Neofascism and religion
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Religion and neofascism is a controversial area of study within the context of religion and politics that examines the parallels and intersections between what are purported to be various forms of neofascism and contemporary religions and religious movements.
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[edit] Terminology
The term "fascism" was first used in Italy during the 1920s, and like "Nazism", its meaning came to refer to a type of union of right-wing concepts of authoritarian political controls, with so-called "free" economic models. The term Neofascism is the term used to describe fascist movements active after World War II.
Modern colloquial usage of the word sometimes extends the definition of the terms fascism and neo-fascism (Neo-Nazism) to refer to any totalitarian worldview regardless of its political ideology; however this is problematic to most scholars as many such groups and movements are not constructed around a religious identity.
Some scholars, using the term neofascism in its narrow sense, consider certain contemporary religious movements and groups to represent forms of clerical or theocratic neofascism, including Christian Identity in the United States; some militant forms of politicized Islamic fundamentalism; some militant forms of Jewish nationalism; militant Hindu nationalism in India (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh); and a variety of pagan alternative religions.
Although the assertion that religious fundamentalists and militants are "fascists" can often be understood as a hyperbolic political attack that uses the term "fascism" as a political epithet or slur, there are also some scholars who have used the term in discussing certain religious movements.
[edit] Context
In the late 19th and early 20th century, authoritarian ideals saw a resurgence in the context of political upheavals across Eurasia —typically anti-aristocratic socio-political revolutions promoting ideologies that were rooted in social and economic idealism. The grim reality of warfare corrupted these idealistic notions, and the ethnic-rooted conflicts of World War I and World War II arose from the political circumstances brought about by internal societal battles between (generally) left-wing revolutionaries and right-wing traditionalists.
In addition to the authoritarian political model, most scholars classify fascism as an extreme right ideology, along with ethnic-populist movements that call for increased traditionalism. In the context of intra-societal (that is, "civil") conflicts, this demand for increased traditionalism typically promotes ethnic "unity", and in extreme cases this "unity" equates to or requires the persecution of those not within their ethnic circle. In this equation, religion is largely an aspect of ethnicity, whose moral foundation and message may grow corrupted by the societal acceptance of such convergence between political and religious populism.
In the context of social conflict where religious figures and institutions come under partisan influence, religion often becomes simply a political tool by which principled authority (law, ethics) is replaced by authoritarian violence. Hence any union between religious and right-wing elements may be critically viewed as a dangerous political shift which could lead to a breakdown in the moral and political "fabric" of the society —i.e. which authoritarian "unity" movements claim to counteract.
[edit] Fascism as a social movement
To understand how religion and fascism can merge, it is important to see the difference between fascism in state power and fascism as a social movement prior to obtaining state power. Early fascism was a mixture of syndicalist notions with a Hegelian or idealistic theory of the state; the latter was linked to an extreme nationalism. Both early and later fascism viewed the state as an organic entity rather than as an institution to protect collective and individual rights. Fascists often defined themselves in opposition to laissez-faire capitalism, socialism, Marxism, and democracy.
The term fascism (lower case) is now used by some authors to describe specific past and present socio-political movements: "Fascism is an especially virulent form of extreme right populism. Fascism glorifies national, racial, or cultural unity and collective rebirth while seeking to purge imagined enemies. It attacks both revolutionary movements and liberal pluralism in favor of militarized, totalitarian mass politics. Fascism first crystallized in Europe in response to the Bolshevik Revolution and the devastation of World War I, and then spread to other parts of the world. Between the two world wars, there were three forms of fascism: Italian economic corporatism; German racial nationalist Nazism; and clerical fascist movements such as the Romanian Iron Guard and the Croatian Ustashi. Since WWII, neofascists have reinterpreted fascist ideology and strategy in various ways to fit new circumstances."[1]
Scholar Roger Griffin, argues that "fascism is best defined as a revolutionary form of nationalism, one that sets out to be a political, social and ethical revolution, welding the 'people' into a dynamic national community under new elites infused with heroic values. The core myth that inspires this project is that only a populist, trans-class movement of purifying, cathartic national rebirth (palingenesis) can stem the tide of decadence" (Griffin, Nature of Fascism, p. xi).
