The Western socialist left detests the United States and its capitalist economic structure, and seeks to facilitate that structure's downfall by any means necessary -- including the formation of whatever alliances will further that ultimate objective. One seemingly unlikely alliance that the socialist left has forged is its alliance with radical, fundamentalist Islam, which emphatically and unambiguously rejects virtually everything for which the socialist left claims to stand: the peaceful resolution of international conflict; respect and tolerance for other cultures and faiths; civil liberties; freedom of expression; freedom of thought; human rights; democracy; women's rights; gay rights; and the separation of church and state.



There could be no stranger bedfellows than Western leftists and Islamic extremists. Yet they have been brought together by the one overriding trait they do share -- their hatred for America; their belief that the U.S. is the very embodiment of evil on earth and must consequently be destroyed.



As Osama bin Laden told a CNN interviewer in 1997, "We declared jihad against America because America is unjust, criminal and tyrannical." This pronouncement does not differ at all, either in substance or tone, from the declarations of the West's radical left, whose ill will toward America is similarly detectable in the following excerpt from an al Qaeda manifesto: "America is the head of heresy in our modern world, and it leads an infidel democratic regime that is based upon separation of religion and state and on ruling the people by the people via legislating laws that contradict the way of Allah and permit what Allah has prohibited. This compels the other countries to act in accordance with the same laws in the same ways . . . and punishes any country [that rebels against these laws] by besieging it, and then by boycotting it. By so doing [America] seeks to impose on the world a religion that is not Allah's." While Western leftists make no similar religious references, they do contend, like radical Islamists, that the United States is determined to overrun other nations and dominate the world.



Radical Islam seeks purification and "social justice" by means of jihad, or holy war, whose highest ideal is martyrdom achieved while attempting to conquer an evil worldly power such as the United States, the Great Satan (and Israel, the Little Satan). The radical Islamist's ultimate goal is to subdue the "infidel" nations and therein institute sharia, or Islamic law, so as to redeem the world for Allah.



The radical left, similarly, advocates revolution as the means of achieving its ends -- eliminating capitalism and creating a socialist paradise on earth.



While Islamic radicals seek to purge the world of heresies and of the infidels who practice them, leftist radicals seek to purge society's collective "soul" of the vices allegedly spawned by capitalism -- those being racism, sexism, imperialism, and greed.



Just as Islamic radicals aim to impose their religion on the rest of the world in a totalitarian fashion requiring unwavering obedience, so do radical leftists strive to create an omnipotent socialist state that will control every aspect of daily life and will impose a universal brand of "social justice" on all mankind.



Central to both radical Islam and the radical Western left is an inclination to overthrow the existing order by any means necessary, so as to create a paradise on earth. Leftists may find the bigotry and intolerance of Islamic radicals repugnant, but their desire to rid the world of U.S. "imperialism" and capitalism overrides this revulsion and beckons them to forge the unholy alliance.



In the early stages of the Iraq War, George Galloway -- a British Member of Parliament and an inveterate America-hater -- gave voice to the mindset underlying the socialist left's alliance with radical Islam. Galloway was asked: "You often call for uniting Muslim and progressive forces globally. How far is it possible under current situation?" He replied: "Not only do I think it's possible but I think it is vitally necessary and I think it is happening already. It is possible because the progressi ve movement around the world and the Muslims have the same enemies. Their enemies are the Zionist occupation, American occupation, British occupation of poor countries mainly Muslim countries. They have the same interest in opposing savage capitalist globalization which is intent upon homogenizing the entire world turning us basically into factory chickens which can be forced fed the American diet of everything from food to Coca-Cola to movies and TV culture. And whose only role in life is to consume the things produced endlessly by the multinational corporations. And the progressive organizations & movements agree on that with the Muslims.... So on the very grave big issues of the day-issues of war, occupation, justice, opposition to globalization-the Muslims and the progressives are on the same side." The leftist Australian journalist John Pilger, who denounced "American imperialism" even as he praised Fidel Castro's Communist dictatorship, has been another vocal exponent of the alliance between the socialist left and radical Islam. Pilger publicly endorsed the killing of American troops in Iraq during the war that began in 2003. "[T]hey're legitimate targets," he said of those troops. "They're illegally occupying a country." Pilger openly supported the Iraqi resistance on the grounds that "we can't afford to be choosy" in acquiring much-needed allies. His sentiment clearly expressed the governing principle of the Islam-leftist alliance: The enemy of my enemy is my friend [whomever he may be].



