To All You "Christian Fascists" Out There, Listen Up!

...You're hurting America. :-P

Bush made the wise decision recently, when commenting on the foiled terror plot announced by the U.K. yesterday, to call the terrorists "Islamic Fascists". U.S. Muslim groups are criticizing, rightfully, the President on this move. Daily Kos, I believe, has provided a solid post exploring the issue. My favorite is the following passage, taken from a Gallup Poll last month:

While Americans tend to disagree with the notion that Muslims living in the United States are sympathetic to al-Qaeda, a significant 34% believe they do back al-Qaeda. And fewer than half -- 49% -- believe U.S. Muslims are loyal to the United States. Almost four in ten, 39%, advocate that Muslims here should carry special I.D. That same number admit that they do hold some "prejudice" against Muslims. Forty-four percent say their religious views are too "extreme."

My roommate, Amber, I believe put it best when we noticed the President's use of language: she observed that the "enemy" has been slowly evolving. We've gone from calling them "terrorists" to "Islamic Fascists", which is such a loaded term. You're combining Islam, a religion which many U.S. citizens seem to percieve as being in opposition to Judeo-Christian western society, and Fascism, an extreme-right nationalist social movement in several nations worldwide which has resulted in the deaths of millions, the persecution of peoples for various reasons, and warmongering across the globe for nationalist interests.

In fact, I know a government which fits many of the qualities of a budding fascist regime: this one. If we don't start changing our culture and our politics soon, we could spiral down the path of fascism. I'm not saying Bush is the next Hitler, but his policies have tended towards that of more benign (relative to Nazi Germany) form of fascism. We need to shy away from the ideological trap as defining an entire group of people as "enemies" just for a vague set of criteria. Because at this rate, the "enemy" will become Islam. We cannot let that occur if we ever want to see peace again.

Also, the G.O.P. political machine pissed me off with the "presponse" to the foiled terror plot. Knowing about the plot before its official announcement, they started attacking Democrats on national security earlier in the week.