Kiwi Farms

• Completely unwilling to criticize Islamism and radical Islam
• Parrot the phrases "RELIGION OF PEACE" and "NOTHING TO DO WITH ISLAM" after terrorist attacks
• Defend sharia law
• Show far more concern for backlash Muslims might face following terrorist attacks than for the actual victims
• Think that Islamophobia is a much worse problem than Islamic terrorism is
• Equate criticism of Islam/radical Muslims with racism and bigotry
• Insist that Muslim women aren't really oppressed (not saying that all Muslim women are oppressed btw, but a huge number of them are)
• Etc

In 2007, Maajid Nawaz renounced his previous association with the radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir in favor of secular Islam. He is co-founder and chairman of Quilliam, a counter-extremism think tank based in London that seeks to challenge Islamist ideology.[1][5]

Nawaz has used the phrase regressive left to describe left-leaning people who, in his opinion, pander to Islamism, which he defines as a "global totalitarian theo-political project" with a "desire to impose any given interpretation of Islam over society as law"[6] and which he opposes on the ground that "any desire to impose any version of Islam over anyone anywhere, ever, is a fundamental violation of our basic civil liberties".[7] According to Nawaz, such sympathizers of Islamism include "atheists who are on the side of the Islamists, defending Islamism in the name of cultural tolerance".[8]

In an October 2015 interview with political talk show host Dave Rubin, Nawaz elucidated further the reasoning behind his choice of the word regressive. He hypothesized that a section of people on the left "genuinely believe" that they are fighting an "ideological war" against neoconservative and neocolonialist foreign policies of Western governments which promote state-organized violence and chaos in the form of wars and military invasions. In contrast, he claims, such leftists forgo their duty to denounce the violent acts of theocratic extremists such as Islamists, at times going so far as to "make alliances" with some of the most regressive, theocratic, and murderous regimes and organizations. He cited Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the British Labour Party, as an example of someone who "has been historically very close" to supporters of Islamist organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah. In Nawaz's opinion, it is possible to denounce both neoconservative foreign policies such as the Iraq war (which he had opposed) and theocratic extremism, however, those that he labels "regressive leftists" fail to do so he says.[9]

According to Nawaz, the notion that Muslims cannot cope with criticism or mockery of Islam and only react violently, is "patronizing, self-pity inspiring mollycoddling" of the very Muslims it claims to serve and emancipate, because it does not expect them to be civil and control their anger.[7] This "racism of low expectations" lowers the moral standards of people within minorities, seeking excuses if they express, misogyny, homophobia, chauvinism, bigotry, or antisemitism, whilst holding members of the majority to "universal liberal standards".[2]

Haras Rafiq, managing director of Quilliam, expressed the view that there is a tendency of some on the left to excuse Islamism. "We have not got to grips with the symbiotic relationship between Islamism and far-right hatred, and the regressive left that is prepared to excuse Islamism."[10]

Click to expand...