This concept of fascism as palingenesis is complementary with the idea of James Rhodes that fascism is a form of apocalyptic millenarianism; and with the work of Emilio Gentile where fascism is seen as a form of "political religion."
Roger Eatwell has also looked at this issue:
- "Religions…involve some form of belief in a supernatural being(s). However, this misses a point that all modern ideologies exhibit dimensions of religions. Even 'rationalist’ ideologies like liberalism have an affective side to their appeal, especially if studied in concrete political situations rather than through the dry texts of their great thinkers. Compare the pomp and circumstance surrounding the contemporary US Presidency with the restrained rationalism of James Madison’s eighteenth century writings on the emerging US Constitution. Or consider the question why do many liberals seem to need to be at war, metaphorically at least, with those who do not share their views? - a question which points to interesting conclusions about much of liberal historiography's demonization of fascism as an un-intellectual creed!"
- "A more fruitful way of distinguishing between ideology and religion is to adapt Søren Kierkegaard's view that the essence of a religion is not the persuasion of the truth of the doctrine, but a leap of faith to accept a view which is inherently absurd. What could be more absurd than to believe that God allowed his only son to be born of a virgin in a lowly stable in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago? Christianity is a religion because of this core absurdity – this need for a leap of faith. Fascism’s essential syncretism meant that it was possible to find forms, which overtly married ideology and religion - for example, in the Iron Guard, or among a limited number of Italian and German clerics (though most failed to see the radicalism at the core of fascism). Moreover, there were aspects of fascism, which were absurd - especially the belief of some Nazis that there was an international Jewish conspiracy against Germany, which encouraged a belief in apocalyptic holy war against the Jew. However, most fascists were not driven by such affective sentiments. Indeed, there is nothing absurd about the core ideology of generic fascism – namely the quest to forge a holistic nation and create a radical syncretic Third Way state." "Reflections on Fascism and Religion".
Many people of faith feel that comparing their religion to ideologies such as Nazism or other forms of fascism is very offensive. However, the holy books and texts of many major world religions can be read to support the idea of divine right monarchy and absolute monarchy in forms that are theocratic, theonomic, or totalitarian.
[edit] Relation between religion and (traditional) fascism
In a book he wrote during World War II, Karl Popper describes the specificity of fascism, in its relation to Hegelianism, thus:
The fact that fascism had to take over part of the heritage of Marxism accounts for the one 'original' feature of fascist ideology, for the one point in which it deviates from the traditional make-up of the revolt against freedom. The point I have in mind is that fascism has not much use for an open appeal to the supernatural. Not that it is necessarily atheistic or lacking in mystical or religious elements. But the spread of agnosticism through Marxism led to a situation in which no political creed aiming at popularity among the working class could bind itself to any of the traditional religious forms.[2]
In short, Popper describes the fascism of his day as:
- different from Hegelianism, which was bound to a specific "traditional religious form" (Lutheran Christianity in Frederick William's Prussia).[3] Further Popper suggests that in fascism "religion" is usually replaced by some form of Haeckel's nineteenth-century evolutionist materialism. In Popper's words: "Thus the formula of the fascist brew is in all countries the same: Hegel plus a dash of nineteenth-century materialism (especially Darwinism in the somewhat crude form given to it by Haeckel)."[2]
- as a consequence of the popularity of Marxism in the first half of the 20th century, traditional fascism is not endorsing any specific religion (or at least there's no "open appeal" in that sense). But while Marxism is seen as downright atheistic, fascism, still according to Popper, is not necessarily atheistic (usually only agnostic).[2]
[edit] Christianity
The linking of Christianity with historic fascism or neofascism has generated contentious debates among scholars and in the media; and is considered by some to be offensive to the religion itself. Discussions of how Fascism and Christianity were linked in some European countries between World War One and World War Two can be found at Clerical fascism.
