20th century. Does the group feel Americans are not worried enough? Are people simply not aware of the threat posed by radical Islam (even after September 11) and need a comparison to quantify it? And even if this is true what does increasing the level of fear and worry accomplish?
In the end this term is simply another way to generalize the threat radical Islam poses to the west. If the goal is truly to raise awareness and make us better able to address the global situation, then the group should use rhetoric that informs and educates, not misleads. Fascism, by definition, shares almost nothing with the radical groups we face today and by insisting on using this term we are only further hindering our ability to understand and intelligently combat these threats.