In the aftermath of World War One, Germany formed a liberal democratic government known as the Weimar Republic. Unlike today’s nefarious influences on our American constitutional republic by Russia and China, the Weimar Germany did not have outsiders seeking to bring it down. Russia turned into the Soviet Union under Lenin, and later Stalin was busy consolidating power in the vast Russian empire. China was almost a century behind. The United Kingdom and France, weakened by the Great War, looked inward, and the United States turned toward isolationism. Today’s America faces threats not only from outside enemies, but from domestic enemies as well.
What eventually brought down the Weimar Republic, allowing for the rise of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler to replace it, was the pivotal issue of political extremism. The Nazis and the communists, while fighting each other, pulled the rug out from under the democratic state they both despised. Political and economic instability created an environment whereby the extremist parties of the National Socialists (Nazis) and the communists gradually grew in power and controlled the streets of Germany with violent demonstrations and clashes.
Both revolutionary groups promised radical solutions, much like New York’s mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a radical socialist with similar promises of bringing down the “billionaire class” and putting the young people in charge. Mamdani also brings an Islamist agenda to the table.
Whereas the 1929 Wall Street crash doomed the Weimar Republic, the current U.S. economy does not show signs of decline. What we do see, however, on the American and European scenes (predominately in Muslim immigrant communities) is a growing alliance between the Red and Green ideological colors of the leftist socialist “progressives” and the radical Islamists. Although they have contradictory ideologies, what unites them is their hate for America’s Western Jewish and Christian values and their antisemitism. They are intent on bringing down the American Republic as envisioned by America’s Founding Fathers, just as the Nazis and communists sought to bring down the democratic Weimar Republic.
The leftist and Islamist protests happening across America on campuses and streets is reminiscent of Nazi and communist demonstrations in the 1920s throughout Germany. In the name of democracy and tolerance, the Weimar government law enforcement authorities went easy on organizers of the often deadly demonstrations. Hitler is a case in point; he was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch and served a mere nine months.
During the Weimar Republic, there were wealthy industrialist donors who backed the Nazi demonstrators, much like the donors who are supporting today’s protesters in America, including George Soros, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Susan and Nick Pritzker, Code Pink (funded by China), the Emirate of Qatar (a primary funder of the Muslim Brotherhood), and a host of others. Hamas, created by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood organization, has been operating on college campuses since the 1990s through its associated networks such as Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), If Not Now, and others.
Just as the Nazis’ and the communists’ lawless demonstrators sought to destroy the democratic system of the Weimar Republic, so the pro-Hamas Islamists and their radical left allies seek to do the same to our American democratic republic. In July 2018, the House Subcommittee on National Security heard the following about the Muslim Brotherhood, of which the Hamas terrorist group is a branch:
The Muslim Brotherhood is a militant Islamist organization with affiliates in over 70 countries, including groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. The Trump administration has discarded the Obama era policy of treating the Brotherhood as a potential ally.
The Muslim Brotherhood has militant roots. Its founder, Hassan al-Banna, formed the group in 1928, saying, “Jihad is an obligation from Allah that every Muslim cannot ignore nor evade.” And in a book titled The Way of Jihad, he wrote, “Jihad means the fighting of the unbelievers and involves all possible efforts that are necessary to dismantle the power of the enemies of Islam, including beating them, plundering their wealth, destroying their places of worship, and smashing their idols.”
This jihadist ideology continues to fuel the Muslim Brotherhood today. The Brotherhood mourned the death of Osama bin Laden, and its leaders developed teachings justifying revolutionary violence under sharia law. The Brotherhood has preached hatred toward Jews, denied the Holocaust, and called for Israel’s destruction. The Brotherhood has incited violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt amid a wave of church bombings and other attacks by terrorist groups, including ISIS.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Brotherhood’s pre-eminent cleric, issued a fatwa legitimizing terrorist attacks against American troops in Iraq. He deemed the Holocaust “punishment for Jews” and expressed hope that another Holocaust would someday be carried out by his fellow Islamists.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was recently asked about whether the State Department intends to designate the Muslim Brotherhood and Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as terrorist organizations. Rubio responded that “all of that is in the works,” although “obviously there are different branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, so you’d have to designate each one of them.”
The radical left and Islamists are both critical of democracy, liberalism, and individual freedoms. They have participated in joint protests and demonstrations in support of Hamas in Gaza, and against the U.S. administrations of both Biden and Trump.
The U.S. must internalize the lessons from the short-lived Weimar Republic. In the 1920s, it lost control over its universities. The U.S. must not allow the continuance of violent anti-American and antisemitic incitement. Laws must be enacted by Congress and enforced by local and federal authorities to expel foreign students and professional agitators who spew hate and violence — which is not free speech. The funders of these groups must likewise be punished.
Image: paul_houle via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.