Daniel J. Pipes

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Major Hassan as a Proletarian Dictator

Reader comment on item: Maj. Hasan's Islamist Life

Submitted by Mike Fontane (United States), Nov 20, 2009 at 14:02

Marxist-Leninist regimes fashioned themselves as "proletarian dictatorships" according to their own ideology whereby state power was held by either the proletariat or the bourgeoisie. The terminology is so abstract that it's difficult for society to form an absolute consensus one way or the other. Extremists in the West conflate rogue elements within Muslim society as actually representing Islam as a whole. Obviously this plays precisely into the hands of the extremist Muslims, who find their ideology being abnormally legitimized by outsiders. Hassan's attack would have been completely illegal under the legal systems of the historical Muslim empires.

For a civilian to commit a unilateral act of war against the armed forces of a nonbelligerent foreign country would be a capital offence. Only the head of state was in a position to declare war, just the same as our system. Therein lies the falsity of propaganda which states that attacks of this nature are driven by fanatical adherents of Shariah law. Those who agitate against "normative" Islam would have use believe that Osama Bin Laden actually heads a Muslim caliphate based in the tribal areas of Pakistan, and thus is acting in accordance with Islamic law. The key here lies in understanding that reality is the polar opposite: extremist Muslims who launch spontaneous attacks are acting in defiance of the traditional Islamic legal framework. The situation today feels eerily similar to the 20th century phenomenon where the Jewish people as a whole were blamed for the actions of a rogue minority who partcipated in the Communist revolutions.


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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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