The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #102929   Message #2093378
Posted By: Roughyed
03-Jul-07 - 04:52 PM
Thread Name: BS: Car bombs defused in london
Subject: RE: BS: Car bombs defused in london
Islamic fundamentalism, far from being 'equivalent to Nazis in every significant way' is very distinct and it doesn't help drawing spurious parallels.

Nazism is a distinct political movement which occurs where there is a lethal threat to capitalism in a particular country and the balance of class forces means that an alliance betweeen the petit bourgeouisie and the lumpen proletariat can take power and save the status quo.

Fascism/Nazism has only ever taken power in Europe in Catholic countries. This is not because these countries are evil or because the Catholic Church is fascist but because the counter-reformation only happened in countries where there was a large peasantry and an underdeveloped haut bourgeouisie - the class forces that favour Fascism/Nazism.

What we are seeing in Al Qaeda is a Saudi civil war being fought by proxy. Osama Bin Laden is a member of the Saudi royal family who would very much like to run the country. Everything he has done is to further that aim. The people he uses are drawn from the petit bourgeouisie and lumpen proletariat because those are the people who support nationalist movements as well as fascist movements. It doesn't make him a fascist or a nazi.

This doesn't excuse Al Qaeda who are a backward looking group with no scruples but it can lead to some illogical leaps if you misidentify your enemy.