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Review-Comparing Terror and Liberalism to Faith and Reason By War Against Jihadism and Berman’s Terror and Liberalism, they emphasize the existential threat brought to the world by secular fascists, EVIEW: R such as Saddam Hussein, and Islamic COMPARING TERROR AND LIBERALISM TO totalitarians, such as al-Qaeda and other FAITH AND REASON radical groups, who dream of the collapse of BY PAUL BERMAN & Western civilization’s liberal and secular order GEORGE WEIGEL followed by the creation of a world ruled by the one true faith, Islam. These authors believe PATRICK FROST that religion and ideology are incredibly strong factors in our world and play a commanding “We are the anti-nihilists – we had better be, role in US relations with other states and anyway. In the anti-nihilist system, freedom peoples. for others means safety for ourselves. Let us be Berman and Weigel share this view of for the freedom of others.” the nature of our enemy and adamantly Paul Berman, support the West’s liberal system, but they Terror and Liberalism come to these conclusions from very different angles. George Weigel is a Catholic social and political commentator, who has written much The terrorist threat to the United about American Christianity and how it States, which became all too visible on the should affect our outlook of the world. In morning of September 11th, 2001, and the Bush Faith, he urges that in order for us to administration’s policies to combat it have successfully fight this present enemy, who he brought about an important debate argues sees ‘no innocents’ in our Western concerning our nation’s foreign policy. This world, we must see history and the present debate has largely centered on whether the US situation not just through economic or should have a foreign policy that actively and political lenses, but must emphasize culture, candidly advocates liberal democracy or one morality, and ideology. Weigel asserts that we that is more realistic and seeks to protect just Americans must be aware of the dynamic our immediate vital interests. How the US religious forces in the world, our own and views the nature and motivations of itself and ‘theirs’, if we are to win this fight. He warns of its present enemy will play a vital role in against the secular foreign policy deciding which of these two sides should establishment, which he argues has eroded our prevail in our nation’s future foreign policy ability to fight the War on Terror. We must discussions. ‘deserve victory’ in his eyes by deeming Paul Berman and George Weigel have ourselves and our culture worthy. To Weigel, both written important pieces regarding the the biblical tradition has led the US down a current state of the US and Western prosperous and secure path and we would be civilization and its newfound position relative foolish not to utilize such a vital asset in this to what the author calls Islamic fascism.1 In fight. their books, Weigel’s Faith, Reason, and the Weigel is a supporter of President Bush’s foreign policy in the War on Terror and 1 This term has been criticized by some scholars, but its actions in the Middle East. He argues for these discussions are outside the scope of the current the ‘rethinking of realism’ and warns that review. 1 unless drastic, aggressive measures are taken, nature of modern Arab fascist dictators and it will lead to the mistakes of pacifist Europe in the rise of Islamic totalitarian thought and the 1930s. He declares Bush’s Afghanistan and followers. The book examines how they have Iraq policies as being very realistic, because the grown to challenge the existence and current corrupt and unstable system and dominance of Western liberal civilization. governments of the Middle East were Berman traces the history of liberalism in unacceptable. Weigel warns against mistaking Europe and how totalitarian movements, ‘brittleness for order’ and missing the specifically the Nazis, Italian fascists, and revolutionary nature of our enemies in the Soviet Communists, rose up to challenge the region. liberal system of society and government. He Weigel’s Faith offers a convincing, argues that although these totalitarian though compared to Berman, shallow analysis movements may have been defeated, by force of the US/West’s ideological enemies and a mind you and not by appeasers and apologists, solid defense of the Bush Administration’s liberalism is still being combated today by policies in the Middle East, but he fails to similar movements. Fascism is not dead and acknowledge the complexities and fateful liberalism is not safe. Berman provocatively consequences of such a foreign policy. His draws a line of connection between the fascists rethought realism has caused great grief in the of early 20th century Europe and the Soviet Arab world, strained US relations with its Empire to Saddam’s Baath