ISKANDER en ALLERLEI ISMENxml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Als ‘Oefening Engelse Les’ op een vroege zondagavond een beetje snuisteren in The Brussels Journal.

Altijd goed om weten, en om een paar argumenten te sprokkelen…en veel bij te leren. Heeft er iemand het mail-adres van Den Baard van Oostende? Mens! Wat zou ik graag diens smoelwerk zien, als met een zware huug-G de Goede Gang van dit verhaal ontleedt voor een verzameld koor van SP-A Congresgangers….

When Mussolini turned form socialist agitator to fascist leader, writes Alan Cassels in his book, Fascism, he, “[...] did not regard his actions [...] as a betrayal of socialism at all. He merely changed brands of socialism”. Later, with only minor adjustments to their personal beliefs, Nazi leaders were able to secure high-up positions in Communist East Germany.

The fluid nature of neo-Nazism and contemporary Socialism also needs to be stressed. While Leftists across Europe denounce as “Nazis” and “fascists” any party opposed to Islamism, a review of neo-Nazism shows that neo-Nazis are – to the contrary – pro-Islamist. Neo-Nazism and contemporary socialism in fact are almost inseparable in their positions: pro-worker/trade union, anti-American, anti-colonialism/anti-imperialism, anti-neo-Conservative, anti-Israel, and, though sometimes disguised, anti-Semitic. But, as Islamism has become an increasing concern for the West, neo-Nazis and socialists are especially alike in regard to their support for it.

John Rosenthal of Pajamas Media has pointed to a report from the domestic intelligence service of the German city-state of Hamburg, which shows that neo-Nazis – like their socialist counterparts – opposed Pro-Cologne, the citizen’s group recently physically attacked by Leftists and Islamists while protesting the building of a mega-mosque.

Hamburg’s domestic intelligence office’s report shows that while opposed to immigrants generally, German neo-Nazis, “take precautions against criticizing Islamic influences or Islam as such, since the latter is rather ‘to be seen as an ally,’” i.e., in their opposition to the Jews. However, this same position is taken by neo-Nazi organisations in Britain. Final Conflict, a British-based blog/e-magazine that is virulently ant-Semitic and sympathetic to the Palestinians has even linked to a website called “I Love Palestine.” In case you’re wondering about the exact nature of this organisation, its online shop sells a Waffen SS recruiting poster, and Blood and Honor memorabilia, as well as many other similarly repugnant items.

Likewise, at OswaldMosley.com (inspired, of course, by the 20th century British fascist leader, Oswald Mosley) can you find a free e-book called Arab or Jew, the description of which lets the reader know that it is an attack on Zionism, and a defence of the Palestianians. And there is also an article extolling the virtues of “European Socialism” in language that would be entirely at home on Britain’s Socialist Workers Part website – no surprises there.

Another example is a related National Party for Europe (also based on Mosley’s fascist ideology), the policies of which are clearly a form of socialism. One policy promotes trade unionism. Another promotes a united Europe. Another policy calls for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and an end to cooperating with the US. And, another policy offers the National Party for Europe’s: “[...] complete support to the Palestinian people and their right to a Palestinian state shall define our policy in the Middle East.” Why? Because the Palestinians are fighting the Jews. But, in case you’re wondering about the nature of this group as well, its online store sells books including, Ten Points of Fascism, Mosley’s Blackshirts, and, tellingly, Islam and the Third Reich, which, according to the description, “serves to assist in an understanding of the Muslim world today against the background of the resistance against European colonialism before and during World War II”. (Contrary to what you might think, neo-Nazis, like contemporary socialists, are anti-colonial, because it is equated in their imagination with US foreign policy, which, in turn, is believed to be under the control of Zionists/Israel).

Articles also appearing on this site include one explaining that fascism has been “misunderstood”, and another claiming that the London 7/7 terrorist attacks had nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Another article condemns the BNP for “Islamophobia”, and for being pro-Jewish. In fact every one of the sites mentioned in this article condemns the BNP. Neo-Nazi groups claim the BNP is pro-Jewish and anti-Islamist, and the Socialist Workers Party claim it is “racist”. Considering the positions of the Socialist Workers Party toward Israel and Islamism, however, it seems likely that this must also be a factor.)

This same mix of socialism and anti-Zionism (and anti-Semitism), pro-Palestinianism, and pro-Islamism can also be found among Britain’s socialists proper. While no doubt common even in Britain’s governing socialist Labour Party, it will be worth noting that Socialist Workers Party member, Sabiha Iqbal, 18, has recently been enlisted as an advisor to the government. Specifically, she, along with several other young Muslims, will advise ministers how to stop the spread of Islamism among young people.

Question: what kind of advice do we imagine Iqbal is giving the government on radical Islam? Because, as a member of this radical party, Iqbal can’t really be an honest broker, can she?

The Socialist Workers Party supports, among other things, “the right of black people and other oppressed groups to organise their own defence and [...] support[s] all genuine national liberation movements.” Presumably, as the party believes Muslims to be oppressed, they would support them being armed. What about Iqbal?

However, even closer to the neo-Nazi groups mentioned above, in a piece entitled, The attacks on New York and Washington, published on the Socialist Workers Party’s website, is it stated: “If bin Laden is indeed shown to be responsible [for the 9/11 terrorist attacks], then it will be yet another case, in the long and sordid history of American imperialism, of blow-back.” (You’ll note the National Party for Europe uses the same justification for the London bombings.) And, again that the 9/11 attacks: “[...] were in fact a stark revelation of the nature of global capitalism. Our rulers believed that they could preside over a world heaving with poverty, suffering, and injustice and yet insulate their own metropolises from the consequences. The folly of this belief was exposed as the southern tip of Manhattan disappeared amid smoke and flames. There can be no peace without justice.” (Bear in mind that this piece – still posted on the Socialist Workers Party website – was written the day after the attacks, when sickening images of innocent people jumping to their deaths from a hundred stories up, were still fresh in the mind, if not still being repeated on television.)

Another article on the website, Roots of Israel’s violence, finally brings the Leftist ideology round full circle to that of the neo-Nazis. And another article, while critical of Islam, more than hints at the contemporary fusion of Leftism, Islamism, and Nazism, that I have meant to highlight: “The left has made two mistakes in relation to the Islamists in the past. The first has been to write them off as fascists, with whom we have nothing in common. The second has been to see them as “progressives” who must not be criticised. [...] The need is for a different approach that sees Islamism as the product of a deep social crisis which it can do nothing to resolve, and which fights to win some of the young people who support it to a very different, independent, revolutionary socialist perspective.” And there you have it – cue Mussolini.