The current conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists has brought to the fore the unholy alliance between the political left and Islam. You only need to observe the intense support that has been pouring in for Hamas from leftist circles to come to the conclusion that the left is in love with Islam.
When you see the solidarity that this terrorist organization has garnered from academia and Hollywood—the two leading bastions of leftist ideologies— since the outbreak of the war, you are left wondering about the romance between the left and Islam.
Many major media houses have been manipulating facts to whip up support for Hamas in the West. Leading this pack of child-murdering Hamas sympathizers is the BBC, which has refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization. How do you explain the absurdity and irony of major leftist political leaders such as Jeremy Corbyn marching with pro-Hamas protesters who carry antisemitic placards and wear Nazi signs while desecrating British war memorials? It doesn't make sense, does it?
Well, it doesn't add up if we are merely looking at it on the surface. However, like most things in life, when we look a little deeper, we can connect the dots. But before I try to make sense of this conundrum of a love affair between the left and Islam, let me first share with you what the relationship between the political left and Islam should naturally look like from a distance.
Incompatible Blood Types
Leftism and Islam ordinarily should not have anything in common. On the surface, leftism and Islam are supposed to be like two parallel lines that never meet. For starters, Islam opposes almost everything the left claims to stand for. Leftists adore the LGBT lifestyles; Muslims literally throw gay men off the roof. Leftists are given to gender equality; Islamic regimes all around the world unabashedly oppress women. Leftists claim to stand for minority rights, but minorities have little to no rights in Muslim-majority countries. In fact, every leftist cause including abortion rights, gender equality, minority rights, and LGBTQ is not only not tolerated, but also vehemently opposed in Islamic countries. From a distance, leftism and Islam appear to stand on the opposite side of every issue that matters. If this is true, then why does the left cozy up to Islam? Why does it pander to it? Well, the answer is simple: leftism is an ideology built on hypocrisy and lies. The truth is that the left has more in common with Islam than it cares to admit.
If you are familiar with the principle that states that the enemy of one's enemy is one's friend, you will understand the unsavory love affair between the left and Islam. This is the principle that explains why the left is reaching out and clasping hands with Islam. The principle that the enemy of one's enemy is one's friend is the idea that it can be beneficial to work with a smaller enemy to defeat a bigger foe. For example, if Tom and Harry are both your enemies, and Tom is the smaller, less powerful, less dangerous, and less immediate of the two, then it makes sense for you to join forces with Tom—at least for the meantime—to take down Harry who is the more powerful, more dangerous, and more immediate enemy. You might not like Tom, but in the interest of defeating Harry, you are willing to ‘get in bed’ with Tom. In this case, Tom is merely a disposable ally being used to inflict defeat on a common enemy.
This is exactly what is playing out between the left and Islam. The left believes it shares a common enemy with Islam. This common foe is the Judeo-Christian worldview and everything built on it. Everything including capitalism, private property rights, and the nuclear family. Based on Marxism, the left wants to build a socialist utopia where people will own nothing and still be happy. So it believes, and rightly so, that Christianity is the most formidable obstacle against its socialist dreams. Therefore, in order to overcome the hurdle posed by the Judeo-Christian worldview, the left is willing to get in bed with Islam. In its war against Christianity, the left sees Islam as a natural and capable ally.
This is not difficult for the left to do, as it makes a natural bedfellow with Islam. At its core, leftism shares many characteristics with Islam. Beyond the surface and hypocritical claims of liberty and equality, the left is essentially a big brother to Islam in its unrestrained clamor for control and submission, pursuit of ideological purity, and hatred for true freedom.