[edit] The U.S. Christian right
"Christian fascism" or "Christofascism" is a term used primarily on the political left, as well as by some libertarians, to describe what they see as an emerging proto-fascism and to warn that action is needed to stop the possible emergence of a theocratic society on the road to fascism.
Some place this in the context of a claim that the United States itself is heading toward fascism.[4] Advocates of this view include Carl Davidson, who has written an essay: "Globalization, Theocracy and the New Fascism: Taking the Right's Rise to Power Seriously"[5]This view is dismissed as hyperbolic by many scholars of neofascism, while some scholars support this hypothesis. Author David Neiwert began exploring these issues in 2003 in a series of online essays. [6][7][8]
Calling some portion of the Christian Right "Fascist" has become an increasingly popular tendency in the political Left, including the Christian Left. For example, the Reverend Rich Lang of the Trinity United Methodist Church of Seattle, gave a sermon titled George Bush and the Rise of Christian Fascism in which he said "I want to flesh out the ideology of the Christian Fascism that Mr. Bush articulates. It is a form of Christianity that is the mirror opposite of what Jesus embodied. It is, indeed, the materialization of the spirit of antichrist: a perversion of Christian faith and practice...".
[edit] Criticism of linking the U.S. Christian right to theocracy or neofascism
Critics dismiss these claims as hyperbolic, and an "ill-advised attack on conservative Christians" [2]:
- "You want political paranoia? You want guilt by association? You want flat-out looniness? Well, Joe McCarthy’s got nothing on the good liberal folks who are warning us about a takeover by “Dominionist” Christians."
- "The notion that conservative Christians want to reinstitute slavery and rule by genocide is not just crazy, it’s downright dangerous. The most disturbing part of the Harper’s cover story (the one by Chris Hedges) was the attempt to link Christian conservatives with Hitler and fascism. Once we acknowledge the similarity between conservative Christians and fascists, Hedges appears to suggest, we can confront Christian evil by setting aside 'the old polite rules of democracy.' So wild conspiracy theories and visions of genocide are really excuses for the Left to disregard the rules of democracy and defeat conservative Christians — by any means necessary." [3]
One person criticized by Kurtz is Katherine Yurica, who has written about the rise of Dominionism as a theocratic tendency in the Christian Right.[4][5] Yurica responded to Kurtz and pointed out that she has not used the term "Christian Fascism" in her writings.[6] Yurica has noted fascistic tendencies in Dominionism, but she does not consider people who believe in dominionism to be "Christian," a view similar to the statements by the Reverend Rich Lang cited above.
[edit] Other forms
Further out from the Christian Right are two movements where there is more scholarly support for charges of neofascism: Christian Identity and Christian Reconstructionism.
[edit] Christian Identity
There are versions of the Christian Identity religious movement that adopt neofascist--and in some cases openly neo-Nazi ideologies. Michael Barkun's Religion and the Racist Right, is considered the major scholarly work on this topic.
[edit] Christian Reconstructionism
Karen Armstrong sees a potential for fascism in Christian Reconstructionism, and claims that the system of dominion envisaged by Christian Reconstructionist theologians R. J. Rushdoony and Gary North "is totalitarian. There is no room for any other view or policy, no democratic tolerance for rival parties, no individual freedom," (Armstrong, Battle for God, pp. 361-362). Berlet and Lyons have witten the movement is a "new form of clerical fascist politics,"(Right-Wing Populism in America, p. 249).
Many scholars consider Reconstructionism a quasi-fascist movement because it is explicitly opposed to religious liberty and human rights. Gary North has advocated a "Bible-based social, political, and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God".
