Critical Muslim 55: Fascism

Paperback, 288 pages
9781805264354

Only about a century old, fascism—bogeyman of ideologies—has been both over- and under-attributed to various political phenomena. While the baseline cases of Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy are generally agreed upon, once these two forces were defeated, it was nigh impossible to believe that such a compulsion would ever return in a more enlightened future—let alone be ushered in by the children of those who defeated the fascist regimes. Today, card-carrying fascist forces grab ever more political power across the US and Europe, even in the European Parliament itself, and around the globe. Yet, while there’s a reason for Godwin’s Law—the longer an online conversation continues, the more likely someone is to invoke Hitler and the Nazis—we must find ways to discern the fascist wheat from the garden-variety nationalist chaff. This issue looks at today’s tidal wave, and asks how to ensure that such forces are not allowed to tear the world asunder once more.