Term:Islamofascism

From dKosopedia

The term Islamofascism is used to liken Islamist to fascist political views. It is used almost exclusively (and far to often) in the U.S.

While there are authoritarian strains of Islam and of militant Islam, there are also peaceful and democratic "political" strains that do not see an inevitable "clash" between the cultures of Muslims and the Western world.

While the term Islamofascism may be useful to differentiate certain strains of Islamist authoritarianism from other more democratic strains, its usefulness is very limited by the tendency of its users to apply it to all Muslims or to define an equally bogus concept, "term:Islamism", as their group ideology. (A corresponding coinage, Christofascism, has to been used (to often) to describe Christian groups thay the speaker disagrees with. There are of course authoritarian groups who call themselves Christians See Dominionism.)

An Muslim is simply a person who takes political guidance from Islam. This does not necessarily include guidance about what specific groups to support or whether to use or eschew democracy. There is nothing inherently anti-democratic about Islam - Muhammad himself required the faithful to elect his successor rather than appoint a member of his family. Which some of them did.

Analysis

• SourceWatch: Islamofascist

Links

• Clash of Civilizations