December 19, 2007
AND WE'RE LEFT TO BEAT THE RATIONALISM OUT OF THEM:
Middle East: Europe to blame for authoritarianism in Islamic world, says expert (AKI, 12/11/07)
A leading historian says Europe is to blame for the authoritarianism that exists in Islamic countries.Speaking at an international Islamic conference in Rome, Bernard Lewis said many Muslim countries have adopted a political model imported from Europe in the 19th century. [...]
Lewis said many Muslim countries imported a model from Europe from the 19th century when Islam felt it was behind the West and advancing by drawing inspiration from it.
In early decades of the last century, France reinforced its presence in the south of the Mediterranean and the German Nazis began to be very active in the region pushing its way as far as Iraq and exporting a kind of "remodelled Nazism".
He said it was that period that gave birth to the radicals of the Baath party that led to the leadership of Saddam Hussein and the current party in power in Syria.
Which is why defeating Islamicism is really just a coda to the Long War. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 19, 2007 12:00 AM
The elite Sunni gangsters like this model. The nutjob screamers (the Sunni influenced by the Wahabbis and the thuggish Shi'a) probably don't care - they just want to swing their swords.
Posted by: ratbert at December 19, 2007 4:07 AMIt isn't surprising that a budding authoritarian would import Europe's authoritarian systems lock, stock, and barrel.
Posted by: Mikey![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://brothersjuddblog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 19, 2007 8:39 AM
It's no coincidence that Khomeini spent his exile in Paris and returned to Iran to impose a heresy.
Posted by: oj at December 19, 2007 8:40 AMHe only spent a year in France; but the Baathist Aflaq and company did think Mussolini and Hitler
were cool. And Ghailani had the Black Shirts in mind for the Golden Square movement.
THE book on the subject is The Trird Reich and the Arab East, by a Polish historuan, Lukasz Hirszowicz. The English translation is long out of print, but inter-library loan is a wondrous thing. The book is described here.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Reich_and_the_Arab_East
It is well worth the trouble and wait involved in finding a copy. Lots of detail, diplomatic history, lots of documentation. The Iraqi Baathists and Palestinians were into National Socialism up to their eyebrows.
Posted by: Lou Gots at December 19, 2007 6:58 PM