The idea that the Palestinian people have only been able to persist because of their religion is ridiculous to me. They are resisting because colonialism, apartheid and genocide are very bad things to which nobody would want to be subjected, not because of Islam. If Palestinians were atheists, is he suggesting that they wouldn't have the strength or the will to resist? Would their lack of a belief in the supernatural turn them into doormats for Isn'treal?
I like Hakim's content, but his position on religion is quite frustrating. He is a Muslim first and a Marxist second. Also, Joram van Klaveren is still a right-winger.
Happy to clarify comrade. Islamism is not Islam. Islamism is a modernist political ideology and force whose roots are in the reaction of the Islamic world to Western Imperialism and Colonialism in the 19th century and the decline in political strength of the Islamic world. It's relative strength and influence in the contemporary world has to do not only with further radicalization
I would not say they are the same thing, as Fascism for me refers to strongly to a particular political phenomenon which is very much tied to the political and socio-economic history of Europe (or the capitalist-imperialist West). Aimé Cesaire's comment that it can be seen as the tools of imperialism turns inwards is relevant here, but I wouldn't use that to literally define fascism as it is too broad and captures more than the political phenomenon what the term 'fascism' was coined to capture.
The similarities in my mind are the following:
That being said there is also of course ideological and organizational variety among Islamist groups, just as there is among fascist groups. Groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood base themselves on more open political competition, notably for mass-movement based electoral influence, while also operating with some independence outside of formal, liberally-condoned political options. So the similarities are more clear in terms of several super-structural aspects, but there is also the base-level similarity in that both emerge as reactionary radicalizing forces often aiming for mass radicalization and violent revolution as consequences and responses to the socio-economic and political crisis of their societies, in contexts of delegitimization of the established, liberal, secular, nationalist or socialist alternatives (for whatever reason, though in this case often very closely related to the fact that these societies are generally suffering intensely due to Western Imperialism, Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism.