berman on islamism, anti-semitism, france: the wrong side of history

berman on islamism, anti-semitism, france: the wrong side of history » bc home » features » fresh comments » rss blogcritics is an online magazine, a community of writers and readers from around the globe. publisher: eric olsen berman on islamism, anti-semitism, france: the wrong side of history written by eric olsen published march 23, 2003 see also: » graphic novel review: ego & hubris: the michael malice story by harvey pekar » book review: xaml in a nutshell by lori a. macvittie » book review: f.u.b.a.r. by sam seder and stephen sherrill anti-war left, check your assumptions. leftist paul berman: in islamism we face a threat not unlike such 20th century totalitarian movements as fascism and communism. berman feels similarly about baathism, the nationalist ideology of iraq's ruling party. in fact, berman believes that islamism and baathism emerged from the same great rift in liberal society, the first world war. "terror and liberalism," berman's bracing new book, suggests that just as liberal-minded europeans and americans doubted the threats of hitler and stalin, enlightened westerners today are in danger of missing the urgency of the violent ideologies coming out of the muslim world. ....a lot of people have misunderstood the nature of islamism for a whole series of reasons. the biggest and most important of those reasons is eurocentrism, which prevented people from looking at these movements at all. and the eurocentrism has a flip side, a soft-headed multiculturalism in which movements in other parts of the world are regarded as hopelessly and wonderfully exotic and not to be judged or analyzed. in the last 20 years literally millions of people have been slaughtered by these movements and the wars they've begun. all of this has received a shockingly small amount of attention. another reason that these movements have received very little attention has to do with anti-zionism, the true origin of which is anti-semitism, the assumption that the jews are the center of the world and therefore the center of the world's evil. so the problems of the muslim world in the middle east can be located in the tiny issue of a border dispute in a place the size of connecticut. across the world people are convinced of this. it's a preposterous idea, but this idea is really widely shared. anybody who holds this idea therefore has carte blanche to ignore the fact that the iran-iraq war killed a million people or that islamism in the sudan has killed between 1.5 million and 2 million people, or that 100,000 people have been killed in algeria. [salon] and the french? the french socialists in the 1930s. they wanted to avoid a new outbreak of the first world war; they refused to believe that millions of people in germany had gone out of their minds and supported the nazi movement. they didn't want to believe that a mass pathological movement had taken power in germany, they wanted to be open-minded to what the germans were saying and to the german grievances of the first world war. and the french socialists, in their open-minded, warm-hearted effort to avoid seeing anything like the first world war occur again, went out of their way to try and find what was reasonable and plausible in the arguments of hitler. they really did end up thinking that the greatest danger to world peace was not posed by hitler but by the hawks in their own society, in france. these people were the antiwar socialists of france, they were good people. yet one thing led to another, they opposed france's army against hitler, and many of them ended up supporting the vichy regime and they ended up fascists! where's the parallel to today? it's not impossible to see something like that today. people want to avoid a war in the middle east, they say they're not for saddam but yet they don't really want to do anything against saddam. they see iraqi liberals and kurdish democrats struggling against saddam, and they really don't want to help these people. they see pathological movements in palestine and elsewhere engaging in acts of random murder for the purest of irrational reasons and these people, the warmhearted, good-souled antiwar socialists of the western countries, fall all over themselves in finding ways to justify the terrible things that are happening elsewhere and find ways to prevent themselves from showing solidarity with the victims. we do see some of the same things. with the french socialists of the 1930s, there was even a slippage into outright anti-semitism, and no one can doubt that some of that has been occurring in the antiwar movement in the united states and above all in europe. of course most people in the antiwar movement are against that. but signs of it exist and it would be foolish to close your eyes to that. while chirac puckers up and kisses the collective ass of his 10% arab population, french jews are suffering: jérémy bismuth is jewish, though he doesn't wear a yarmulke or star of david pendant or adhere to a kosher diet or leave school early on fridays to be home before sunset. nothing identifies the 15-year-old french boy as jewish except his birth. yet because he is a jew, he was attacked by a group of other children, mostly muslim, at the private catholic school he then attended. they dragged him into the school's locker room showers shouting that they were going to gas him as the nazis had gassed jews. he was beaten and flogged with a pair of trousers whose zipper scratched one of his corneas. for jérémy and his parents, the incident a year ago was the harrowing confirmation of a trend that many say is gathering momentum: a resurgent european anti-semitism, coming not from