Fascism in the Middle East: Nationalism, Islamism, and Imagining Other Futures

Following decades of brutal campaigns against left forces, fascism in its nationalist and religious forms has been dominating Turkish, Iranian, and Arab politics for over half a century. At first, with key enemies vanquished, military generals assumed power and established some of the most terroristic totalitarian regimes in the 20th Century. It only followed that Islamist organizations then hijacked democratic movements of dissent. Now, in countries and territories where they have assumed state power, Islamist forces have surpassed all nationalist dictatorships for their utter disrespect of human lives.

Today, Islamism subordinates peoples in the Middle East. Bearing the urgency of our times, Saladdin Bahozde problematizes all forms of fascist exclusionism in the region, while drawing attention to anti-fascist resistance and progressive alternatives there. As a critique of identitarianism and right-wing politics in the Middle East and North Africa, the work calls for a global movement, as endorsed by the peoples of the region, to go beyond nationalism and Islamism.