Muriel Degauque: Islamo-fascist, freedom fighter or what?
The Belgian brunette didn't only blow up herself in Baghdad - she also blew to bits the various stereotypes of Islamic terrorists.
by Brendan O'Neill
Muriel Degauque did not only blow up herself in Baghdad three weeks ago; she also blew to bits the various stereotypes of Islamic terrorists. Supporters of the war in Iraq and the war on terror tell us that these Islamists, or 'Islamo-fascists' as they like to call them, are evil Johnny Foreigners who were likely raised on a diet of falafels and hatred for the West in some dusty hole in Kabul or Cairo. Anti-war activists claim they are resistance fighters, the shock troops for a new 'anti-imperialist ideology' (as Loretta Napoleoni says in her recent book on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi); or, like the 7/7 lot, they're Western-born Muslims so aggrieved by what is being done to their brothers and sisters in Iraq and Palestine that they feel compelled to strike against the imperialist beast (1).
by Brendan O'Neill
Muriel Degauque did not only blow up herself in Baghdad three weeks ago; she also blew to bits the various stereotypes of Islamic terrorists. Supporters of the war in Iraq and the war on terror tell us that these Islamists, or 'Islamo-fascists' as they like to call them, are evil Johnny Foreigners who were likely raised on a diet of falafels and hatred for the West in some dusty hole in Kabul or Cairo. Anti-war activists claim they are resistance fighters, the shock troops for a new 'anti-imperialist ideology' (as Loretta Napoleoni says in her recent book on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi); or, like the 7/7 lot, they're Western-born Muslims so aggrieved by what is being done to their brothers and sisters in Iraq and Palestine that they feel compelled to strike against the imperialist beast (1).
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