- - The view from the wishy-washy middle - -
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Those placards certainly do look alarming, and without a bit of context I can understand, (but not really sympathise with) the knee-jerk "all muslims are bloodthirsty terrorists" vibe that the American right-wingers on JU seem to trot out time and time again...
There are a loose collection of ultra-islamist groups in the UK, and other countries, that really do espouse the opinions on view here, and believe in a coming 'Caliphate' in a new world order of global islamic supremacy. However, the story in Sodaiho's link includes the following: "I condemn them without reservation, these people are less representative of Muslims than the BNP [a small neo-nazi grouplet operating in the UK] are of the British people." Asghar Bukhari, chairman of the [UK] Muslim Public Affairs Committee.
This is important because another JU canard beloved of right-wingers here is that whole, 'if there are any truly moderate muslims, why don't they condemn the extremists?' angle. The fact of the matter is, it would take about 2-3 minutes googling to find hundreds of muslim condemnations of terrorism, extremism and political violence, ranging from religious fatwas, to considered political and philosophical viewpoints and just straightforward expressions of humanity and sanity. Go on - give it a go!
However, people see what they want to see and for the righties engaged in their Clash of Civilsations Crusade, such a nuanced view of competing points of view in the muslim world spoils their simple picture. In this respect the extremist grouplets involved (included Hisbut Tahir, Al-Muhajiroun and Jamaat-I-Islam) get exactly what they want: marching to the front of a demo with deliberately outrageous and offensive placards, trying to pass themselves off as the 'muslim mainstream', and those western rightie suckers fall for it every time and start frothing at the mouth at 'muslims' in general. Another tiny, unrepresentative grouplet gets another 15 minute dose of fame and also gets an inch closer to its main goal - stirring up more shit between the west and the muslims of the world in general.
Yes, there is such a thing as Islamofascism (or whatever else you want to call it - that particular term being ugly, clumsy and of limited accuracy), and a lot of 'liberal' [sic] opinion is dangerously mistaken in refusing to wake up to the danger that it poses. It is however the height of intellectual laziness to identify it simply with particular racial groups, or a religious affiliation.