Jay Honeck wrote:

What don't I know (as a college grad with a minor in history) about Fascism
and Islam?

I really would like to, but I fear it's too complex for usenet.

To understand fascism, and why it was so successful in the thirties, you
need to have a thorough understanding of the situation in Europe at that
time (mental, political and economical) ans how it developed. Fascism
didn't drop from the sky (as didn't terrorism, btw.) but evolved over
decades as result of a complex reality. (Actually, this shouldn't
surprize anybody.) To understand, you need to read many sources, to try
to really go into people of that time ... which is difficult half a
centruy later, let alone for a non-European. Get me right, I don't blame
you if you're not willing to spend the effort (rather go flying!), but
then please be careful with the word fascism. All I can say is when you
find a book that breaks down fascism to three or four principles, it
must be wrong. It's more comlpex than the hollywood films about WWII.

With Islam it the same, just even more comlex. Over the centuries and in
many countries there have evolved lots of different scools and trends,
from the wahabits to modern and tolerant ones, and mostly it's very
difficult to tell religion from social tradition. It's even more complex
because the sources are not clear: There's the coran, of course, but
then there is the sunna, the hadiths, the fatwas, and different scools
don't accept the same sources. What would you say if somebody told you:
Hey, yesterday I've met a Mormon (or an Amish, or whatever), now I know
what Christianity is all about? But exactly this takes place in respect
of the Islam. When I claim that I know quite a bit about fascism, I
don't so in respect of the Islam. Granted, I have a few islamic friends
from different countries, so I have some idea, but by no means I
understand it.

Ok, you say, all this is interesting and nice, but I didn't explain
anything? You're right. I think I could explain fascism to some extent,
given enough time (but certainly not on usenet), and I know that I just
barely have a remote idea of the Islam. All I say is stop using such
meaningless buzzwords like "islamofascist", which, as somebody else
stated, is an oxymoron at best. It's a buzzword, created to combine two
alleged synonyms of "the evil" into one word. Granted, it sells well,
especially these days in the USA, but it's just a meaningless buzzword
as there were others some years ago and will be others some years from now.

Stefan