its traditional source among europe's right-wing nationalists, but from the continent's growing islamic community, egged on by the political left. "the political climate is too pro-arab, and in the past year it has become intolerable," said michèle bismuth, jérémy's mother at the family's home last week. she said her traumatized son would not leave the house for 10 days after the attack. ....swastikas, slogans and physical assaults against jews in europe have reached a frequency not seen since the 1930's when fascism was on the rise. but in the vast majority of the cases today, the assailants are young muslims of north african heritage whose parents emigrated to europe in the 1960's and 1970's. the greatest number and most violent attacks have come in france, which, with an estimated six million muslims and 650,000 jews in the country, has europe's largest jewish and largest muslim populations. some jews have left france for israel, driven as much by the deteriorating climate in europe as they are drawn by solidarity with the jewish state. according to israeli government figures, 2,556 french jews emigrated to israel last year, double the number a year earlier and the most since the 1967 six day war. ....the word "feuj" - from the inversion of the french word "juif," which means "jew" - is now a playground standard, both as an insult against jewish students and as a contemptuous adjective. children say a pen that does not work is "completely feuj," for example, and the hebrew salutation "mazel tov" is used in the same way. [ny times] right now, france, like the iraqi regime still struggling to maintain control, is choosing very poorly. the future is not theirs, and their pandering to a viciously anti-semitic arab population and their leftist sympathizers will rank historically with the infamy of vichy. career media professional eric olsen is honored to be the founder and publisher of blogcritics.org, which, quite frankly, rules - as do his wife and four children.keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own! buy from terror and liberalismpaul bermanbook nationalism, antisemitism, and fascism in francejane toddbook, usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks the socialism of fools: anti-semitism on the leftmichael lernerbook vichy france and the jews: with a new foreword [1995] by stanley hoffmannstanley hoffmannbook, usually ships in 24 hours the vichy syndrome: history and memory in france since 1944arthur goldhammerbook, usually ships in 24 hours anti-semitism: myth and hate from antiquity to the presentfrederick schweitzerbook, usually ships in 24 hours the politics of hate: anti-semitism history, and the holocaust in modern europejohn weissbook, usually ships in 24 hours berman on islamism, anti-semitism, france: the wrong side of history published: march 23, 2003 type: section: books filed under: books: history, books: newswriter: eric olsen eric olsen's bc writer page eric olsen's personal site spread the word like this article? email this save to del.icio.us rss feeds all rss feeds (240+) comments on this article bc articles by eric olsen books: history books: news all books articles eric olsen's personal weblog all bc articles all bc comments comments #1 — march 23, 2003 @ 16:17pm — brian flemming [url]eric, this is exactly why the u.n. was created. to deal with growing threats in a responsible way. the notion that saddam hussein is powerful enough to launch world war iii is ludicrous. before this war started, we were not coddling him. we were not listening to his claims and considerering them reasonable--by that i mean not even a signficant fraction of the leftiest of the left was doing that. the comparison of the palestinians to nazi germany is equally strained. militant islamic fundamentalism is very dangerous, no doubt. and ignoring the threat of totalitarian systems' growing to a critical mass would be foolish. and widespread liberal democracy is the only hope for peace on this planet, given every system that has presented itself so far. but this is hardly the same thing as saying, "therefore, the united states should declare itself the military ruler of the world and force compliance with its desires using guns and bombs." telling scary stories about the muslim world is not the same thing as defending present united states policy. one is easy. the other is almost impossible. and that's why so few pro-war people do it. i noticed that you falied to mention how devastatingly critical berman is about the way bush has executed his policy: "and although the u.s. is proposing to act in the interest of the world, bush has managed to terrify the entire world and to turn the world against him and us and to make our situation infinitely more dangerous than it otherwise would have been. it's a display of diplomatic and political incompetence on a colossal scale. we're going to pay for this." but berman does make a very good point that opponents of the "united states shall rule the world even as it cries out against us" policy of the present federal government need to articulate strategies that would work better. it's not enough to point out the moral vacuum at the center of unilateral preventive war. that's a hard job, and we've got to do it. we're fighting against the notion that the world should be ruled by fear. and here at home, the federal government takes every opportunity to keep all u.s. citizens in a state of fear. (evidence: i think you and i both know that if a poll were taken of americans, asking, "does saddam hussein pose a clear and present danger to the united states?" most would answer "yes." yet very very few people acquainted with the facts believe in this extreme view. americans