All the new rage
In the latest twist in the Bush administrations’ verbiage in the war on terror – or the war against radical extremists – a new term has emerged: Islamic fascism, sometimes referred to as “Islamofascism.”
The term has been seized upon by some as accurate, by others as unfair. To equate a religion with a totalitarian ideology, the latter argues, is to ignore the vast majority of the religion that does not subscribe to extremist ideas.
Is the term accurate? Fascism is defined by a totalitarian government that emphasizees loyalty to the state. Terrorism, on the other hand, is a dispersed threat that exists outside of any state.
In a speech before the American Legion one week ago Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared his critics with those who would have appeased Hitler before World War II, arguing that the world faces “a new type of facism.”
Attempting to silence critics with such rhetoric does give one pause for thought.