Tarek Fatah Blames The Left For The Success Of Islamism

Pakistani/Canadian Muslim Tarek Fatah explains why he believes that Western leftists and liberals are partly to blame for the rise and success of Islamism and jihadi terrorism around the world.

As the world struggles to understand and cope with the rise of pan-Islamism and international jihadi terrorism within western countries, one thing is becoming increasingly clear.

The success of the Islamists is partly due to what I believe is a grand betrayal of civil society by the political left in the western democracies.

Instead of leading the fight against the fanatics’ religious obscurantism, they have embraced it.

The refusal of social democrats, liberals and leftists to stand up to Islamofascism in the democracies of Europe, North America, India and South Africa, has also had an unintended consequence.

He believes the "anti-immigrant backlash against all non-whites" is a direct result of the failure of the left to deal with Islamofascism before it became such a huge problem.  He says:

Imagine if Labour in the UK, Democrats in the U.S., the Congress and CPM in India, socialists in France and the left in Canada had not catered to Islamists, but instead drawn a line in the sand on such issues as gender apartheid.

Think how different things would be today.

Instead we’ve had more than a decade of appeasement.

The rest here.

Benghazi Bites The Dust?- Declared An Islamic Emirate

The fall of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi spawned the rise of the Salafist jihadi militant group Ansar al-Sharia. Those same Islamists responsible for the murder of  U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and several other Americans during the 2012 Benghazi attack, have been battling to take over Benghazi ever since, and have finally succeeded.  At least that's what they claim. As of late Wednesday, Benghazi is now an "Islamic emirate", says Mohammed al-Zahawi, Ansar al-Sharia's spokesperson.

Not so, says Khalifa Haftar.

"..Khalifa Haftar, a retired, renegade former army general who earlier this year launched a self-declared campaign to clear the city of Islamist militants, denied the group’s claims.

“The national Libyan army is in control of Benghazi and only withdrew from certain positions for tactical reasons,” Haftar told Al Arabiya News Channel.

“The claim that Benghazi is under the control of militias is a lie,” he said.

So, did Benghazi bite the dust and fall to Ansar al-Sharia?  Hard to tell, at this point, but I'm sure in the coming days it will become clearer who actually controls the city.  We know there have been some recent major battles in Benghazi, attacks on the airport prompting an evacuation of American personnel from the city, and news that an army base was taken over by Islamists and militiamen, so I'm thinking it's more likely that Ansar al-Sharia accomplished its goal. For now. And if they have, expect more bloodshed.

More here.

The rising tide of Islamism does not bode well for that region.