There is an odd syllogism that is, sadly, not altogether uncommon among alternative and New Right circles. It works something like this:
-Major Premise: Globalism is bad.
-Minor Premise: Islam fights against globalism.
-Conclusion: Therefore Islam is praiseworthy and an ally against globalism.
I was reminded of this syllogism after recently encountering the transcript of a speech given by the Russian Eurasianist theorist Alexander Dugin, in which he declared, “In today’s world, Islam is the world religion most actively resisting globalism’s force. It makes the Islamic factor extremely important for the front of traditionalism.” That is to say that Islam is an ally against globalism. Dugin speaks of Shi’ites (a minority Islamic sect mostly found in Iran and Iraq) and the Salafists (centered in Saudi Arabia, but now spread across much of the Arab world and increasingly in Western countries), indicating he prefers the former.
In another recent piece relating to the relationship between Western traditionalists and Islam, activist Matthew Heimbach of the Traditionalist Youth Network wrote that Christians should form a common resistance front (presumably armed) against Zionism with militant Muslim groups. He specifically singles the Lebanese Shi’ite militia Hezbollah out for praise.
“We are not separate peoples fighting alone,” Heimbach wrote. “We are all comrades in the struggle against International Jewry and the Zionist State. All comrades united fighting the same enemy, on the same barricades.”
(Oddly enough, while calling for an alliance with militant Muslim groups against Israel, Heimbach also wants a crusade against Muslim militants in Syria.)
A final example comes from Gabor Vona of the Hungarian nationalist party Jobbik, “I declare that today [that] mankind’s last remaining bastion of traditional culture is the Islamic world…if Islam fails the lights will completely go out. There will be no [enemy] against the darkness of globalism.”
With all due respect to Mr. Vona, if Islam is our only hope against globalism, then we should throw in the towel because Islam can’t and won’t save us.
Now I will mostly avoid the usual tropes that would seek to demonstrate that Islam is an inherently violent and intolerant religion, ala Robert Spencer of “Jihad Watch”. Rather, I think it more prudent to ask where is this Islam that is supposedly standing athwart globalism yelling “stop!”
Indeed a survey of the happenings among Muslims is quite revealing as to their alleged “struggle against globalism”. Rotherham revealed that numerous Pakistani Muslims had been involved in kidnapping white British girls in their early teens and, after raping them, forcing them into prostitution. (It should be noted, all of this was done with the utter indifference of the globalists.)
In Iraq and Syria the world has witnessed the rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has asserted its recently obtained power (made possible with Western backing of the Syrian rebellion) by mass executions, beheadings of journalists, and the violent purging of ancient Christian and Yazidi communities.
One could easily pull up countless more examples of a similar nature from Nigeria to Pakistan of violent Muslim resistance to “globalism” which consists of massacres, rapes, kidnappings, and bombing of Christian churches. In the West we routinely see Muslim clerics inciting violent hostility against their host countries, with Muslims bombing a marathon and beheading an off-duty soldier in the street. Indeed, contra Vona, one gets the distinct impression that if Islam were to succeed, rather than fail, the lights in the West and many other places would go out.
Now I’m sure Dugin, Heimbach, Vona, and David Duke would strongly deny these are the sort of Muslims they support or wish to ally with, but if not them, then who? Who are these Muslim defenders of traditionalism against globalism? Where are they to be found?
Iran, perhaps? Except that Iran has been quite willing to aid “globalism” (America) against its regional opponents Iraq and Afghanistan. Shariah states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are closely allied with America and, other than not wanting to allow women to drive, have little problem with the globalist project. Most Muslim countries are willing to borrow money from globalist banking institutions and participate in globalist political institutions like the United Nations. And some like Kazakhstan seem to manufacture a seamless blending of a Muslim identity and bizarre Illuminati-inspired architecture.
The notion of plucky Islam standing up to globalism, after everyone else fell by the wayside, is most certainly a fairytale—and a dangerous one at that. Islam since its inception has been hostile and aggressive towards the West, long before globalism ever existed. The Muslim colonization, as Guillaume Faye correctly identifies it, of Europe and North America continues apace and is being done not with the aim of undermining globalism, but strengthening it, and we must not be tempted into succumbing to a short sighted “alliance” with groups that have a historical animosity toward the West, nor valorizing them as some sort of models that make of them something they’re not.
