Message: 3 Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:32:04 -0000 From: "James Heartfield" Subject: [lbo-talk] Comrades and Brothers: Islamists and Socialists in
Egypt To: Message-ID: <008301c7661b$a0ae0de0$0201a8c0 at D6F2G31J> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
When I read the Islamist literature that was circulating at the London School of Economics, much of it had clearly been written by people who had an extensive knowledge of Marxist and socialist ideas, but had chosen to re-present them in Islamic form. All the concepts like underdevelopment, national oppression were phrased in ways that recalled the literature of the Soviet-influenced Communist Parties, but under a veneer of Islamism.
I have been teaching on a development Studies module at Westminster University. Many of the Muslim students express a broad anti-imperialist outlook, that is equally anti-Marxist intellectually. One challenged me when I cited Walter Rodney's book on Capitalism underdeveloping Africa. 'Do you think it is any good?' 'Yes, it's ok' 'But it is very Marxist', he said, as if that was an argument against Rodney. The same student denounces Imperialism, unequal exchange between North and South, repatriation of super-profits etc. without understanding that all of these concepts were developed by the left, before they were haphazardly imported into a bastard hybrid between Islam and leftism.
A. al-Z: Well said. At the forum I have been active at the rightwingers can't get this concept around their pointed little heads. They dogpile people who dissent from their ignorant views and I wish more people like you posted there. In fact, I know that one of these days there will be a critical mass of like-minded folks who will expose the rightwing hijacking of the struggle against Islam.
At the same time I've spent years in the political wilderness after being shouted down by leftists when I explained the true nature of that sick ideology called Islam. I left an organization that I love (the IWW) in order to devote more time to unravelling this subject and it's been a hard road. The Left dropped the ball and there's a history to this. There is a need to really look at the history of leftist rhetoric and honestly appraise the support for such things as the Palestinian movement as well as the collaboration of authoritarian types such as Trotskyites who have become lapdogs for Muslims. It's late in coming and that needs to be looked at honestly also.
The best hope for the Left (IMHO) is to take the lead in laying the groundwork for a sanctuary movement as millions of people are going to leave Islam in our lifetimes. There needs to be organizations who will break away and denounce this sorry state of affairs. The dhimmitude (subservience) of many leftists to Islam is appalling and it will kill the Left if something is not done about it. I know about the Euston Manifesto and also the attacks against them. I challenged Noam Chomsky at zmag to a debate on this about 6 years ago and there was not even a peep of an answer. I know of academics who specialize in communications and are wonderfully talented people become uncritically accepting of Muslim lies and get taqiyyaed without even knowing what taqiyya is. This taboo has got to be shattered even if if painful admissions of stupidity are to be encountered. As I told one halal hippy who is sympathetic to Islam: "Suck it up Princess. You fucked up."
Sincerely, Ansar al-Zindiqi
http://www.workersliberty.org/node/6736
--------------------------------- Bored stiff? Loosen up... Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20070314/9068ed89/attachment.htm>