Chechnya and Kosovo: Alliances with Islam and the collapseofRussian Influence

Daniel F. Vukovich vukovich at uiuc.edu
Mon Jan 3 12:32:11 PST 2000


At 02:15 PM 1/3/00 -0500, Nathan wrote:


>
>How to explain the anti-Arab, anti-Islamic bias is complicated and is a
>combination of Said's analysis of Orientalism, Christian fundamentalist views
>that Islam is obviously a bigger theological competitor than Buddhism, and the
>political recognition that Islam is harnessed to real economic resources
>such as
>oil that can challenge Western power.

Nathan, Thanks for a terrific post. Really that is all I wanted to say, but I will also throw in a reference to Samir Amin's bk *Eurocentrism* as germane here. Eurocentrism as an "ideological deformation" and necessary part of the practice of imperialism and the "culture of capitalism", all for 15 bucks via MR press. One wishes Amin were a bit more into contemporary theories of ideology and discourse, but its an excellent book. And Amin of course (imho) is perhaps the most important theorist/political economist taking breath.

--Dan


>And the justification of the attacks on Chechyna citing the latter's Islamic
>character is exactly the dictatorial method one should fear. That Putin,
>a man
>of the security services, is riding the issue to the Presidency is a classic
>authoritarian fascist tactic. Notably, in neither Kosovo or Chechnya is
>there
>an identifiable Feurer-style figure, but in both Serbia and now Russia, there
>are singular leaders who used attacks on a religious minority to stabilize
>their
>power. Just as Weimar social democracy gave way to racist scapegoating and
>war, so too did formerly socialist-minded Yugoslvia and the Soviet Union give
>way to racist scapegoating in Serbia and Russia. These latter
>developments seem
>much more alarming revivals of fascism than anything in the Islamic world.
>
>-- Nathan Newman

------------------------------------------------------ Daniel F. Vukovich Dept. of English; The Unit for Criticism University of Illinois Urbana, IL 61801 ------------------------------------------------------



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