Eric Margolis on the term "Islamofascism"

Margolis has written a superb piece on the term "Islamofascism" here. I've long thought that the term was a mix of tremendous inaccuracy and unhelpful offensiveness. Money quote here:

The Muslim World is replete with brutal dictatorships, feudal monarchies, and corrupt military-run states, but none of these regimes, however deplorable, fits the standard definition of fascism. Most, in fact, are America’s allies.

Nor do underground Islamic militant groups (`terrorists’ in western terminology). They are either focused on liberating land from foreign occupation, overthrowing `un-Islamic’ regimes, driving western influence from their region, or imposing theocracy based on early Islamic democracy.

In several regards, these governments and militant groups may be despicable (treatment of women et cetera) but to call them "fascist" is a useless lie that helps no one. C.S. Lewis once described how the term "gentleman" once denoted a specific social rank but had mutated into a universal term for a polite sort of man. "Fascist" may well do the same at this rate. Picture it now, "That guy cut me off, what a fascist." Whatever emotional gratification we get for labeling our miscellaneous foes as "fascist" we also impoverish our language of a once potent and useful term.
Tags: Eric Margolis, Islamofascism, Fascism.