Worldcrunch runs an article, originally in German, which asks the provocative question: “Why does the Left love Islam so much?” The author provides several good examples of such love but doesn’t answer his own question of why this is so.
Let me try for an answer. People tend to coalesce around shared beliefs. The left hates Western society and capitalism, as do many Muslims. Taken together, that give them a shared belief that Western society must be replaced with something quite unlike what now exists.
The enormous irony is that the two groups haven’t gotten around to agreeing on exactly with what they’d replace what we now have. Nor is it likely they ever will.
I expect darned few leftists wish to live in a theocracy, run by imams. Many adherents of political Islam wish exactly that.
At a guess, I’d imagine adherents of political Islam see the modern Left as the proverbial “useful idiots” or “fellow travelers.” That is, people whose anti-establishment aims are found to be at least temporarily compatible.
The modern Left is a minority ‘faith’ which desperately seeks allies in their quest for power, and they see Muslims as folks who dislike the status quo as much as they do. Likewise, Muslims in Western nations are a minority which seeks allies, however temporarily.
