CONSERVATIVE MONITOR: In your book, "The Rise of the Islamic Empire and the Threat to the West", you make the case that Moslems from North Africa to Asia have a vision of a united political unit. How viable is this vision considering divergent national interests and a past failure by Nasser (the United Arab Republic) in a similar scheme.
ANTHONY J DENNIS: It's becoming a more viable vision every day. During the Cold War, if you were a rising politician or dictator in the Muslim or Arab worlds, you basically had two models of governance from which you could choose: Either you could articulate a democratic and capitalist vision for your state and align yourself diplomatically with America and the West or you could eschew capitalism and spout the rhetoric of communism. Surprisingly, many Arab leaders like Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser chose the communist model but that was largely because of America's well-known support of Israel which I think turned many Arabs off entirely to any close alliances with America. Using a blend of socialism and Arab nationalism, Nasser tried to politically unite the Arab world under one banner but it failed. And the reason it failed, I think, is because Nasser's socialist rhetoric left his audiences cold. They might identify with Nasser personally but they could not identify and internalize the socialist values he was espousing. These political values were alien to them. Communism and democracy are both Western imports to the region. They are non-indigenous political philosophies that various leaders have attempted to graft onto the Muslim world over the years. Well, when the Soviet empire collapsed, communism as an ideology was completely discredited. No one in the Third World looked to pattern themselves after the communists anymore. Yet, Western democracy was equally alien to the Muslim "man on the street." It didn't touch the soul of the people either. Communism may be dead as a competing model but as for the contest between Islam vs. democracy, I think political Islam is winning hands down in the contest for the "hearts and minds" of the people in the Muslim world. The fundamentalists speak a political language and articulate a vision for a religious dictatorship that harkens back to early Muslim history and is a vision for the future that many traditional Muslims can understand. These groups know this too.
They consciously attempt to work across borders with one another to coordinate their efforts. They are actively working toward either political unification or some form of Islamic Confederation, as I call it. This is the great unreported story in the Western media, indeed in any media. It's what I chose to focus on in my book - these obscure planning conferences like the Islamic - Arab Popular Conference where the attendance list reads like a "Who's Who" of the radical Muslim world and they all talk about waging a jihad against America and the West, overthrowing their own governments and uniting as one Islamic nation. It's a story worthy of coverage, I think. I think these groups should be taken seriously and we should be paying more attention to the political agenda they hope to achieve in the years ahead. History didn't stop after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. We may see new nations or empires in the years directly ahead. Watch out!
Interview is continued on next page.
Anthony Dennis is one of the nations foremost authorities on Muslim Nationalism. His book, "The Rise of the Islamic Empire and the Threat to the West", is generally accepted as a landmark study. He has been invited twice to appear as a guest on national conservative media pundit John McLaughlin's show "One On One with John McLaughlin". He is a frequent guest on radio talk shows. Mr. Dennis was also called to give expert testimony before the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations. In this month's interview, Mr. Dennis discusses current events in the Middle East and the long range ramifications of Islamic Nationalism for the United States.
