Islamic fascism

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Hamed Abdel-Samad 2013

Islamic Fascism: An Analysis is a non-fiction book by the German-Egyptian political scientist Hamed Abdel-Samad published by Droemer Verlag in 2014 . The work has been translated into English .

content

Abdel-Samad sees, in addition to the identical date of origin in the 1920s, similarities in content between Islamism and fascism . He characterizes fascism as a "political religion" that spreads an absolute truth, has a hierarchy with an infallible leader and has a clear enemy image that is particularly directed against modernity , the Enlightenment , Marxism and Jews (p. 19). In addition to these parallels, direct substantive influences of European fascism can also be demonstrated in early Islamism (p. 34 ff.). Fascistoid ideas are older, however. To this end, Abdel-Samad refers to God's demand for blind obedience to Abraham in the Koran and in the Bible and even sees a general relationship between monotheism and fascism, in contrast to the inevitably pluralistic polytheism (p. 59 ff.). In addition, the Koran in particular contains a claim to universality and “incitement against unbelievers ”. The "real problem" is "[d] he Jihad as understood and practiced by the Prophet". This would have led to "the same potential for violence among radical Muslims" worldwide (p. 127 f.).

Reception in journalism

Islamic fascism was widely received within the mass media, it was a bestseller . In April 2014, the book reached number 6 on the list of best-selling non-fiction books published by Buchreport magazine . On the other hand, there is hardly a noticeable response from specialist circles and university operations.

Positive reviews

Abdel-Samad formulated, according to Deutsche Welle editor Stefan Dege, "[in] binding words [...] an enlightening criticism of Islamism". He wrote an "important book".

Jürgen Springer admitted in the Christian in der Gegenwart that there was a lack of a definition of fascism, but praised Abdel-Samad's statements on “God's states, radical organizations such as Hamas or Al Qaeda, or the intellectual and social backward development of Islam Rule since the end of the Middle Ages ”.

Mixed reviews

“In fact, there are good reasons to be skeptical about individual aspects of Abdel-Samad's work. With his ambitious project, the author has in fact taken on many points, and his analysis probably only deserves the title 'scientific' to a limited extent, "states Beat Stauffer in his review in the NZZ. Nevertheless, the "book despite a number of reservations gives important food for thought" again.

Daniel Krause rates the author's personal contribution as positive in some cases. Let there be against the political correctness regularly violated by Titulierungen such as "Heil Osama" or "His struggle, our struggle," which was to be welcomed. On the other hand, he criticized the equating of Thilo Sarrazin with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as an attempt to adapt, which nevertheless did not help the author before the attacks of left-wing newspapers such as Der Freitag or Neues Deutschland .

Sabine Kebir attests to Abdel-Samad in the weekly newspaper Freitag that there were totalitarian similarities between the fundamentalist-Islamist movements and National Socialism as well as historical connections, but with reference to Churchill's initial admiration for Mussolini and Hitler , she doubts the value of such listings.

Negative reviews

On the other hand, Abdel-Samad also received criticism for the book. Joseph Croitoru accused Abdel-Samad of misleading history with his work . He specifically suppresses aspects, doesn't know them or suppresses them. He paints the wrong picture that all Islamists are fascists.

The publicist Michael Lüders subjected the non-fiction book to a devastating criticism. The “work” is not an analysis, but a battle script and only serves “prejudices of the German majority society” and would not get beyond the misrepresentation of history by supporting the thesis of “Islamo-Fascism”.

Hans Bode, journalist for Jungle World , criticizes: "The book is advertised as a bestseller and is part of a discourse that is dominated by popular science to populist contributions on Islam, criticism of Islam and integration." In contrast, he referred to researchers such as Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski or Götz Nordbruch .

Toumaj Khakpour said: “It is difficult to take the drastic theses of the 42-year-old seriously. The necessary differentiation that leads to a clear classification is missing. Abdel-Samad leaves the space open for speculation, which is particularly harmful against the background of his intention to adequately analyze Islamic fascism ”. and comes to the conclusion that Abdel-Samad's book will "rather contribute to further friction than to a factual discussion".

In the Junge Freiheit , the Islamic scholar Tilman Nagel sums up : “By sticking the label 'fascist' on certain phenomena of Islamic culture, Abdel-Samad unfortunately does not contribute to the elucidation of the phenomenon peculiar to Islam, which is referred to as 'endogenous radicalism'. If you want to understand this, you cannot avoid studying the knowledge of religious studies. Hamed Abdel-Samad spared himself it, and thus, against his declared intention, continues to leave the field to the whitewashers. What a shame!"

Scientific reception

In his essay Islamism is not a green fascism, but a religious extremism. The sociologist and political scientist Armin Pfahl-Traughber critically examines relevant criteria on the occasion of a public debate on the basis of common characteristics established by Samad such as anti-Semitism , nationalism or options for extermination, the thesis of Islamic fascism. He comes to the conclusion that because of the differences between the two ideologies, preference should be given to categorizing Islamism as religious extremism. According to Pfahl-Traughber, the section on the cornerstones of primitive fascism does not replace a definition or a systematic presentation of the criteria of fascism. In his compilation, Samad also does not address the question of whether these are unique selling points of the political phenomena. Research into fascism is ignored by Samad, and he hardly takes any notice of research into Islamism. He positively emphasized correct statements about events such as facts, which, however, mostly remain unconfirmed. The view that fascism has its roots in the early history of Islam cannot convince instead.

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Islamic Fascism. (Notice) By Hamed Abdel-Samad. In: Prometheus Books. 2015, archived from the original on February 18, 2016 ; accessed on October 13, 2015 .
  2. ^ Prophet in Criticism , buchreport.de of October 9, 2015, accessed on January 9, 2016.
  3. ^ Deutsche Welle
  4. ^ Jürgen Springer: Reviews. Abdel-Samad, Hamed: Islamic Fascism. Christ in the Present ( Memento from June 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Beat Stauffer: Hamed Abdel-Samad: Islamic Fascism. A wake-up call with consequences. NZZ
  6. ↑ Daniel Krause: Big name, steep thesis - second-class content. Citizen Times
  7. ↑ Sabine Kebir: Islam an onion. Friday.
  8. ^ Joseph Croitoru: Islamism and Fascism. The half-truths of Hamed Abdel-Samad. South German
  9. ↑ perlentaucher.de
  10. ↑ Michael Lüders: Hamed Abdel-Samad: The Islamic Fascism. An analysis. SWR2 on the Internet
  11. ↑ Hans Bode: Holy Fascism. Jungle World.
  12. ↑ Toumaj Khakpour: “The Islamic Fascism” by Abdel-Samad polarizes. Default.
  13. ^ Tilman Nagel: Wrong theses against whitewashing. Young freedom.
  14. ↑ Armin Pfahl-Traughber: Islamism is not green fascism, but religious extremism. A critical examination of relevant criteria on the occasion of a public debate . In: Thorsten Gerald Schneiders (ed.): Salafism in Germany. Origins and dangers of an Islamic fundamental movement . Transcript, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-8376-2711-4 , pp. 149–170.

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