Abid Ullah Jan is an independent author and journalist.

After Fascism
Muslims and the Struggle for Self-determination

ABID ULLAH JAN

ISBN: 0-9733687-5-6
Pragmatic Publishing, Canada.
Pages: 269
Released: September 20, 2006.

The twenty-first century dawned with the most horrible crime, the 9/11 attacks in the United States, followed by horrible wars launched by the U.S. government. America’s rulers put forward an incredible and unusual conspiracy theory to tell the world how the 9/11 attacks took place. There was a lack of investigation to confirm the official theory about 9/11followed by a very quick war and the occupation of Afghanistan. An equally illegitimate war and the occupation of Iraq followed the war of aggression on Afghanistan.

The main lie used to justify the war on Iraq is now universally known. It is also well known that the war on Afghanistan was planned long before the 9/11 attacks. The war crimes committed by the U.S. forces in the occupied countries, as well as in the various prisons they have set-up within and outside the occupied countries, are also before the world. The use of banned weapons and ammunition, such as depleted uranium and white phosphorus, is also a matter of public record now. The consequences of using the banned weapons are also unfolding before our eyes in the form of an increasing number of deformed babies born in occupied Afghanistan and Iraq. Similarly, a number of Americans who were sent to war and used these weapons are suffering from related illnesses. Yet the people behind the wars are now showing their determination to nuke Iran into submission, if necessary, for its alleged intention to have nuclear weapons.

Many analysts believe that we are well into the age of fascism.[1] Others argue that we are about to enter an era of fascism in the name of freedom and democracy. Yet those in the opposing camp believe that the preemptive wars are needed to check the greatest evils and bestialities of Islam, which are set to change the Western way of life. The approaching denouement is presaged precisely by the extraordinary tension between the Muslim and Western worlds, led by the United States. In international relations, this denouement means a greater war.

In the Muslim world, a rising number of Muslims believe that it would be far better if a greater war were forestalled by Muslims achieving true independence and their right to self-determination. But Muslim independence has not yet not occurred, and—we must say flatly—the chance of it is small until the modern day fascists exhaust themselves in their plans to annihilate Muslims, and Muslims, in turn, learn a lesson at a great cost. The fact is that Muslims alone are not the victims.

Besides looking into the question of whether we are living in a new age of fascism, we need to seriously assess if a greater and wider war is approaching far more speedily than the rate at which new cadres of anti-war movements in the West and pro-independence and pro-self-determination activists in the Muslim world are coming to the fore. What is common between these two emerging forces in the East and the West? How can they compliment each other’s efforts? Members of these movements of true liberty need to look into the determination of those who want to control their own people and dominate the Muslim world at any cost. Together, they need to see where they are heading in a world led by a few powerful people. Never before has historical determinism assumed so fatalistic a form as it does nowadays. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will soon become small wars of the recent past. Will anything stop the warlords of our age? Will they succeed in what they have planned, or will war sweep them away?

The much-vaunted liberal democracy and the civil and human rights leaders are gradually caving in to the extremism of our age. This response is due to the nature of fascism. Those individuals who are for peace and the equal treatment of Muslims have started using terminology that even the fascists of the past did not use to belittle and demonize their enemies. Many self-proclaimed liberals are coming out of their closets and expressing views that are hardly different from the views on the extreme right. For example, articles of Thomas Friedman, published in the New York Times soon after the July 7, 2005, bombing in London, openly threatened Muslims and cursed Islam without pausing for the dust to settle and to see if his conclusions were correct.

Similarly, others, even those like George Galloway—the British MP who speaks strongly against the illegal wars—agreed that the staged terror attacks of 9/11 were the work of raging Muslims. Together, most of the pro-war and anti-war activists and analysts are making a majority in the world believe in the “enemy” created by the extremists of our age.

Looking from the perspective of Muslims, suffering one kind of tyranny or another since the so-called independence from Western colonialism, one clearly sees that starving 1.8 million Iraqis to death through genocidal sanctions by the United Nations has inescapably retreated before the greater evil of this age. Islamophobia and capitalism, with the aid of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and coupled by corporate terrorism, have flourished for the last many years.

In the West, the search for truth, real representative democracy, and freedom from police states is intensifying. Peace activists are busy exposing the real culprits behind 9/11 and saving humanity from going into a greater war. On the other hand, the hunger for self-determination and self-rule is growing throughout the Muslim world. One sees evidence in the increasing number of Muslims who call for the overthrow of puppet regimes from dictators such as Pervez Musharraf and Islam Karimov to Kings in Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the autocrat in Egypt and puppets installed by occupation forces in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. One sees it in the learned disquisitions about the roots of continued inequality, desperation, under-development, and exploitation of the Muslim world. Moreover, one sees it in the general trend away from staying in the rut of systems left behind by the colonialists, without seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. Muslims did not see freedom and independence, which they acquired from colonialism at a great cost. Thus, Muslims have begun making changes because they do not believe they would achieve true freedom and independence living under the existing systems.

The mounting resistance movements warrant the questions: Are Muslim countries facing a new form of colonialism—fascist-colonialism? If so, what comes after fascism? What is the next step for Muslims and non-Muslims who are not interested in wars and domination, and who are helpless before the might of the oppressors, but want change nevertheless? The truth-tellers’ strategy of exposing the facts rightly began by focusing on the atrocities of the United States and its allies over the last century. Now a longer-term approach is needed, one that will serve human interests and human values, and one that will ensure equal opportunity for all to freely live their own way of life.