believe it because the white house wants them to believe it, not because it's true.) history does show what a potential threat to world peace islamic totalitarianism poses. but it shows what a threat the present unilateral, violent, civil-rights-squelching, rule-by-fear policy of the united states federal government poses, too. it's not a one-or-the-other question. and i haven't even discussed the question about whether it could work--could military domination of the world against global resistance work as a policy to keep our nation safe? best response i heard at the protest yesterday: "there is no better candidate for a terrorist than a war orphan." #2 — march 25, 2003 @ 19:05pm — rev nickahh, brian flemming a few points: is saddam's military in and of itself a direct threat? obviously not. do the weapons they posses pose a threat? in the hands of terrorists- well yeah. i'm sure you will spout off with the old "well there is no proof and blah freakin blah," but really now, deep down, in your heart of hearts, do you honestly think that our government just made up some crap to launch a war of aggression? i'll give you more credit for intelligence then that. this whole 'rule the world cause we can and we're meanies' crap you left wingers mouth off with makes anything on the x files look downright plausible. and, fyi, i just heard on the news that some of your fellow lefties, the idiotic human shields, are coming out of iraq with stories of how iraq citizens are telling them that they've been praying for the bombs to fall, hoping for the u.s. will come and kill hussein, becouse the all hate him. but your right, this is all just naked aggresion on our part. #3 — april 2, 2003 @ 05:52am — andy(1)thanks for your site: excellent; and myyyyy haven't you got a long one. link side panel that is.... (2)islamism and ba'ath: i was always taught to use dictionary. so i did. ba'ath parties formed in iraq & syria in 1943. though off hand, vaguely, i remember reading that the two fellas who started it off had their thoughts in the early 30s, or was it late 20s. please mind the stampede as people google ba'th rather go for a relaxing bubble bath. vis iraq, communist party was very strong till ba'ath took over. but, again from vague recollection, ba'ath were lucky in that the officers revolution in 1958 gave them the chance they would not have had. they had been signally inimpresive up till then. check. islamism: in modern times from 1979 iranian rev., but resurrgences also in 18th. & 19th. c of course lewis' "what went wrong?" is one of the great sources. #4 — april 2, 2003 @ 06:03am — andyand: politico-sociologically speaking, is saddam the ba'ath party or (though he is a member) has he gone beyond them in the sense that he has created the sort of dictatorship/oligarchy/family-archy that is essentially at odds with ba'ath -pan arab & socialist principles? and yet their organisational skills (middle class, educated) are essential to his remaining in power. and without saddam, would the ba'thist be "people we could do business with", or too tainted by his excesses? #5 — april 2, 2003 @ 09:34am — eric olsenthanks andy, the blogroll consists of blogcritics members, now over 230 strong. re spelling, i am not terribly concerned about the ' in baath - it's spelled both ways, including without the ' in the article quoted here. as far as iraq and baathgoes - nothing left to "work with" - time to rip it all down and start ove again. #6 — april 2, 2003 @ 10:15am — andy-the origionalhey another andy! uh oh i don't care about spelling....so you know which one is which haha want comments emailed to you? no spam, promise! address: add your comment, speak your mind (or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/4020) personal attacks are not allowed. please read our comment policy. name: url: comments: remember name/url? please preview your comment! bc hometv/filmmusicculturesci/techbookspoliticssportsgamingtastesdesicriticsglosslipgoodie bagbc forumsfanboyweb cultist search in... blogcritics.org tv and film music sites books and authors politics sports games scitech travel reference sites search the web these searchrolls are blogcritics' custom search engines that return results from their hand-selected sites.you can also...- add them to firefox- make a searchbox- roll your own search....close in the spotlight blogcritic of the day — colin ricketts tv » brad laidman - gossip girl - "victor/victrola", josh lasser - pbs primetime programming for the week of november 11, cindyc - house - "whatever it takes", takiela bynum on bet's sunday best, chris beaumont on the writers strike music » richard marcus says chrome dreams ii is one of neil young's better efforts in years and interviews blues guitarist lurrie bell, jose vilson on kenneth "babyface" edmonds' playlist, tom johnson speculates about the next incarnation of king crimson, gette on the jazz violin of stratospheerius' headspace culture » doug delong on godtube, youtube for christians, lenny campello asks if museum association president has put his foot in his mouth regarding hispanics books » mel odom finds the road to hell is paved with clever writing, gette assesses a collection of first punk show stories, donald gibson recounts clapton's chronicles, violet nesdoly enters the world of jane austen film » josh lasser on princess bride 20th anniversary collector's edition, chris beaumont kicks off holiday season with fred claus, tall writer on sting-less bee movie, caballero oscuro on funny face 50th anniversary edition politics » benjamin cossel - don't forget veteran's day, alex hutchinson - will obama survive the fox news attack machine? 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