[edit] Islam
The linking of Islam with historic fascism or neofascism has generated contentious debates among scholars and in the media; and is considered by some to be offensive to the religion itself. See Mohammad Amin al-Husayni for ties between the Grand Mufti and WWII fascists. The appropriateness of the term Islamofascism is hotly contested.
Some analysts and politicians use the term "Islamic fascism" to describe groups of militant Islamic fundamentalists like the Taliban which governed Afghanistan, al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah. Daniel Pipes, for example, equates only militant Islamism to fascism. Thus Pipes and most others critics say they refer to a small number of Islamist zealots, including terrorist groups such as al Qaeda. See: Islamic extremist terrorism.
[edit] Concepts and terms
Although the concept of clerical fascism originated with reference to Roman and Orthodox Catholicism, some scholars, including Walter Laqueur, apply it in Islamic contexts. He discusses fascistic influences on militant Islam in his book Fascism: Past, Present, Future.
Robert S. Wistrich has described Islamic fascism as adopting a totalitarian mind-set, a hatred of the West, fanatical extremism, repression of women, loathing of Jews, a firm belief in conspiracy theories, and dreams of global hegemony.[7]
J. Sakai, an analyst, has suggested that some middle-class Islamists have formed groups that can be called fascist [8].
Some dispute the accuracy of the term "Islamic fascism". They argue that political ideologies in the Middle East derived from fascism have usually been violently opposed to Islamism. (see: Hama Massacre). Fascist-derived ideologies in the Middle East such as the Kataeb Party, the Baath party, and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party have been explicitly secular, and have drawn their strongest support from minority groups in the Arab world which feared the consequences of an Islamist government. The founders of the SSNP and the Kataeb were all Christians, while the founders of the Baath Party were Christian and Sunni. The movements have tended to have their strongest Muslim support from religious minorities like the Sunni Arabs of Iraq or the Alawites of Syria.
Discussions of Islamic neofascism often point to strands of Wahhabi or Salafi Islam, which are claimed to display some of the signifiers of fascism or totalitarianism[9], [10], [11]. Sometimes there are specific references to the Muslim Brotherhood and similar movements in Sunni Islam inspired by the writings of Sayyid Qutb, while others use the term neofascism to describe all highly politicized strains of Islam, including Shi'a radicalism as practiced in Iran. Iran practices partial control of the economy, nationalism and leader worship, thus sharing some common ground with fascism.
Politicized strains of Islam, which seek to replace secular governments in Muslim countries with Sharia law, are often simply called Islamist, but this is a broad political category which covers political movements such as Turkey's Justice and Development Party which do not seek to overthrow secular constitutions. The classification of that party as Islamist is, however, disputed, precisely on those grounds. Others have proposed to classify it as an Islamic Democracy movement instead.
On the other hand, some political commentators began to link Islam to fascism. For example, in 2001, Christopher Hitchens wrote "[T]he bombers of Manhattan represent fascism with an Islamic face, and there's no point in any euphemism about it. What they abominate about "the West," to put it in a phrase, is not what Western liberals don't like and can't defend about their own system, but what they do like about it and must defend: its emancipated women, its scientific inquiry, its separation of religion from the state." — Christopher Hitchens in Against Rationalisation, The Nation 2001.
[edit] 2006 controversy
In late 2005, President George W. Bush and other high U.S. government officials began to refer to the idea of "Islamo-fascism" or (slightly later) "Islamic fascism", and suggested that opposing militant Islamic terrorism was similar to opposing the Nazis during World War II. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]
This created storm of controversy as supporters and opponents debated these contentions.[9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] To see a discussion of the use of the term, see Islamofascism.
