Elizabeth Wasserman interviewed Bernard Lewis, who said:
Well, there are certain elements in Islamic law and tradition which I think are conducive to democracy. The idea that government is contractual and consensual, for one thing. According to the Islamic Treatise on Holy Law, the ruler comes to power by an agreement between the ruler and his subjects. This is bilateral. Both sides have obligations. It is also limited. The ruler rules under the Holy Law, which he cannot change and which he must obey. So these two elements, I think, of consent and contract, also have the element of limitation, and can be very conducive to the development of democratic institutions. There is also a deeply rooted rejection in traditional Islamic writing of despotism or dictatorship, of the capricious rule of the ruler without due regard to the law and to the opinion of the various groups in society.
Certainly there is a Fascist element in the Islamic world, but it's not in the religious fundamentalists. It's rather in people like Saddam Hussein and his regime and the Syrian regime. These were directly based on the Fascist regimes. ... The Islamists' approach is quite different from that and has its roots in the history of Islam. Though, of course, it is also influenced by outside ideas. I would not call it Fascist. I would say it is certainly authoritarian and shares the hostilities of the Fascists rather than their doctrines.
I think that Bernard Lewis is completely off the mark in saying that the approach of the Islamic fundamentalists is completely different from fascism. He may understand the Middle East, but I don't think that he understands fascism - as evinced by his perception of fascism as being based upon "doctrines" rather than attitude and methodology. Robert O. Paxton, a professor emeritus at Columbia University defines the concept in his book The Anatomy of Fascism:
''A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.''
So, how much of this applies to the Islamists? Let's take a look...
Obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood? Absolutely - Lewis even discusses this in some depth in the interview. Feelings of humiliation are a defining factor in the Arab world which the Islamists have seized upon. Compensator cults of unity, energy, and purity? That's arguably true of the various Islamic fundamentalist organizations.
Committed nationalist militants? Well, they aren't nationalists in the Western sense, but they are committed and militant in the defense of the idea of an organic Muslim community - so that tracks pretty well. Working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites? That's definitely true in some places, like Saudi Arabia.
Abandoned democratic liberties? I don't think that many ever believed in them in the first place. Pursuing internal cleansing? Absolutely - there is no question about that. Pursuing external expansion? That is questionable. Use of redemptive violence without ethical or legal restraints? That's pretty clearly true as well - suicide attacks which violate traditional Islamic law both in the sense of being suicides and in the sense of killing innocents.
Based upon Paxton's definition - which may not be perfect, but is still pretty good - the Islamic militants definitely belong to a fascist movement. Fascism is much bigger than Nazism or Mussolini - fascism is bundle of attitudes and ideas which allow humans to exercise a tremendous amount of hatred and political violence. It's dangerous and it must be stopped before it is allowed to spread too far.
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According to a website at this link: http://politics.quranicverses.co.uk/ Muslim philosophers accept the fact that Democracy and Islam can coexist in good harmony.