The term islamo-fascism has mostly died a quick and dirty death despite the efforts of unlikely bedmates Christopher Hitchens and David Horowitz to make it stick, but it is worth for a moment considering what it purportedly meant. In the words of Steven Schwartz:
I admit to a lack of modesty or neutrality about this discussion, since I was, as I will explain, the first Westerner to use the neologism in this context.
Later in the same article:
Fascism is distinguished from the broader category of extreme right-wing politics by its willingness to defy public civility and openly violate the law. As such it represents a radical departure from the tradition of ultra-conservatism. The latter aims to preserve established social relations, through enforcement of law and reinforcement of authority. But the fascist organizations of Mussolini and Hitler, in their conquests of power, showed no reluctance to rupture peace and repudiate parliamentary and other institutions; the fascists employed terror against both the existing political structure and society at large.
With that definition in mind of ‘fascism’ it is now worth turning our attention to Michelle Malkin, who led a campaign threatening boycott of Dunkin Donuts over the appearance of over-mediated chef Rachael Ray in an ad, wearing a scarf that might have looked like something an Arab would wear. Oh horror.
The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.
The key moment here is when Malkin writes “has come to symbolize”. This is not just a statement of fact, but rather a moment of creation (can you hear the angels singing?) — the moment when Malkin covers over the history of xenophobes stigmatizing Arabs as being nothing but a race of “Muslim terrorists” (note the quick jump from Arabs to Muslims, as if they’re the same thing) and instead inserts herself as just a passive observer of the very process she has moved along through her support of, among other things, “Islamo-fascist Awareness Month” on college campuses (another term that elides the differences between two very different groups). What’s next? Is hummous the well-known food of Yasser Arafat? Maybe we should give up algebra, too - it is, after all, popularized by guys who dress suspiciously like terrorists (we all know what they look like). This is just the kind of intimidation and cultural stigmatization that might be associated with, oh I don’t know, if only we had a term for groups that did this kind of thing.