United Against the Judeo-Christian Worldview
As I wrote earlier in this article, the left hates the Judeo-Christian worldview and wants to deconstruct it. What other ideology seeks to destroy Jews and Christians? It's Islam. I'm not sure where Christians are more persecuted between the West and Islamic countries. Fueled by the resurgence of Marxism in Western countries, the left has assaulted the Judeo-Christian worldview so long and so badly that we can no longer tell what a woman is. The long march of Marxist ideologies through every institution of the West is so complete that even to dare to question them is to risk being persecuted and accused of terrorism, like the chaplain who was dismissed and reported to Prevent (the UK multi-agency counter-terrorism scheme aimed at stopping individuals from becoming terrorists) for suspected terrorism for saying Trent College pupils could question teaching on gender. Trent College (read high school) is a £40K/year Marxist indoctrination camp where parents pay a premium for their children to get front-row seats to wokery and lunacy at their expense.
Read his sermon here and see for yourself why Rev Randall deserves a corner office at Hamas headquarters. And speaking of Hamas, the head-chopping, women-raping terrorist organization is bent on annihilating the state of Israel. Its charter boldly declares that the state of Israel will continue to exist until Hamas destroys it. If the left truly stands for women and LGBT rights, then why is it pandering to an organization that rapes women and throws gay men off the roof? Well, the only logical explanation is that, as long as Hamas maintains a shared hatred for the Judeo-Christian worldview, the left is willing to excuse its atrocities and work with it.
United in Their Clamor for Absolute Submission
Another front on which the left and Islam are united is in their demand for absolute submission. After subverting institutions like the family, education, sex, media, and popular culture, the left wants nothing short of complete homage to its deviant ideology. It's not enough to tolerate its perversions, you must affirm them. You must show your allegiance by greenwashing, wokewashing, and rainbowwashing. No question or debate is tolerated. And the consequences for not toeing the line range from getting canceled and de-platformed, to getting thrown in jail.
Just like the left, Islam also tolerates no question or debate. As a religion that literally means "total submission to the will of Allah", it reserves the worst punishment for dissidents. Under pain of death, Muslims living in Islamic countries are forbidden to convert to another religion. Jews, Christians, and other minorities are subjected to barbaric conditions, with little to no rights. So, if the left truly cares about freedom and minority rights, why doesn't it bat an eye against Islam's total disregard for both? Again, the reality is that the left does not care about freedom or minority rights, except those minorities who could be used to further its evil agenda.
United in Their Aversion to Freedom of Thought, Speech, and Belief
The last and biggest commonality between the left and Islam is their aversion to freedom of thought, speech, and belief. I know what you are probably thinking. Doesn't the left claim to unabashedly champion freedom of thought, speech, and belief? No, not at all. While it appears so on the surface, at a closer look, it's a facade. What the left does is hypocritically defend the freedom to think, speak, and believe what it wants people to think, speak, and believe.
If you don't believe me, I invite you to experiment with the freedom the left offers. Go on your favorite social media platform and say something against the LGBTQ lifestyle or climate change or whatever baloney the left is pushing and see how quickly you are canceled. You will suddenly discover that freedom, as defined by the left, is nothing but an illusion. Well, as a consolation, you are free to bash capitalism, the nuclear family, patriarchy, and everything the left considers to be a vestige of its archenemy—Christianity.
Conclusion
The alliance between the political left and Islam is a complex and often contradictory phenomenon. On the surface, the two ideologies appear to be diametrically opposed, with the left championing progressive values such as LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, and individual freedom, while Islam often upholds more conservative and restrictive social norms. However, a deeper examination reveals that the two ideologies share many underlying commonalities, particularly in their opposition to the Judeo-Christian worldview, their desire for absolute control and submission from their adherents, and their aversion to freedom of thought, speech, and belief.
The left's embrace of Islam stems from a perceived shared enemy – the Judeo-Christian worldview. The left sees this tradition as the foundation of Western society, with its emphasis on capitalism, private property, and the nuclear family, all of which are seen as obstacles to the left's socialist utopia. In this context, Islam, with its emphasis on the jihad against Jews and Christians and its opposition to Western civilization, is seen as a natural ally in the left's struggle against the perceived "oppressors". Therefore, as long as the left perceives the Judeo-Christian tradition as its main obstacle, it will continue to court the support of Islamic groups, even if it means overlooking the contradictions inherent in this relationship.
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Ayodeji Michael Olumofe lives in the United Kingdom with his wife and two children.
