The New Fellow-Traveling

Islamist fellow-traveling today has a different focus from the Soviet fellow-traveling that preceded it, but the cast of mind is the same. The common premise that Western society is responsible for the world’s ills generates in certain intellectual circles guilt for the present as well as fear for what is to come. The conviction then develops that whatever “we” do must be wrong, and whatever “they” do is justified. Fellow-travelers in both cases come to apologize for those hostile to Western society, even to identify with them.

The Soviet Union invariably proclaimed that the goal of Communism was peace and the perfectibility of mankind. Evidence to the contrary never dissuaded fellow-travelers from the belief that Communists must be admirable because they said they were. Islamist extremists likewise speak of jihad as the necessary prelude to peace and the perfectibility of mankind. In the eyes of the new fellow-travelers, these extremists may not yet be necessarily admirable, but they are Muslims, therefore victims of Western colonialism in the Third World, and deserving sympathy. So in the perspective of Islamist fellow-traveling September 11 becomes a day when America had it coming, and the exploding aircraft had the effect of “a work of art.” In the aftermath of September 11 there was a record number of conversions to Islam in non-Islamic countries—apparently some 30,000 in Holland alone. The Free Iraq campaign brought the new fellow-traveling to unprecedented heights, notably a speech by an academic at Columbia University appealing for “a million Mogadishus” to throw American forces out of Iraq. Here was a reprise in animus and tone of Cold War fellow-traveling.

About the Author

David Pryce-Jones

David Pryce-Jones (1936–2025) was a British author and commentator and served as a senior editor of National Review.

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Islamist fellow-traveling today has a different focus from the Soviet fellow-traveling that preceded it, but the cast of mind is the same. The common premise that Western society is responsible for the world’s ills generates in certain intellectual circles guilt for the present as well as fear for what is to come. The conviction then develops that whatever “we” do must be wrong, and whatever “they” do is justified. Fellow-travelers in both cases come to apologize for those hostile to Western society, even to identify with them.

The Soviet Union invariably proclaimed that the goal of Communism was peace and the perfectibility of mankind. Evidence to the contrary never dissuaded fellow-travelers from the belief that Communists must be admirable because they said they were. Islamist extremists likewise speak of jihad as the necessary prelude to peace and the perfectibility of mankind. In the eyes of the new fellow-travelers, these extremists may not yet be necessarily admirable, but they are Muslims, therefore victims of Western colonialism in the Third World, and deserving sympathy. So in the perspective of Islamist fellow-traveling September 11 becomes a day when America had it coming, and the exploding aircraft had the effect of “a work of art.” In the aftermath of September 11 there was a record number of conversions to Islam in non-Islamic countries—apparently some 30,000 in Holland alone. The Free Iraq campaign brought the new fellow-traveling to unprecedented heights, notably a speech by an academic at Columbia University appealing for “a million Mogadishus” to throw American forces out of Iraq. Here was a reprise in animus and tone of Cold War fellow-traveling.