Is the term 'Islamic Fascists' used by Bush today fair?

Question

How does it sound if someone says, 'Christian Fascists'? Where are we all heading in this world of ours?

Answer 1

extton is correct. It is rhetoric.

Put in the basket with:

terrorist
unprivileged combatant
militant
liberal (when it is used as a derogatory term)

Its best just to ignore these words if you ever see them on TV or in newsprint. They are there to make it clear which side you should be on, and nothing more.

Answer 2

I don't think the term "Islamic Fascists" is any more inflammatory than the term "Christian Fascists." Both exist, in varying degrees. We have a political party that proclaims itself to be the 'moral majority' and a 'party of morals.' But that same party, now in power, has taken a lot of money from the poor, the elderly, the sick, and the disabled, and unquestionably gives aid and favors to powerful corporations and friends in power. This is not opinion, it is fact. If the people currently in power now proclaim themselves to be Christian, their tactics sure look fascist to me. I think the teachings of Jesus look pretty contradictory to what these folks are doing - if Jesus walked into the Senate today, would he do what he did in the temple? Would he appreciate those in power calling themselves the moral majority? I'm tired of the 'great divider' we have in power right now. We need a 'strong uniter' who is able to celebrate differences and mend some nasty wounds in our world.

Answer 3

It seems fascism does not have the most precise definition. It was most directly attributed to Mussolini, and the Third Reich's version of fascism was called National Socialism.

Bush's government seems to represent what many people would consider fascist: declaring a belief in freedom and justice while destroying the freedom of people around the world and subverting the laws of their own land to promote their interests at the expense of the rights of the people in addition to having close ties to the corporate world.

Interestingly, the Bush government favors totalitarian regimes ("Saudi" Arabia, Jordan, Egypt) while opposing those which have some element of democracy (Palestine and Iran).

It seems difficult to apply the term fascist to "Islamic" groups.

Answer 4

Well Gee, why not look up "Fascists" in the dictionary and find out! Just because you don't like the word as applied to the Islamic people doesn't mean its true.

Personally? I like to fill up the Rio Grande river with the man eating Floridian Alligators to deal with the illegal immigrants.

I'd like to turn every country that deals with terrorists into a nuclear wasteland.

It doesn't bother me ethically at all to wipe out an entire nation that supports terrorists.

Answer 5

i've haven't seen the news for awhile so i don't know what he said.
you can go to yahoo news and link to ap strange news and oddly enough.
the stuff there is much more entertaining.
the american news media is a sensationalistic disgrace anyway.
as far as bush goes, don't worry. there won't be another republican in the white house for at least 12 years after he's out.
but unfortunately the militarism that he began in full(and the clinton administration started in part) will continue. once a country is engaged in a war, you just can't pull out. the nation would be seen as weak by the entire world if it did so, whether true or false.
you had the same thing with the nixon administration. it inherited a democrat war. they had to try to win it, even when they pulled out of vietnam they kept the option to re-enter. it probably would have been excercized if nixon hadn't resigned. if there is no total war, there is no total victory. it will drag on and on.

Answer 6

It just goes to show how we have dissolved the meaning of many words - "fascist," "communist," "liberal," "conversative," etc. Ask most people to define these political terms, and see what kind of clear defintions you get. I have had people tell me that Hitler was a Communist (because they blur Communism and Socialism together), when if fact the Nazis hated the Communists. And people call Cindy Sheehan a "communist" - for reasons I still don't quite understand.

As another poster said, fascism is another term for "evil". Pull out the big, powerful words as a means of trying to make the point.

I have my own concerns about the growth of fascism, but it's not focused on the Middle East.

Answer 7

Fascism is a radical totalitarian political philosophy that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, extreme nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism. In other words: Republicans.

You could probably call the leaders of Syria, Pakistan, Egypt and Iran such, but it doesn't fit the Wahhaby terrorists of Al Qaeda. They are neither corporatist nor nationalists. They are theocratic monarchists.

But in the end, how totalitarianism plays out for the foks at the bottom is the same, whether Naziism of the right or Stalinism of the left.

Answer 8

I think its rather sad, how little we understand about the history of that area. We're labeling a group of extremists that we umbrella the whole Islam or Muslim system with. It has been a very volatile area for centuries and what we consider one of the cradles of civilization. I think its rather foolish to think that we're going to make a significant difference that we would consider acceptable without making an even more significant effort to curb retaliation. Not impossible, but just not practical. Logistically speaking, we should of taken one front at a time, not multiple fronts in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea and stretch our resources too thin, its counter productive.

Answer 9

I don't think the term applies to all Islamics but it does apply to some. Just like there are some christian fascists who call themselves white supremacists.

Answer 10

Yes ! Islam is by it's very teaching a Terrorist Origination:
1) There is no Freedom Of Speech in Islam.
2) There is no Freedom Of Religion in Islam.
3) There is no Dissent in Islam.
4) Islam is not Democratic.

Answer 11

I don't think it's a matter of "fair". It's a matter of sensibility.

The problem isn't that he's exagerating the negative aspects of islamic fundamentalists; the problem is that he's using "fascism" wrong. The islamic fundamentalists, even the worst of them, aren't really "fascists." Fascism is something like nazi germany, or italy under mussolini.

He's just using "fascists" as rhetoric. In modern america, "fascism" is evil by default. Therefore, he attempts to cast islamic fundamentalists in a negative light by calling them fascists...even though they really aren't.

It's a phenomenon called "********"; it's where you say whatever you need to in order to make people think what you want them to. Whether or not what you're saying is accurate is irrelevent.
It's worse than lying, in a sense; at least liars care about what the truth is.