It's I-am-a-Fascist Week

While I'm focusing on the western end of the state, see Mr. Mellonhead, I certainly can't overlook the latest antics of the former Senator Rick Santorum, who is busy spreading hate and fear far and wide. His latest efforts to inspire terror and scorn for his fellow man is by way of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.

Will Bunch of Attytood describes IFAW, as explained in an email announcement, in It's the most wonderful time of the year: Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week:

Washington, D.C. - Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, will deliver a speech at Penn State University, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania during "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," October 22-26.

"I am enormously grateful for the opportunity to speak at three of
Pennsylvania's great universities. While the sounds of opposition to the
war are heard frequently on our college campuses, I plan to offer a
perspective our students rarely hear - my views on who our true enemies are, what they believe, and why it is so important to defeat them," said Santorum.

"Rick Santorum has been the most courageous and outspoken public figure in America alerting all of us to the true nature of the enemy we face," said David Horowitz, founder of the Freedom Center, and organizer of "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," which includes events at over 100 schools across America.

Of course, maybe the reason that "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" isn't celebrated on most college campuses is that the term has no academic basis, but is a loaded political phrase that failed politicians like Santorum use to overhype the threat from terrorism, scaring the American people to justify torture, invading countries that had nothing to do with 9/11, and the incredible longshot of reviving Santorum's career.

For his part, Santorum is visiting Penn State, Temple and University of Pennsylvania to celebrate IFAW. Pennsyltucky Politics Happy Islamo-Fascism Week, reports on Santorum's campus efforts:

"If I were a Muslim on a college campus, I would embrace this movement to show that what we're talking about here is a group of Muslims that is not me," Santorum told us on Friday after receiving standing ovations from evangelical Christians.

* * * *

"When you engage in this blanket statement, when Ann Coulter says Jews need to be perfected, when Rick Santorum says you Muslims need to wake up, when he compares homosexuality to incest, it's all the same hate speech," said Kareem Shora, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

* * * *

Santorum responded by saying that moderate Muslims need to get over the word "Islamo-fascism," which he used unsuccessfully to sow fear and stir the electorate in last year's Senate campaign.

"That's not my problem" with how many Muslims interpret the message, said Santorum. "That is a problem that they must learn to overcome if they are going to enter into a debate and discussion in a pluralistic society."

Of course, it might help to not irritate or make these moderate Muslims the target of racism and stereotypes so we can have them on our side.

Josh Marshall of TPM also mentions IFAW, in several posts. In Islamofascism, he mentions Santorum's terrorist sidekick, David Horowitz:

In case you're not familiar with Horowitz, he's probably most charitably described as a rather entrepreneurial self-promotion artist, though perhaps more accurately as one of the great buffoons of the modern American soapbox.

So far, IFAW isn't drawing big crowds. For example, in A blast of a time in Happy Valley, Brett Lieberman reports that about 2 dozen people showed up for the film and speech, including protesters. Perhaps part of the problem is that a number of the colleges identified as supposedly participating in the festivities, aren't. See, Bogus Intel Used in Fight with Islamofascism.

Poor little Rickie. Even now, it seems that he still can't quite get the big man on campus thing down. As Will Bunch said:

But "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" sounds more like it should be called "Rick Santorum is Still Around Awareness Week" -- even though his sad and bizarre political journey now involves practically cheerleading for a new attack on U.S. soil, just to prove that he was right in his enemies crusade all along, that he deserves a second chance. In the meantime, Rick will campaign for a new postal stamp with a burning World Trade Center or organize a 10-kilometer "Enemies Walk," so that some day we can all celebrate our awareness of an ideology that doesn't even exist.

Tags: Politics, Santorum, Pennsylvania