Paul Berman ~ Terror and Liberalism (3/4)

Mr. Berman talks about his book Terror and Liberalism. In this book Mr. Berman gives an argument for an aggressive liberal response to terrorist attacks. Mr. Berman argues that, in the terror war, we are not facing a battle of the West against Islam but the same battle that tore apart Europe during most of the twentieth century, only in a new version. It is the clash of liberalism and its enemies-the battle between freedom and totalitarianism that arose in Europe many years ago and spread to the Muslim world. His analysis categorizes radical Islamism as a totalitarian reaction against Western liberalism in a class with Nazism and communism. Drawing on the ideas of Lenin and of Camus in The Rebel, Berman delineates how all three movements descended from utopian visions into irrational cults of death. He illustrates this progression through an analysis of the writings of a leading Islamist philosopher, Sayyid Qutb. In conclusion, Mr. Berman condemns the foreign policy "realism" of the political right and the naivete of the political left. He calls for a "new radicalism" and a "liberal American interventionism" to promote democratic values throughout the world.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• September 11th
• 9/11
• 9-11
• Sayyid Qutb
• Milestones
• Muslim Brotherhood
• Islam
• Islamism
• Jihadism
• Al-Qaeda
• Osama Bin Laden
• The Left
• Moonbats
• Euston Manifesto
• Decent Left
• Anti-Americanism
• Islamofascism
• Jihad