Bin Laden and the Neocons Do a Mirror Dance (While Most Muslims Stay Invisible)

[Purveyor]

By RJ Eskow

In one of those strange moments of symmetry that have marked their respective histories, Osama Bin Laden and the neocons are both kicking off the week with a renewed dedication to their shared cause: a worldwide war between the Western powers and all of Islam. No surprise, really. It's in their mutual interest to make sure the rest of the world's Muslims stay invisible.

Bin Laden released a new video - man, this guy kicks out more product than Ryan Adams - just as a shaky cabal of radical rightists was launching something called "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week." As Barbara Ehrenreich points out, this loosely affiliated group doesn't hesitate to draw anti-Semites into what it claims is a pro-Israel platform. They also bring out ardent anti-feminists to argue that their global war on Muslims would advance women's rights.

What they don't say is that the invasion of Iraq - the prime achievement of their movement - was an enormous blow to the rights of Muslim women in that country. And, while they claim they like some Muslims, they're usually hard-pressed to name any - except those who have left their faith of origin and replaced it with the dogma of neoconservatism.

The very name "Islamo-Fascism" incorrectly uses the word "fascism," which by definition includes extreme statism, nationalism, and corporatism. Those forces are all abhorred by Islamic radicals. It's a neocon head game designed to make dangerous terrorist fringe groups look like an existential threat to the West, like the Axis or Soviet Communism. They want you to think that Islamic extremists aren't just violent and horrible people, but that they can destroy our way of life.

That's the perfect justification for the authoritarian, citizen-spying, militarized, corporate world they seek to create. What's more, it's the perfect propaganda framework for that other big prize, an attack on Iran. That's why another mirror-dancer, Dick Cheney, is also busting a move this week by keeping the war rhetoric hot. And that's why President Bush used the words "World War III" in reference to Iran last week.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/bin-laden-and-the-neocons_b_69438.html