It confuses me why people associate leftism with both Islam AND communism.

It's fairly often I hear people describe leftists as being Muslim-lovers but also communists. Y'all do realize that commies and Muslims absolutely HATE each other. Communists have historically tried to wipe out Muslims.

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Burnley123 · 41-45, M

It's something which has really emerged in post 9/11 politics.

Supporters of wars in the ME needed a theory as to why leftist humanists opposed violent wars, which wasn't... opposing violent wars.

This was particularly true of the Liberal Interventionists like Chris Hitchens who used western secular values to justify these military actions. The ME never had a Liberal Enlightenment (or so the argument goes) so the west needs to take the lead in freeing women from their oppression and underdeveloped societies from the tyranny of dictatorships. In this framing, anyone defending Muslim people is against enlightenment values and is uncritical of Islam.

Whilst there is some truth in this criticism of ME countries, the solution (bombing and invasion) was never going to successfully impose Western style liberal democracies, as much as they even tried to.

This was a Liberal defense of imperialism and these people never managed to fully explain why Saudi Arabia remained an ally. Also, the left traditionally defends Palestinians against Israel.

So, for those think that their positions on these issues is in the side of Western values and liberal progress, people against that position must therefore be motivated by being apologists of Islam.

It makes sense within that frame. Though of course, the frame itself is a load of bollox.