That Muslim zealot was probably just a paid shill for Pepsi-Cola.  

It's a brilliant marketing coup.  The message?   Pepsi =America.  

The folks at Coca-Cola are probably fuming.  

Joking aside, the article was both insightful and chilling.

Miguel de Unamuno should sue the Islamicists for stealing his line.

Actually it's the Spanish Falangist General José Millán Astray who yelled “Viva la muerte” at a speech given by Unamuno who should them.

On a more serious note, could anything be more obvious than the connection drawn by Paul Berman and others of Fascism and Islamicism?

Why some liberal thinkers would want to deny it is a real mystery to me.

Where is my comment?

Even if one were to allow that Fascism and Islamicism are indistinguishable, we would still be faced with the practical question of how to defend against and defeat this menace.  The argument over just how bad is bad enough is a waste of time.  The question is, what is to be done that will be effective?  The Iraq war ain't it.  Abu Ghraib ain't it.  Guantanamo doesn't look too good right now.  Afghanstan migh have been but we'r blowing it.

What then?

Citizen, you beat me to it.  Looks like Pepsi is winning the cola war.

Jackson:

"Could anything be more obvious than the connection drawn by Paul Berman and others of Fascism and Islamicism?"

...as in "Islamofascism"  I guess, that since the apostate Norman Podhoretz has promoted the term (as Berman has implied it), it's beyond the pale in "progressive" circles.

Jacksondyer,

I think Paul Berman's parallel's between Islamist extremism and fascism (or more specifically, totalitarianism) are right on the money.  These are death cults that require individual freedom and reason to be entirely subserviant to the one true power that will bring redemption to the worthy and purify the world.  

Some liberals deny it - that's true.   But others simply resent the sloppy way conservatives throw around terms like "Islamofascism" without any  clear understanding or rational approach for combatting it.  

"But others simply resent the sloppy way conservatives throw around terms like "Islamofascism" without any  clear understanding or rational approach for combatting [sic.] it. "

Reminiscent of the way many many so-called progressives threw around the term "fascist" to label anyone to their right.

hershel g.

Jerusalem

"Reminiscent of the way many many so-called progressives threw around the term "fascist" to label anyone to their right."

Or the way Jonah Goldberg used the same term to explain the politicls of anyone to his Left.

Yes, this political rhetoric is insidious but mainly it is juvenille.

"Islamo-fascism," on the other hand, is very real and combatting it is an actual object of our foreign policy.   And so reducing the term to a political buzz-word and a superficial slogan that encompasses everyone from Osama Bin Laden to Saddam Hussein to Pervaiz Musharaf to Mahmous Abbas to American citizens in Dearborne Michigan to any opponent (Muslim or non-Muslim) of the Iraq war is not only superficial and harmful to honest political discourse.  It ultimately undermines national security by dumbing down foreign policy.

Sure I wish more liberals considered Paul Berman's thesis and took seriously this sort of article by Dershowitz.  But I wish more conservatives did also.    After all, it is conservatives who have hi-jacked Berman's ideological term ("Islamofascism") but have abandoned the actual prescriptions for engaging in a war of ideas.  

To paraphrase the great general Tacticus (from Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" novels) - when your enemy wants to die for his cause, you know that his desires and yours are in perfect alignment.

Yeah, yeah, and the way rightists label anyone to their left, Commies, pinkos, Stalinists and even .  .  .  progresso-babblers.  Just like the right to focus everyone's attention on what is the politically correct nomenclature while forgetting to pay attention to what we are supposed to do about it.  It's all a game of my patriotic dick is bigger than your patriotic dick -- that is, idiotic.

The right has always been big on loyalty oaths and surrogates therefore -- like flag pins.  Whether you call Islamicists and terrorists "Islamofascists" or not is just the latest in a long line.  This is obnoxious enough.  Much worse is that, after the right gets finished sorting out the true believers, it pats itself and the back and forgets that in the real world there is still a job to be done.  When we were fighting the Cold War, it is fortunate that there were Democratic liberals around to do the real work while the mighty righties were busy with their witch hunts.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

And one more thing:  These guys all think they are Paul Revere, warning us that Islamicist suicide bombers are trying to kill us.  What a deep insight!  Thanks for that bit of advice.

jm-rice how dare you speak of Islamofascism?!

Haven't you heard Islam is the religion of peace? It's not right and correct-thinking to say Muslims are violent. Moreover, they might get upset and kill you, you Islamophobe. If you want to prove you're a good guy, you must first launch a few fawning disclaimers, grovel at the feet of Islamists who wouldn't think twice about slashing your infidel throat on TV. But hey, being a non-heretic liberal might be worth the price.

Some people forget that JFK was a staunch anti-Communist and that a fucking pro-Castro Commie murdered him. The same people or their progeniture know have mouth foaming when one dares criticizing the 22 demented Arab league counties + Iran, who tops them all. Once a Commie, always a fuckhead: yesterday a Commie, tomorrow an Islamist.

Well, sleepy, I'd not go that far about Commies.  Maoists, Yep.  Stalinists, sure.  But the Euro commies aren't such a bad lot.  Their problem is that they are sentimentalists, to wit:

I'm for the oppressed, therefore I'm a Commie.  I'm for the oppressed, therefore I'm an Islamist.  I'm a Commie, therefore I'm an Islamist.  Today a Commie today, today an Islamist.

Speaking of Muslims' ambitions for their kids...  http://jmr.org/molestrs.htm