[edit] Criticism of linking Islamic movements to fascism or neofascism
A number of academics disagree with the use of the term fascism in the context of militant Islamic movements. Roger Griffin believes it stretches the term fascist too far to apply it to "so-called fundamentalist or terrorist forms of traditional religion (i.e. scripture or sacred text based with a strong sense of orthodoxy or orthodoxies rooted in traditional institutions and teachings)." He does, however, concede that the United States has seen the emergence of hybrids of political religion and fascism in such phenomena as the Nation of Islam and Christian Identity, and that Bin Laden's al Qaeda network may represent such a hybrid. He is unhappy with the term 'clerical fascism,' though, since he says that "in this case we are rather dealing with a variety of 'fascistized clericalism.'"
[edit] Judaism
The linking of Judaism with historic fascism or neofascism has generated contentious debates among scholars and in the media; and is considered by some to be offensive to the religion itself.
Because Jews suffered their worst carnage during the Holocaust under the German Nazis and their fascist allies during the early mid-20th century, the conflation of Judaism with fascism raises hackles well beyond the conflation of other religions with fascism. Also, because, on the one hand, there is the strong correlation of the religion — Judaism — with what has historically been viewed as a people, a nation, or even a race — the Jews — and on the other hand a substantial portion of the world's Jews today are citizens of the modern state of Israel and/or supporters in one or another degree of the (largely secular) ideology of Zionism, it is more difficult than in the cases of most other religions to disentangle religion from nationalism.
Thus, except in the case of an explicitly religiously based movement, it is very difficult to say whether a given Israeli political movement is "Jewish" in the sense of the religion Judaism or of the Jews as a people.
The terms Judeofascism and Zionazism are political epithets. Those who use the terms sometimes say they are referring only to certain groups or individuals alleged to have fascist or totalitarian tendencies. Critics of the terms argue that it is merely used to smear Jews or Zionists with the negative connotations of the terms fascist or Nazi. In addition, these terms are often used in a stereotypic way that invokes historic anti-Semitism and often wrongly conflates Judaism, the religion; Zionism, the nationalist political tendency; Israel, the state; Israeli government policies; Jews around the world; and U.S. foreign policy. [21] [22] (See also List of political epithets#JewNazi, Judeo-Nazi, Zionazi)
Nonetheless, some scholars have pointed to what they consider "fascistic elements" in the Kach and Kahane Chai parties in Israel, as well as in certain Israeli settler movements and their supporters in the U.S. Both political parties were outlawed under Israeli anti-terrorism laws in 1994; Kach had already been banned from electoral politics for "incitement to racism" against Arabs. Their leaders have advocated policies of "transfer" that would forcibly expel Arabs from Israel itself — and even from territories under Israeli control — although at no time did any of the founders or leaders of the parties declare or endorse policies which advocated outright genocide comparable to the Holocaust.[citation needed]
Four decades before the founding of Kach, the armed Zionist faction known as Lehi (commonly referred to as the "Stern Gang") — which was instrumental in establishing the state of Israel — took part in the notorious Deir Yassin massacre of April 1948, and also assassinated the U.N. mediator, Count Bernadotte, in Jerusalem, in September 1948. Lehi embraced doctrines (the "18 Principles of Rebirth") that are said to resemble fascism, as well as a Macchiavellian approach towards achieving its goals.
[edit] Hinduism
The linking of Hinduism with historic fascism or neofascism has generated contentious debates among scholars and in the media; and is considered by some to be offensive to the religion itself.
Some critics of militant Hindu nationalism in India see elements of fascism in the Hindutva ideology and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) religious movement, and the related Bharatiya Janata Party.
However, such assertions are disputed by scholars who contend that terms like "nationalism" and "fascism" are misused to describe the Hindutva groups as the normative meanings of the terms do not apply to the organizations whose analysis must be performed objectively and without the use of politically loaded and resonant terminology.[18][19].
[edit] Paganism
The linking of Paganism with historic fascism or neofascism has generated contentious debates among scholars and in the media; and is considered by some to be offensive to the religion itself.
Paganism, pantheism, Odinism, and groups celebrating the Nordic heroic warrior myths do not automatically intersect with fascism, White supremacy or antisemitism.