Party, Al Qaeda allies, caused a domestic divide inside the US, and other Islamist radicals. To him, they all and led to great instability in a region that is share a utopian view of their own civilization, obviously vital to the US’s national interests. this time based on religion, not race or class, a However, his attention to the power and hatred of liberal beliefs, the use of a police state influence of ideology and religion on both the to control the domestic population, organized US and its Islamic and fascist enemies is vital hatred, apocalyptic fantasies, and conspiracy to our understanding of this present day theories. All these elements are what Berman conflict. calls the ‘culture of totalitarianism’ and a Paul Berman in Terror and Liberalism ‘culture of death.’ looks at the War on Terror, and what he calls The most fascinating element of Terror ‘Islamic fascism’ from a different perspective, and Liberalism is Berman’s analysis of the but comes to similar conclusions. A left wing writings and beliefs of Sayyid Qutb, an journalist, Berman is a strong advocate of influential Egyptian writer who wrote about international liberalism, believing in the Islam and its relation with the secular, liberal universal freedoms of speech, religion, and an West. According to Qutb the world is divided open society. Although he is no fan of the into a dichotomous system, pitting the secular Bush Administration, he is at times a West against the forces of Islam. Qutb’s view supporter of using force to bring such ideals of the world, expressed in his major writings and governance to societies entrenched with Milestones and In the Shade of the Qu’ran¸ leaders opposed to these values, and has has had a dramatic impact on many Muslims, supported recent U.S. military actions in both including the leaders of Al Qaeda. Taliban-governed Afghanistan and an Iraq led Qutb argues for the totality of Islam by Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party. and that God is Everything, but to his great Berman’s Terror and Liberalism takes despair, this truth has been openly challenged a deeper look than Weigel’s Faith into the by a dominant Western society and system, 2 whose guiding philosophy was secular and ways in pursuit of identifiable interests.’ After liberal. The Islamic community was all, Berman points out, ‘the Pentagon had no experiencing a horrifying ‘schizophrenia’; it had plan to defend the Pentagon’! As religious the truth and the path to eternal salvation, but scholar, Mark Lilla argues in his recent book this was corrupted by an alien force that made The Stillborn God, the West’s “intellectual the devastating mistake of separating God complacency, nursed by implicit faith in the from political life. It was in this dramatic inevitability of secularization [and rationalism], setting that Qutb advocated for a vanguard of has blinded us to the persistence of political true Muslims who would work to defeat this theology and its manifest power to shape wrongheaded system and create a world true human life at any moment.” In other words to Islam. To achieve this, the vanguard could Qutb is right; God does matter. utilize a Jihad that went beyond just a defense Berman does not believe in a ‘clash of of Muslim lands; in fact, this Jihad would have civilizations,’ but in a clash of ideology, ‘no limits.’ To die in this fight for Islamic truth liberalism versus phantasmagorical totalitarian would be the ultimate sacrifice and lead to movements that have risen against it. In a eternal salvation. Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri’s similar vein to Weigel’s argument for the group Al Qaeda took on the role of Qutb’s necessity of force when dealing with a fascist vanguard, combating the US and West in the movement, Berman supported the US war in name of their version of Islam. Afghanistan, and though less vehemently, the To Berman, Qutb’s Islamic movement one in Iraq. Although he finds much to fault in and talk of death was nothing exotic or new. It George W. Bush’s policies and execution, he was just a continuation of fascist retaliation believes that the man has rightly fought these against the modern liberal system, like that wars for two main reasons; to defeat the seen in Europe during the beginning of the totalitarian movements of the Taliban, Al 20th century. Berman argues that before Qaeda, and the Ba’athist Party, and to September 11th, the West made the same promote a liberal, democratic order. mistake with Al-Qaeda, and other Islamic Berman laments Bush’s failure to get groups Berman would regard as fascist, as this message more clearly out to the world and they did with Hitler in the 1930s, in assuming even to the US population, and feels that his the enemy to be guided by rational thought as talk of preemption and WMDs led away from opposed to dogma.
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