Who's a Fascist? Follow the Money

Emerging from the mosque, quiet and subdued after Tarawih prayers! The crowd leaves, drifting down the street, their energy covered, hidden, and simple. Who are these Muslims?

We the Muslims are disguised like actors in a modern play, the Muslims bouncing in hip-hop dress and sideways hats and casual body language join other Muslims wearing Thoba and Fez, guiding families with serious, economical movements like traffic cops.

We Muslims are a crowd, a tribe, coming together, and dispersing. We try to follow the guiding wisdom of Revelation; but our gestures of obedience inspire fear into the hearts of unbelievers. How can they trust anyone who prostrates to the ground?

But what are Muslims obedient to, after the hour of prayer is passed? This crowd could turn around and stone a prophet, same as other crowds. A moment could change everything. Or does prayer really immunize us from infectious hysteria? Does passive acceptance of wisdom teach us to apply wisdom directly to our lives?

As I see us walking, I feel compassion but I doubt our capacity. Living in these modern roles, playing our part in the infomercial of modern life, you and I are not very prepared for another level of being. Are we not still walking in a dream?

Which dream? The American Dream? The dream of Caliphate? How many young searching Muslims are lost in the internet? How many Americans? Humanity is talking fearfully in its sleep –we hear the whisperings from radios coast to coast.

Dreams offer hope as well as fear. But dreams can be useful to the powers that be, adapting to the agendas and needs of the day. Writer Naomi Klein has observed, “If the dream of the open, borderless “small planet” was the ticket to profits during the Clinton years, the nightmare of the menacing, fortressed Western continents, under siege from jihadists and illegal immigrants, plays the same role in the new millennium.”

Fear feeds profits. Klein’s new book explores how war and major disasters have begun to fuel the military industrial complex that increasingly powers this nation. The economy may become to be dependent on these crises, leading to a deepening spiral of violence and oppression. As Klein writes, “The more panicked our societies become, convinced that there are terrorists lurking in every mosque, the higher the news ratings soar, the more biometric IDs and liquid-explosive-detection devices the complex sells, and the more high-tech fences it builds.”

Blackwater maintains a private army of 20,000 high-paid soldiers in Iraq; they are not accountable to taxpayers when abuses or deaths take place. Lockheed Martin tripled its stock price after the year 2000; overall, defense stocks rose 76 percent in the last 5 years, while other stocks declined by 5 percent. Oil companies have made record profits (40 billion by ExxonMobil in 2006) and the economy is becoming dependent on this privatization of services.

Klein points out that both Blackwater and Halliburton give over 93 percent of campaign contributions to the Republicans. Like Christian Zionists, these groups align almost exclusively with Republican interests and will lose vast amounts of political influence if Democrats win next election. Lobbyists and ideologues have infiltrated the US government, the courts, and the media to ensure this does not happen. They work hard to privatize services to keep them in control.

As Klein observes, “When the contractor infrastructure built up during the Bush years is looked at as a whole, what we see is …a corporate shadow-state …built almost exclusively with public resources, including the training of its staff: 90 percent of Blackwater’s revenues come from state contracts, and the majority of its employees are former politicians, soldiers, and civil servants. Yet the vast infrastructure is all privately owned and controlled…. The actual state, meanwhile, has lost the ability to perform its core functions without the help of contractors. Its own equipment is out of date, and the best experts have fled to the private sector. When Katrina hit, FEMA had to hire a contractor to award contracts to contractors.”

Muslim Americans have long endured weak, decentralized Muslim leadership fragmented on ethnic and racial lines. But on the other hand, many of us retain a sense of obedience to a larger order, and many of us come from cultures with strong authoritarian traditions. Does that make us real or potential “Islamofascists?” The Right likes to point to our authoritarian regimes and even to our religious obedience to make the case that we are a threat. Their pundits label everything “Islamofascist” they do not like or understand.

Last year President Bush also began to use this terminology as well, to please his political base. ISNA President Ingrid Mattson criticized this use of the term, and Journalist Eric Margolies agreed: "There is nothing in any part of the Muslim World that resembles the corporate fascist states of western history. In fact, clan and tribal-based traditional Islamic society, with its fragmented power structures, local loyalties, and consensus decision-making, is about as far as possible from western industrial state fascism. The Muslim World is replete with brutal dictatorships, feudal monarchies, and corrupt military-run states, but none of these regimes, however deplorable, fits the standard definition of fascism. Most, in fact, are America’s allies."

But if Fascism stands for militarism, elitism and nationalism, contempt for democracy and a manipulation of national humiliation, we can say that George Bush is a fascist. Not only does Bush push to maximize the power of the presidency, he seeks to weaken controls on Big Business and to feed the engines of war at every opportunity.

“War on Terror” Judge Michael Mukasey is currently expected to replace Alberto Gonzalez as Attorney General. This is yet another troubling indication that neo-fascist tough guy Rudolph Guiliani will strongly influence the coming election. Mukasey and his son, Marc, are advisers to Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. Marc also works at Giuliani's law firm. Michael was the judge who swore in Mayor-elect Giuliani in 1994 and 1998. Wake up Muslims! Pray for Peace! Organize for Justice! And yes-- down with fascism!