"IN A LIVE BBC interview recently, I called Hizbullah "Islamo-fascists." The interviewer said nervously, "That's a very controversial description." I replied that it was merely accurate. She brought the interview to a swift close.-William Shawcross, in a Jerusalem Post piece titled "Yes, The Problem is Islamic Fascism." These days, truer words cannot possibly be spoken. Posted by Stephen Silver at August 16, 2006 02:29 AMBut how else should one describe a military machine that marches under the banner of a demagogic leader who seeks above all to kill Jews?
Its not just Hizbullah, of course. The same ideology of hate and destruction motivates al-Qaida, perhaps the inspiration, if not the controller, of the arrested British bombers.
In a thoughtful recent speech in Los Angeles Blair spoke of fighting an "arc of extremism." That extremism is Islamic extremism, whether it is inspired al-Qaida or by Teheran, whether its foot soldiers are Sunni or Shi'ite, whether they were born in Britain, or southern Lebanon, or Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or anywhere else.
As Blair said: The battle is over the values that are to govern the future of the worlds. "Are they those of tolerance, freedom, respect for difference and diversity; or those of reaction, division, hatred?"
"This is war," said Blair.
Alas, it is. Wherever they were born, the men who want to blow up airliners, who want to destroy Israel and, not coincidentally, who want to kill all hope of a decent society in Iraq - are Islamo-fascists who are united in hatred of us."