Manifesto Against Islamism
Lord Snooty | 08.03.2006 00:27 | Culture
MANIFESTO:
Together facing the new totalitarianism after having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.
The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.
Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.
We reject "cultural relativism", which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.
We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.
We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.
Signatories –
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq
Biographical information:
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Of Somalian origin, Hirsi Ali is a member of the Dutch parliament as a member of the Liberal Party VVD. Writer of the film "Submission" which caused the assassination of Theo Van Gogh by an islamist in November 2004. She now lives under police protection.
Chahla Chafiq
Chahla Chafiq, writer of Iranian origin, exiled in France. Works as a novelist and an essayist. She's the author of "Le nouvel homme islamiste , la prison politique en Iran " (2002). She also wrote novels such as "Chemins et brouillard" (2005).
Caroline Fourest
Essayist, editor in chief of 'Prochoix' (a review which defend liberties against dogmatic and monolithic ideologies). Author of several reference books on secularism and fanaticism - “Tirs Croisés : la laïcité à l'épreuve des intégrismes juif, chrétien et musulman (with Fiammetta Venner)”, “Frère Tariq : discours, stratégie et méthode de Tariq Ramadan”, and “Tentation obscurantiste” (Grasset, 2005). She received the National Prize of Secularism in 2005.
Bernard-Henri Lévy
French philosopher. Born in Algeria, argued against all the 20th Century "isms" (fascism, anti-Semitism, totalitarianism, terrorism). He is the author of "La Barbarie à visage humain", "L'Idéologie française", "La Pureté dangereuse", and more recently "American Vertigo".
Irshad Manji
Irshad Manji is a Fellow at Yale University and the internationally best-selling author of "The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith" (en francais: "Musulmane Mais Libre"). She speaks out for free expression based on the Koran itself. Born in Uganda, of Indian Muslim origin, her family fled the country when she was aged four. She now lives in Canada where her broadcasts and publications have enjoyed great success.
Mehdi Mozaffari
Mehdi Mozaffari is a professor of Iranian origin who lives in exile in Denmark. He is the author of several articles and books on islam and islamism such as “Authority in Islam: From Muhammad to Khomeini”, “Fatwa: Violence and Discourtesy” and “Globalization and Civilizations”
Maryam Namazie
Writer, international TV producer; Director of International Relations for the Workers Communist Party of Iran; and 2005 winner of the National Secular Society's Secularist of the Year Award.
Taslima Nasreen
Born in Bangladesh where she worked as a Doctor, now lives in exile. Her work in defence of women and minorities brought her into conflict with the authorities. A public committee was established called "Destroy Taslima". She was also persecuted as an apostate. She published a booklet called “Lajja” (Shame) in 1993 which told the real story of the systematic genocide of Hindus in Bangladesh following the change from secular state to an Islamic state where minorities, mainly Hindu, were ruthlessly persecuted. The book was banned in Bangladesh and many other Muslim countries and resulted in a fatwa being issued. One court case taken against her for blasphemy (and still active) was filed by the Bangladeshi government itself. Her biographical books “My Girlhood” and “Wild Wind” have also been banned in Bangladesh.
Salman Rushdie
Author of nine novels, including "Midnight's Children", "The Satanic Verses" and, most recently, "Shalimar the Clown". He has received many literary awards, including the Booker Prize, the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel, Germany's Author of the Year Award, the European Union's Aristeion Prize, the Budapest Grand Prize for Literature, the Premio Mantova, and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. He is a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres, an Honorary Professor in the Humanities at M.I.T., and the president of PEN American Center. His books have been translated into over 40 languages. The late Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran, issued the following fatwa, or religious edict, against Rushdie in February 1989 – “The author of The Satanic Verses, a text written, edited, and published against Islam, against the Prophet of Islam, and against the Koran, along with all the editors and publishers aware of its contents, are condemned to capital punishment. I call on all valiant Muslims wherever they may be in the world to execute this sentence without delay, so that no one henceforth will dare insult the sacred beliefs of the Muslims.”
Philippe Val
Publications Director for "Charlie Hebdo". This is the left-wing French newspaper which republished the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad "in solidarity with the Danish citizens targeted by islamists".
Ibn Warraq
Author notably of "Why I am Not a Muslim", "Leaving Islam : Apostates Speak Out", and "The Origins of the Koran". He is at present Research Fellow at the New York Institute conducting philological and historical research into the origins of Islam and its holy book.
