Islam and Totalitarianism
the bad idea of ordaining church and state as the same
Before I get back to my diagnosis of the war-fevered Israelis on my Gaza page, I need to draw attention to a recent article by David Remnick about Yahya Sinwar in Gaza.
Setting most of the article aside, one detail jumped out at me while reading: Islamists carry a policy of “targeted assassination” that they’re divinely assured is sanctioned by G~d, the Almighty and all-Merciful. The interesting thing is that they don’t even require any approval but their own assurance of faith; it’s informally upheld by the conventions of their community. And also that the assassination targets have consisted of Muslims who marry out of their faith, or who otherwise leave it; those who sell their real estate property to Jews; blaspheming Westernized Arabs; blaspheming un-Westernized Arabs; blasphemers anywhere within the Umma, potentially. Including, potentially, all women, for doing anything at all outside of taking a husband’s orders.
There are also many, many other kinds of restrictions on conduct; the enforcement may be stringent, tolerant, or depending on whim. Punishments include the death penalty. The victims of this policy include heads of state and their most important officials- King Abdullah I of Jordan, Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Mohammed Boudiaf of Algeria, Wasfi Tal in Jordan, Mohamed Qaddaffi of Libya…1 But the policy is mostly enforced on those with neither fame nor wealth, or very much else to call their own.
The ultimate police state, enforced by…who?
Islam doesn’t ordain that situation. But I’ve never heard all that much of an outcry when it happens.
Sometimes, the result is something chilling: totalitarianism enforced by a community of religious adherents, typically led by a vanguard of the most intolerant. That includes the Hamas led by Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza.
We will pause now, for howls of outrage, accusations, and calumny. Some will even insist that I have no business even reading (((David Remnick))) in the pages of the N(J)ew Yorker. Well, yes I do. Now what? Are you going to tell me that the facts are wrong? That Sinwar heads a “resistance movement” that doesn’t enforce its religiously political orthodoxy with executions? That the cases cited in the New Yorker article are Zionist propaganda?
Have at it. I place enough minimal trust in the editorial standards of the New Yorker that I place more trust in them than some c.2024 Fake News Feed. But, hey, if you can prove me wrong, you have a scoop on your hands.
Yahya Sinwar is convicted, so to speak, in his intransigence and dedication to Islamist austerity and ideological purity codes. He spent 20 years in the prisons of Israel. I think that probably did a number on him, to some extent; it often does. I can’t get my copied photos to load, so here’s a link to Images. Yahya Sinwar has a 1000-yard stare. That’s the weight of an enormous amount of pain and suffering. Incarceration has made him more of an embittered militant than when his journey began. It’s interesting to wonder, without knowing for sure, whether it was all unnecessary.
It’s interesting to contrast the historic targeted assassination policies of nation-states with the policy of internal security enforced by the Taliban, or the only marginally more tolerant precepts of Hamas. I’m just saying. Ponder that awhile. While I ponder the possibility of being on yet another Enemies List in perpetuity, simply for posting the following link. There are some people who spend a fortune on bodyguards to ward off the fanatics. I don’t have that kind of money.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/yahya-sinwar-profile-hamas-gaza-war-israel
(If you get a paywall, come back at the beginning of next month.)
If you’ve seen the movie Syriana, consider another viewing to refresh your memory. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. The plot line is a bit complicated, but you don’t have to get every last twist to get the gist of the film.
Syriana is about as thought-provoking an overview of the tragedy of modern Middle East history as one feature film is able to summarize. (Watch closely and pay attention to the story as it unfolds, in order to get the full impact of the “cricket-batter” scene near the end; it’s one of the most heartbreaking in the history of cinema. That hint is only a spoiler if you try skipping ahead to watch it.)
1 in the interest of not providing the misleading impression that only Islamists are assassins, here is the compilation I found on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heads_of_state_and_government_who_were_assassinated_or_executed