Islamic Facism

I was looking forward to today's Globalization seminar. The first class, Mandell showed what he called an "over the top" documentary - global village/global pillage - but leftist nonetheless. On Tuesday, he presented a compelling argument of how Web 2.0 - the more participatory interconnective-ness of the Internet is shaping our global world and how people, communities, gov't and businesses interact. Today's class was supposed to be focused on the causes of global conflict.

Instead, he focused on two words in Bush's statements today after the capture of the suspected transatlantic bombers - facist islam. Or was it Islamic facism? Am I even spelling it correctly? Anyway, we spent the entire 90 minutes listening to comments from the 200 or so folks in the room about those two words and what it means for globalization. It could have been fascinating to frame today's events in his presentation, but it really felt like people were just expressing their viewpoint, and I just didn't see any opportunity for real dialogue. Plus, I'm cynical about changing anyone's mind at this institution - not very radical of me, but the Israeli and U.S. military reps said predicatable quips, as did folks critical of Bush, but there wasn't much analysis in the discussion. A brother from Ethiopia, though, did make a pithy remark that I loved: G. Bush could also be considered a fascist.

I didn't say anything. I keep vascillating between being really out there with my politics and keeping quiet to focus my energy on how to effect political change in the long run rather than spin wheels with the folks here. There are a few lefties, and I want to search them out, along with other political activism here on campus, hopefully in the fall.