ABSTRACT
This chapter refers the terms Islamism and jihadism, depending on the context. The neo-Islamic totalitarian movements are essentially fascist movements. Manfred Halpern, citing examples from the Muslim Brotherhood, continued: Like fascism, neo-Islamic totalitarianism represents the institutionalization of struggle, tension, and violence. Like fascist movements elsewhere, the movement is so organized as to make neo-Islamic totalitarianism the whole life of its members. The comparison of Islamism with fascism made sense to Maxime Rodinson, the preeminent French scholar of Islam, who pioneered the application of sociological method to the Middle East. Like fascism, the Islamic revolutionary movement has offered a new synthesis of the political creeds it has violently attacked. Like the fascists, the Islamic militants are against democracy because they consider liberal democracy a foreign model that provides avenues for free expression of alien influences and ideas. The Islamism-fascism comparison has distinguished and rigorous academic precedents.