Examples of groups where fascism and paganism intersect include the White Order of Thule and the Creativity Movement (formerly the World Church of the Creator).
While members of the White Order of Thule practice a form of Odinism or Asatru, only a few followers of these pagan beliefs are White supremacist neonazis. Many pagan websites post disclaimers denouncing hate to make the distinction clear. While "Wotan" is one of the many names for the Norse god Odin, in fascist and White supremacist circles the name WOTAN is also used as an acronym for "Will Of The Aryan Nations."
[edit] Fascism as vague epithet
Some have argued that the term "fascism" itself has become hopelessly vague in the years following World War II, and that today it is little more than a pejorative epithet used by supporters of various political views to attempt to discredit their opponents. This view dates back to George Orwell, British writer and author of 1984 and Animal Farm, who famously remarked:
- "...the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else ... Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathisers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come."[20]
[edit] See also
[edit] General
- Nazi mysticism
- Nazism in relation to other concepts#Nazism and religion
- Neo-Nazi groups of the United States
- Clerical fascism
- Theocracy
- German Christians
- Protestant Reich Church
[edit] Christianity
For information on the role of Christianity in the German Nazi movements, see Nazism; and on Nazis and religious mysticism, see Nazi mysticism.
For information on the role of Christianity and Orthodoxy in European fascist movements between World War One and World War Two, see Clerical fascism and Fascism.
For more detailed disussions on claims of fascistic tendencies in contemporary Christian Right movements and groups, see Dominionism, Dominion theology, and Christian Reconstructionism.
For information on the militant right-wing movement linked to neo-Nazi ideology, see Christian Identity.
[edit] Islam
- Islamism
- Islamic Fundamentalist
- Islamic State
- Sharia
- Islamic democracy
- Islamophobia
- Islamic extremist terrorism
- Islamofascism The debate over the term itself
[edit] Judaism
- Kach party (Israel)
- Kahane Chai party (Israel)
[edit] Hinduism
[edit] Paganism
For information on the role of Paganism in the German Nazi movements, see Nazism; and on Nazis and religious mysticism, see Nazi mysticism and Persecution of Heathens.
- Creativity Movement (formerly the World Church of the Creator)
- White Order of Thule
[edit] References
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Chip Berlet, 2003, adapted in "Terminology: Use with Caution." Fascism. Vol. 5, Critical Concepts in Political Science, Roger Griffin and Matthew Feldman, eds. New York, NY: Routledge. [1]
- ^ a b c Popper, Karl. The Open Society and its Enemies. Diverse editions since 1945, e.g. 2002: Routledge - ISBN 0-415-28236-5 (both volumes in one band). See: Volume II: The High Tide of Prophecy, Section: The Rise of Oracular Philosophy, Chapter 12: Hegel and The New Tribalism, subsection V.
- ^ Popper, Karl. The Open Society and its Enemies. Diverse editions since 1945, e.g. 2002: Routledge - ISBN 0-415-28236-5 (both volumes in one band). See: Volume II: The High Tide of Prophecy, Section: The Rise of Oracular Philosophy, Chapter 12: Hegel and The New Tribalism, subsections II and III.
- ^ Laurence W. Britt, Fascism Anyone?, Free Inquiry magazine, Council for Secular Humanism, Volume 23, Number 2. Web page updated July 25, 2004. Accessed November 9, 2006.
- ^ Carl Davidson, Globalization, Theocracy and the New Fascism: Taking the Right's Rise to Power Seriously, paper was delivered at the 4th Annual GSA meeting in Knoxville, TN, May 13-15 2005. Accessed November 9, 2006 on PORTSIDE listserv archives, dated 16 May 2005.
- ^ David Neiwert, "Bush, the Nazis and America," (2003), in four parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, Accessed November 9, 2006
- ^ David Neiwert, "Rush, Newspeak and Fascism: An Exegesis," in html at Cursor.org, Accessed November 9, 2006;
- ^ David Neiwert, "The Rise of Pseudo Fascism: An essay," in PDF format, Accessed November 9, 2006.
