On Apr 11, 2007, at 3:02 PM, Lenin's Tomb wrote:
> I don't wish to forget anything, and I'm not interested in turning
> Islam into a master-category of resistance. I simply think that in
> all prevailing circumstances, it is absolutely imperative to open
> channels of communication and make links with politicised Muslims, and
> that includes some of those who are well to the right of us. My model
> here would be the collaboration between the Muslim Brothers and the
> Left in Egypt - as Hossam el-Hamalawy describes it, it is far from
> unproblematic, and dogged by the persistent conservatism of the MB
> leadership. Yet a constructive engagement with especially its
> radicalised youth and grassroots can produce results.
THe last sentence, yes, but as an organization, the MB sounds rather dreadful. If it really wants to create a caliphate across the Middle East that would merely be replacing one form of authoritarian imperialism with another.
>> I'm just editing an interview with Hamid Dabashi in which he recalls
>> Iranians' fondness for Germans in the run-up to WW II, because the
>> Germans made a lot of anti-British noises.
>
> I think you need to be very careful about that kind of comparison. Do
> you really want to bolster the equation of Islamism with Fascism that
> the right are so fond of?
Of course not, and you probably know that, but you just want to score a point. The story shows the risk of making alliance simply on the basis of anti-imperialist rhetoric, which can turn out rather ugly.
Doug