Antoine Sfeir :
Born in Lebanon, Christian, Antoine Sfeir chose French nationality in order to live in an open and secular country. He is the director of "Les cahiers de l'Orient" and has published several reference books on islamism such as "Les réseaux d'Allah" (2001) and "Liberté, égalité, Islam : la République face au communautarisme" (2005).
Lord Snooty
Comments
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US propaganda
08.03.2006 11:53
You are more dangerous and less intellectual than the fascists we have already trounced- hatemonger.
Doh
Secularists must defend Muslims.
08.03.2006 13:23
I see a problem with this new secular fundamentalism of the 'Manifesto against Islamism. This fundamentalism serves imperialism and racism, by portraying the West as more civilised and humane than the poor countries in the South that it has historically exploited and brutalised.
The secularism of the European enlightenment was once a heroic movement of the bourgeoisie. The rising capitalism class had to free itself from feudal domination. Thus the followers of Voltaire pitted themselves against the most powerful institution in Europe, the Christian Church.
But today’s 'petite Voltaire’s' do not challenge the powerful. In fact, they align themselves with the powerful to challenge the powerless. Rather than resist church and state, they rejoice in insulting the downtrodden immigrant workers of Europe who cling to their Muslim faith as solace against the racism, poverty and imperialism the oppressed experience.
Yes, of course religious obscurantism can be a cover for oppression. But our ideologies of 'Science' and 'Reason' themselves do not provide immunity from genocide. The Nazis put the Jews, Gays and Gypsies in the camps under the blinding light of 'science', with Darwinism distorted as justification. Both Marxism and liberalism have also been used as a cover for crimes ranging from slavery to the gulag. No ideology on its own, be it Islamism, Marxism, Secularism or Liberalism is the root of oppression. It is the social forces that use the ideology, and the social conjuncture and context within which the ideology is deployed.
Yes, the people of Muslim backgrounds who challenge oppression by Islamic rulers deserve our solidarity. But the authors of this ‘Manifesto Against Islamism’ risk becoming the mere tools of western racist and imperialist power. Such a manifesto is not a blow for liberation, but merely preparation for a new round of genocide and totalitarianism.
That the poster who calls themselves Lord Snooty (Lord Haw-Haw!), -who also stands up for the neo-nazi bnp - has chosen to repost this manifesto here on Indymedia speaks volumes about who this document will appeal to.
Barry Kade
'Anti-totalitarian' NAZI supporters against Islamism?
08.03.2006 14:11
In 1938 the Jyllands-Posten bore a headline, “Germans must be found right to get rid of the Jews” !!! Oh, such heroic fighters 'against totalitarianism' are todays backers of the 'manifesto against Islamism'!!!.
And more recently that paper refused to publish a cartoon because it offended Christians! Such a spirit of Voltaire here!
WHAT A LOAD OF HYPOCRITICAL BULLSHIT!
And as if Islamism is as big a totalitarian threat as Stalinism and Fascism once were. These were the ideologies of giant superpowers, Germany and Russia. Islamism is the ideology of immigrants and third world dictatorships that can be bombed to bits in days. No comparsion..
Real anti-totalitarian
Salman Rushdie makes a plea to any present day Adolf Eichmann's
08.03.2006 15:02
the oscars 2006: the Palestinian film 'Paradise Now' is described as coming from the 'Palestinian territories' (instead of Palestine) and no clip from it is shown. The vile putrid zionist atrocity 'Munich' is promoted by showing the clip where the 'kindly' Israeli terrorists abort a bombing because a child will be killed. This clip is being shown at almost the EXACT same time as the murderous real-life Israeli terrorist scum are bombing an ice-cream van in Palestine, murdering 2 kiddies. (the irony of the above is that the Palestinian film lost DESPITE crawling to the zionists in its content, and Spielberg lost despite glorifying Israeli terrorism, because he sugar-coated a little to try to get his evil message to a wider audience- the oscar voters will NEVER support a Palestinian film, and they want any film glorifying of Israeli terrorism to be one hundred and one percent pro-Israel).
Those that stand with Blair and his New Reich are exactly the same as those that stood with Hitler and his Third Reich. Indeed, one can argue that those that gave Hitler philosophical support paid the single greatest part in his rise to power. Here we have a document that calls for the extermination of ALL MUSLIMS, couched in the self same language that was used by Hitlers philosophers when THEY called for the extermination of all jews. Adolf Eichmann, if alive today, would read the words of Salman Rushdie and his 'friends' and know EXACTLY what they requested.
twilight