The ongoing uncertainty forces the truth-seekers to think about the future. It is not difficult to see that continuing military adventures can achieve no more than putting temporary puppets in position in places like Baghdad and Kabul. At the same time, they strengthen resentment and resistance, upon which the mass sensitization and a movement towards a just order rest. A serious analysis of the events is necessary to see how after the fall of communism, an upgraded extremism has become necessary, with legislation like that harking back to the time of Herod and the slaughter of innocent babes, so as to maintain the status quo of colonialism. How shall we interpret the open threats in the mainstream newspapers? Is it a sign of fascism and an impending disaster to read in the New York Times write-ups that declare all Muslims as suspect?[2] Were Jews told in the mainstream newspapers in Germany to mend their ways, otherwise, “the West [was] going to do it for them? And the West will do it in a rough, crude way—by simply shutting them out, denying them visas and making every Muslim [read Jew] in its midst guilty until proven innocent?” What kind of mindset are such messages helping to develop? What is the future of Muslims when the present mindset of the Western elite and people in power can be compared to the mindset that was developed in Europe with less threatening messages than these? One can remember horrors and atrocities of the past and imagine consequences of the present trends.

We cannot sit idle without trying to analyze the current events and attempting to avert impending disaster. To do that, we need to look back at the history of fascism and colonialism. It does not seem as if colonial adventures will end any time soon. Puppet regimes have replaced direct occupations in the former colonies. These regimes are serving their former masters more effectively than before through remote control colonialism. There are no limits to state control, manipulation of economic interactions, coercing individuals to serve the state, and usurping individual rights and civil liberties, and global expansionism within capitalism and associated corporatism. This is likewise true of the modern day crusaders and Zionists thriving in the shadows of corporatism. The myopic opportunists among Muslims are confidently treading the path into which the present masters of the situation are shoving mankind. Unfortunately, others are playing into the hands of occupation forces and have pitted themselves against each other rather than against the aggressors, whose “intellectual” supporters claim the civil war is in their favor.

The proceeding sections look into how the world is heading toward a greater war. We need to look into questions such as: Are we really facing modern day fascism, or it is an exaggerated position taken by some analysts? Where are the Muslim and non-Muslim majority worlds heading? Does the ultimate tragedy of human history await us, or is there some light at the end of the tunnel? If we are passing through an age of super-fascism, what is coming after it? This book answers these and similar questions. Part One of the books puts fascism into context. So far, researchers have considered colonialism, fascism, and American adventures over the last century in total isolation from each other. This book provides a comparative analysis in order to show the true horrors facing humanity today.

Part Two of this book looks at the Islamic world, which is reeling under continued colonialism. Even the most sympathetic Western analysts have failed to look at the broader picture. They make the serious mistake of presenting “Islamic democracy” as a panacea for all ills facing the Muslim world. This section discusses how “Islamic democracy” is no more than a myth perpetuated to maintain the status quo, and shows how the establishment of mini-Islamic states is impossible under the present circumstances.

The last section looks into the consequences of what the world is facing today. These predictions might appear to be long-term forecasts. However, in the face of the determination of warlords in the West, it might be a matter of only years, not decades, before we see the coming exodus and a Muslim holocaust unraveling before our eyes. The last section also looks into the seemingly impossible but, in fact, inevitable replacement of the United States by a Greater Israel as a ruling state.

This book highlights wars, occupations, and colonial adventures, which are still with us and will be so long as the world is unable to counter the strategy of violence and naked fascism effectively. The good news is that besides those individuals waging wars to impose a convoluted form of democracy on the Muslim world, there are people—mostly non-Muslims—who are struggling as a counter force. They expose the truth that would provide a viable collective solution for bringing the values of liberty and freedom into the structure of the state. This struggle on the part of reformers in the United States and elsewhere is the way of a future, pregnant with the possibility of Muslim success in their struggle for self-determination and self-rule.

The Muslim resistance is indirectly helping the truth-seekers and reformers to identify fascists in their societies and to work to regain their right to making real democratic choices for themselves. This book explains why the struggle must go on despite the fact that there are absolutely no signs of the fascists giving up their totalitarian dreams in the near future. Their adventures are bound to lead to more death and destruction. The mindset they have created is bound to lead to a Muslim holocaust. The good news is that the consistent support extended to racism and aggression against Israelis is bound to result in the totalitarians in the United States losing their empire. Muslims and non-Muslims struggling for liberty and freedom, nevertheless, can reduce the impact of these totalitarians’ actions by struggling for synthesis rather than giving up or joining the totalitarians’ struggle for global supremacy.

This vision to counter modern-day fascism is not utopian. Its realistic beginnings exist in the struggle for self-determination in the Muslim world and the struggle to expose the real face of modern day fascists in the Western world. The key to success lies in persistence and consistency. Besides, both Muslims and non-Muslims struggling against the fascism of our age need to demystify the myths, which have not only pitted Muslims and non-Muslims against each other, but also Muslims against Muslims and vice versa. This book attempts to demystify some of the myths about the Muslim world and the burgeoning movements for Muslim self-rule. Contrary to the reality, modern day fascists present this struggle as Muslims’ attempt to destroy the West. Without a greater public understanding of the reality, reformers in the West and the East will not be able to counter the fascism we are facing today.

This book provides a perspective for peace activists in the West and advocates of the Islamic movements for self-determination in the East to ponder anew over the following points:

· Can their collective way of struggle bring political and social revolution to society?

· Is Muslims’ way of struggle consistent with the method of the Prophet (pbuh)?

· Do they see in their countries and in the international arena the possibility of Muslims exercising their right to self-determination, achieving a real freedom? Can the Islamic movement deliver on this matter in the prevailing circumstances? How can the internal obstacles and external challenges be successfully tackled?

· Muslims have been living a life of servitude and misery for several centuries, deprived of freedom and political and financial independence. Living under never-ending colonialism, their sense of freedom and self-respect has dramatically suffered. Can one expect these oppressed nations to get ready for great sacrifices and to deliver the world of the worst form of fascist oppression?