ZIONSIM: ISLAMISM FOR JEWS? Ed Husain has an essay in The Guardian where he claims that both are evil:

Zionism and Islamism are both political perversions of ancient Abrahamic faiths of Judaism and Islam. They were both born out of protest and anger: Zionism in response to tsarist pogroms and Islamism as a retort to colonialism. The heavy political content of both ideologies came from men who had no theological training in the centuries-old traditional understanding of the Torah or the Koran. Theodore Herzl, an Austrian journalist, mapped out Zionism in an age of ubiquitous nationalism. Syed Qutb, an Egyptian literary critic, was the chief ideologue for Islamism. And yet they appealed to people of religious faith. Or did they?

Someone get this guy a copy of The Zionist Idea.

Richard A. Macales points out in his review of the book on the Amazon.com page that Arthur Hertzberg's book includes:

Orthodox rabbis and Zionist leaders Yehuda Alkalai, Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, Yechiel Michel Pines, Meir Bar-Ilan, Shmuel Chaim Landau, Samuel Mohilever, Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook and Isaac Reines.

Of course, Husain's ignorance of who's who in the history of Zionism--or its long history--is the least of his essay's shortcomings. When you start describing President Bush as an 'ardent Zionist,' you really have problems.

Husain claims to have left Islamism and rediscovered Islam--good for him.
Unfortunately, he does not seem to have abandoned what he learned about Jews, Judaism, and Zionism as an Islamist.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Ed Husain and Zionism and Islamism.