Islam and Leftism are seemingly unlikely bedfellows in the news once more. The gist of it is captured in the headline above. A Muslim majority council have voted to ban certain flags and this has upset the Leftists who thought them steadfast allies.
The East German Spy Chief Markus Wolf described the leftist terrorist groups he funded like Baader-Meinhof as:
“spoiled, hysterical children of mainly upper-middle-class backgrounds”.
The same line could be written about todays leftist agitators on University campuses everywhere. This is no coincidence of course, the struggles that todays leftist SJW agitators engage in are very similar to their terrorist peers.
It is also not surprising that many of the 60s and 70s radicals are now the SJW university professors, or in the case of Bernie Sanders their ideal Presidential candidate. The leftist terrorism of the time failed dramatically: the Black Panthers, the Weathermen, the Symbionese Liberation army, the Red Brigades, Red Army Faction, November 17 and so on. All were crushed and defeated. Many had minimal support the Red Army Faction perhaps had at most 30 people and a few hundred active sympathisers. The SLA was a gang of no more than 10.
Of course the radical chic was popular, this is why many of those children of the 60s and 70s continue to believe in the ideals of Che and the struggle against ‘imperialism, patriarchy, and racism’. They may have not been actively supporting such groups but those groups captured their imaginations and their ideals did not go unnoticed.
The failure of these groups of course was that they all attempted to emulate Communist insurrectionist and revolutionary movements from the third world. They thought West Germany could become Vietnam overnight or that the blacks in the US would rise up (this has been an unfortunately common leftist fantasy since the days of John Brown). These groups failed and melted away, life carried on, but that hunger and desire to strike out never went away.
Enter Islam. Many profess confusion as to why the left are so welcoming of Islam - or at least very quiet about its unchecked evil in its puritan form. There should be no such confusion. The left are still slaves to their progressive opinions from the 1960’s and 70s. They fell in love with the third world liberation movements of petty nationalism against
‘imperialism’ and ‘neoimperialism’. They had many victories as well:
The fall of Rhodesia
The capitulation of South Africa,
The end of Batista's Cuba
The victory of Communist Vietnam
The guerrilla mystique faded for many but that narrative of struggle against an oppressive colonial West has been carried on by college professors, media leaders, and anyone who was not a vehement anti-Communist. Islamic countries liberation movements in places like Algeria were also successful - and success breeds imitators. Other movements of course were not successful and the left very quickly latched onto the Palestinian struggle for liberation.
There was immense overlap between the leftist European terrorists and the Islamic ones. The IRA was not funded only by ‘O’Irish’ in Boston, they took a great deal of arms from Gadaffi. Baader-Meinhof did not only get funding from the East German spy masters, they also had training locations in PLO camps in the Middle East. That relationship has never gone away, as people backed off and were repulsed by the terror attacks wily leaders like Arrafat stepped in to win the propaganda war.
The progressive left could maintain their support thanks to the great propaganda of people like Arafat (Biafra is another example where great propaganda prolonged a bloody conflict because do-gooders in the West wanted to help). Now the propaganda war rages on, and the left are firmly entrenched in their support of Islam.
Islam preaches continual revolution against the West, it also preaches a one world view. All the world shall be remade for Allah - forgive the slight boomerism but really is this so removed from remaking it for Marx? That continual revolution and struggle against ‘Western Oppressors’ mirrors the lefts own narratives at home. They see no problem in campaigning against the patriarchy on campus for not being sufficiently progressive enough and also supporting Islamic men’s right to force their women to wear the veil. Both are attacks against the Christian West and so both are acceptable.
The mythos of the 70s liberation movements and struggles against Western ‘imperialism’ fuels the left today. They want that guerrilla chic, they want to be ‘cool’, they want to rebel against their parents. As the spy chief said they are “spoiled, hysterical children of mainly upper-middle-class backgrounds” and this means they do not think of consequences. They only think in terms of perpetual war against order. Islam is but another weapon in their arsenal and so even though it will turn on them they are destined to embrace it. Finally it seems that turning is upon them.
The great irony of course is that Islam itself and the Muslim world are not going to escape from their encounter with leftism. Leftism itself will hollow out Islam. For now in places like Hamtrack the Muslims will push back but in the long run it remains unclear if they can triumph. Mike from Imperium Press has talked about how the third world is going to cop it and despite some who think Islam will be able to stand against leftism I remain doubtful. Through their temporary alliance Islam has been more hollowed out than leftism, the woke haven’t really absorbed Islam’s ideas but you can bet that there are far more Muslim LGBT organizations around now than there were 50 years ago.
It remains to be seen if in the anti-woke cause the old counter-jihad movement decides to make peace with Islam to fight the tranny issue. Somehow I doubt it. The only victor here is leftism and it will make the counter-jihadis their bitch as Islamic traditionalists begin to make their stand against todays woke leftism, as one alliance crumbles does another arise?