IN A LIVE BBC interview recently, I called Hizbullah “Islamo-fascists.” The interviewer said nervously, “That’s a very controversial description.” I replied that it was merely accurate. She brought the interview to a swift close.

But how else should one describe a military machine that marches under the banner of a demagogic leader who seeks above all to kill Jews?  ~William Shawcross, The Jerusalem Post

Now, let’s see: demagogic leader, military machine, killing Jews…what prominent historical figure might Muslims look to who fits that description?  Hint: it aint Hitler.  But Mr. Shawcross provides a perfect example of an old leftist recycling anti-fascist language to describe specifically Islamic jihadis.  Why else would we need to add the fascist to Islamic, except that we are working on the assumption that the problem isn’t something to do with the terrorists’ being Islamic but with their fascistic methods?  European media coverage may well be going out of its way to avoid connecting the London plot with Islam, which is a ridiculous and enervating bias that prevents their audience from understanding the nature of the threat, but using clapped-out rhetoric about a political movement that effectively died 61 years ago is no more illuminating and reflects a confusion about the nature of the enemy almost as profound and dangerous as European denial about the threat of Islam from within.