What with both Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Pelosi irresponsibly tossing around the Nazi label, Cliff May provides a welcome reminder of what, and who, the fascists really are.
Maybe something useful can come of this brouhaha: a chance to understand a little more about Nazism and other varieties of fascism, how they’ve threatened us in the past, and the form that threat has taken on in the present. Michael Ledeen, now the Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, spent many years studying fascism. He was perhaps the first to describe the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, as a “clerical fascist.” With that in mind, consider:
Nazism was supremacist. Hitler preached that Germans and Aryans were a master race, born to rule the world. Militant Islamists — whether Shiite (like Khomeini) or Sunni (like Osama bin Laden) — also are supremacist, though they substitute religion for race, the “Nation of Islam” for the German nation. They claim Muslims — led by them — have a divine right to rule.
The Nazis believed their triumph would come through a glorious war. The Islamists believe their triumph will come through a glorious holy war — a jihad against infidels and the West.
The Nazis believed that only men, not women, are fit to lead and wield power. The Islamists concur.
Leave a Reply