- ^ Tom Regan Experts, pundits debate use of 'Islamo-fascist', Christian Science Monitor, August 31, 2006. Accessed online 4 September 2006.
- ^ Lisa Miller Escalation in Terminology When President Bush described a war against ‘Islamic fascists,’ some American Muslims became very angry. Newsweek Online, August 12, 2006. Accessed online 4 September 2006
- ^ Daoud Kuttab Drop "Islamo-Fascist" Rhetoric, Post Global (Washington Post), August 29, 2006. Accessed online 4 September 2006.
- ^ Harold Evans We must stand up to Islamo-fascism, The Guardian, August 15, 2006. Accessed online 4 September 2006.
- ^ Tom Raum, Republicans Target 'Islamic Fascism', Washington Post, August 3, 2006. Accessed online 4 September 2006.
- ^ Katha Pollitt Wrong War, Wrong Word, The Nation, posted August 24, 2006 (September 11, 2006 issue). Accessed online 4 September 2006.
- ^ Debating Security (editorial), The Nation, posted August 24, 2006 (September 11, 2006 issue). Accessed online 4 September 2006.
- ^ Bush Announces Renewed War on "Islamo-Fascism," Rejects Demands for U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Iraq, Democracy Now, Friday, October 7, 2005. Accessed online 4 September 2006.
- ^ Tony Norman Rumsfeld cribs from terror manual, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 1, 2006. Accessed online 4 September 2006.
- ^ RSS neither Nationalist nor Fascist, Indian Christian priest's research concludes
- ^ Walter K. Andersen, Shridhar D. Damle (May 1989). "The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 503: 156-157.
- ^ George Orwell: ‘What is Fascism?’
[edit] General
- Armstrong, Karen. 2001. The Battle for God. New York: Ballantine.
- Kaplan, Jeffrey. 1997. Radical Religion in America, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press.
- Jurgensmeyer, Mark. 2000. Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Cohn, Norman. [1957] 1970. The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages. Revised and expanded. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Rhodes, J. M. 1980. The Hitler movement: A modern millenarian revolution. Stanford, Calif: Hoover Institution Press / Stanford Univ.
- Ellwood, Robert. 2000. "Nazism as a Millennialist Movement." In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases, ed. Catherine Wessinger, 241-260. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
- Robbins, T., and S. J. Palmer, eds. 1997. Millennium, messiahs, and mayhem. New York: Routledge.
- Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 2005. Vol. 5, No. 3, (Winter), special issue on Fascism as a Totalitarian Movement.
[edit] Christianity
- Armstrong, Karen. 2001. The Battle for God. New York: Ballantine.
- Clarkson, Frederick. 1997. Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage. ISBN 1-56751-088-4
- Gorenberg, Gershom. 2000. The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. New York: The Free Press.
- Barkun, Michael. 1994. Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC. ISBN 0-8078-4451-9
- Stanley R. Barrett, Is God a Racist?: The Right Wing in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987).
[edit] Islam
- ———. 2001. "Jihad and Martyrdom Operations as Apocalyptic Events." Paper presented at the Fifth Annual Center for Millennial Studies Conference, Boston University, November.
- ———. 2002. "America, the Second ‘Ad: The Perception of the United States in Modern Muslim Apocalyptic Literature." Yale Center for International and Area Studies Publications 5:150-93.
- Armstrong, Karen. 2001. The Battle for God. New York: Ballantine.
- Cook, David. 1996. "Muslim Apocalyptic and Jihad." Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 20:66-104.
- Esposito, John L. 2002. Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Gorenberg, Gershom. 2000. The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. New York: The Free Press.
- Laqueur, Walter. 1996. Fascism: Past, Present, Future. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Rashid, Ahmed. 2001. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. New Haven: Yale Nota Bene.
- Wistrich, Robert S. 2002. "The New Islamic Fascism", in Partisan Review 69 (1), pp32-34 or Jerusalem Post 16 November 2001. Online (payment required)
[edit] Judaism
- Armstrong, Karen. 2001. The Battle for God. New York: Ballantine.
- Gorenberg, Gershom. 2000. The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. New York: The Free Press.
- Robert I. Friedman, The False Prophet: Rabbi Meir Kahane From FBI Informant to Knesset Member, (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Lawrence Hill Books, 1990);
- Robert I. Friedman, Zealots for Zion: Inside Israel's West Bank Settlement Movement (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994);
- Raphael Mergui and Philippe Simonnot, Israel's Ayatollahs: Meir Kahane and the Far Right in Israel (London: Saqi Books, 1987);
- Michael Karpin and Ina Friedman, Murder in the Name of God: The Plot to Kill Yitzhak Rabin (New York: Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, 1998).
[edit] Hinduism
- Andersen, Walter K. 1998. "Bharatiya Janata Party: Searching for the Hindu Nationalist Face." Pp. 219-232 in The New Politics of the Right: Neo-Populist Parties and Movements in Established Democracies, Hans-Georg Betz and Stefan Immerfall, eds., New York: St. Martin’s Press.
- Banerjee, Partha. 1998. In the Belly of the Beast: The Hindu Supremacist RSS and BJP of India. Delhi: Ajanta.
- Elst, Koenraad: Decolonizing the Hindu Mind. Ideological Development of Hindu Revivalism. Rupa, Delhi 2001.
- -: The Saffron Swastika. The Notion of "Hindu Fascism". Voice of India, Delhi 2001. [23] [24]
- Embree, Ainslie T. 1994. "The Function of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: To Define the Hindu Nation." Pp. 617-652 in Accounting for Fundamentalisms, The Fundamentalism Project 4, Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby, eds. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- Sarkar, Tanika, and Urvashi Butalia, eds. 1995. Women and the Hindu Right. New Delhi: Kali for Women.
- Hansen, Thomas Blom. 1999. The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Review
- Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar: Hindutva. Bharati Sahitya Sadan, Delhi 1989 (1923).
[edit] Paganism
- Gardell, Mattia. 2003. Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
- Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. 2002. Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity. New York: NYU Press.
[edit] External links
General
- Chip Berlet, "Terms & Concepts: Use with Caution."
- Chip Berlet, "White Supremacist, Antisemitic, and Race Hate Groups in the U.S." Examines the religious roots of several neofascist tendencies.
- Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt - Umberto Eco's list of 14 characteristics of Fascism, originally published 1995.
- Koenraad Elst, A set of articles about allegations of "Hindu fascism"
- Roger Griffin's dissertations on the intellectual make-up of Fascism
- What is Fascism?, by George Orwell
Judaism
Islam
- A polemical review of Islamic fascism
- Christopher Hitchens says al Qaeda is fascism with an Islamic face
- Christopher in Khaki — criticism of Hitchens by Dave Renton
- CATO Institute evaluates Islamic fascism
- Conservative commentary on combating Islamic fascism
- Andrew Sullivan Interview from INDC Journal
- The Islamofascist Agenda by Deroy Murdock in National Review
- How the right played the fascism card against Islam — The Guardian (4 February 2005)
- How “Islamo-fascism” is the pretext for Islamic discrimination — IranianTruth.com (23 October 2005)
For studies of the theology of Osama bin Laden and its intersections with palingenetic millenarianism, see:
- The 'Religion' of Usamah bin Ladin: Terror As the Hand of God." Jean E. Rosenfeld, Ph.D., UCLA Center for the Study of Religion;
- "Islam and the Theology of Power. Khaled Abou El Fadl, Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Fellow in Islamic Law at the UCLA School of Law;
- "Bin Laden and Revolutionary Millennialism." Catherine Wessinger, Professor of Religious Studies, Loyola University New Orleans.
