European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 05, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday August 5, 1993 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 Mic racism not fundamentalism is threat Harry g. Summers words Are sometimes a Barrier rather than a guide to understanding and that s certainly the Case when it comes to islamic  Al though some might scoff and belittle the fundamentalist Christian move ment Here at Home few see it As a threat to their liberties much less to their life and limb. But so called islamic Funda mentalism is a Dif Ferent matter entirely. To under stand it some rough compari sons Are necessary. Like christianity there Are two main divisions in the islamic Faith the sunnis and ther shias or shiites. Much As roman catholics believe that leadership of the Church was passed to St. Peter and through him to the Pope shias believe that Ali Mohammed s son in Law was divinely chosen As the Prophet s successor and that subsequent spiritual leaders Are invested with divine authority. Sunnis on the other hand Are More like protestants who believe leadership of the Church should be held by those Best qualified and who do not in Vest their religious leaders with special spiritual Powers. Today americans pay Little attention to religious differences although a Genera Tion ago there were those who truly believed that if John f. Kennedy a roman Catholic was elected to the presidency the country would be ruled from the vat ican. After the reforms of Vatican ii however not even catholics take their Church so seriously. But there were times when religious dogmas were taken seriously in deed. When the albigensian heresy was suppressed by the Catholic Church in the 13th Century the military commander asked the Bishop How he could Tell the heretics from the True believers. Kill them All was the terrible reply. Goodwill know his  and two centuries later Tomas de Torquemada a Spanish dominican Monk would become the grand Induisi awu6ous.f, a flour w y Tow q7 / have a Nice visit reverend. Tor of the Spanish inquisition again Only too ready and eager to torture and kill people for their own Good. But beneath that religious Servo was usually a political Agenda. As in mex Ico before the revolution religion be came a tool to hold the masses in line. Power hungry clerics became virtual dictators in their parishes cynically manipulating the religious Faith of the people in order to Wield absolute temporal Power. Today much of the so called liberation theology movement in Central and South America is an ill disguised attempt by Church radicals to return to those Good old  this is the kind of fundamentalism that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini brought to Iran. Cloaked in the Guise of a return to Basic islamic values in reality it was the imposition of a theocracy where the mullahs ruled with Devine authority. Thinking they were opting for a religious revival the people of Iran found that they instead had succumbed to the dictatorship of the clerics. Instead of islamic fundamentalism they found them selves with islamic  using their network of mullahs control was extended to every level of society and As with Torquemada heresy was punishable by death. This islamic fascism not True islamic fundamentalism is the great danger to stability in the Arab world. Power has a seductive Appeal. Seeing the successful aggrandizement of Power by the mullahs in Iran others would follow their fascist example. Today for example whole towns and villages in the Sudan Are being put to the fire and sword in the name of Allah. And other false prophets arc Only too eager to spread that conflagration in Egypt and Algeria and elsewhere. Just As fascists in nazi Germany fed on the economic problems of their times so islamic fascists feed on the poverty of today. But their goal is Power not eco nomic development. Their deliberate rejection of modernity is  that their programs will fail As they arc failing in Iran today. We need to Sec this movement for what it is. The term islamic fundamentalism not Only hides the True nature of this Neo fas Cist movement it docs a terrible disservice to True islamic fundamentals and to a mod Ern democratic islam. As he emphasizes in his new Book islamic fundamentalism the new global threat the continued reign in Iran of the Vilayat a Faqih the principle of absolute theocratic Rule will Only result in greater instability anarchy and fanaticism in Muslim  los Antolos Olmos Syndicate fun and games onus is dearly on Mcginniss the fusillade aimed at author Joe Mcginniss raises interesting Points and proceeds with scant acknowledgement of his unusual literary Powers. It makes sense before concluding that Mcginniss is a Dull and Lazy mount Bank to remember that he is the author of the Selling of the president and fatal vision. If these were the works of a Dull witted writer then he must have used a  of the criticism bares the motives of the critic. Priscilla Painton of time Magazine deals with Mcginniss As a serial killer and concludes her review the Book seems obsessed with debunking the Kennedy myth As if it needed debunking. And nowhere does it explain Ted s fundamental Paradox that a Man so self destructive stuck so willingly to the daily tilling of the legislative Field and left such a profound Mark on his  is hard to know Why the two qualities have difficulty going hand in hand Richard Nixon was certainly self destructive and yet he left a profound Mark on his country and indeed the world. The fingerprint of Ted Kennedy on the National scene is uncomplicated a dogged desire to approve any legislation that increases the Public sector and decreases the private sector and at a Low ideological level his willingness to slander scholarly dissidents from his world View. If Joe Mcginniss had written a Book three times As Long he could not have packed into it More spiteful hyperbole than Kennedy managed against nominee Rob Ert Dork in a single paragraph Back in 1987. What it boils Down to is that there Are people out there who like Kennedy because he is a lefty and they Don t like what Mcginniss has done to  formal complaint is understandable and can be dealt with disinterest edly. Mcginniss titles his Book the last brother and tells the Reader that he the author is there to Tell a Story. He then proceeds to imagine what Kennedy and other characters in the Book said and thought in Given situations. I have written 10 novels in which i assign words to John f. Kennedy As also to Dean Acheson Allen Dulles Lyndon Johnson Barry Goldwater Bill Clin ton Fidel Castro and indeed Josef Stalin to name a few. The responsibility of the author is to convince the Reader that the ventriloquism implausibly done. It is no substitute for Hitler s secret diaries assuming that they had been authentic a hid Den recording device at the summer cottage in Chappaquiddick memorializing what Teddy said when he arrived Back from the Beach would be historically interesting in a sense that no novelist can duplicate. And it is unquestionably the Case that the assignment of words to a person still living when this is done on television they Call it a docudrama presents great temptations for the writer who wants to discharge an animus. The much discussed Law suit Over the profile that appeared in the new yorker in which Janet Malcolm put words in the Mouth of psychiatrist Jeffrey Masson was ruled by the court to be a transgression because the author could not establish that the words had been spoken represented them As having been spoken and the subject of the interview vigorously protested that he was Given words to say and thoughts to think which he never spoke or thought. William f. Buckley Joe Mcginniss self evidently docs not do this. The Reader of his Book would need to judge whether that much that is known about the Kennedy is consistent with the representations in the Book. When a few years ago Abc presented the docudrama on Richard Nixon nand watergate a venture deeply resented by Nixon the viewer had to decide whether he thought the treat ment fair and a plausible re creation of the great drama it recorded. The final Days got much attention and although there was no formal License to put words into the Mouths of Nixon his family his friends his staff the judgment of most informed viewers was that the treatment was a conscientious attempt to depict the thoughts and words of the principal players. Arthur ii Oppe of san Francisco has written a amusing column reproducing excerpts from a biography of Billy Graham. It begins " of How i d love to rip off his clothes smear his body with raw easter egg Sand fulfil my carnal desires thought Billy Graham As president Reagan pinned the medal of Freedom on his Chest. Did the Rev. Or. Graham really think that?1 i asked Haberdash. He shrugged no one can prove that he did the  and then i also have police records. Look at this b. Graham was arrested three years ago in Pocatello Idaho for shoplifting six women s spandex bicycle pants from a lingerie shop. Hold it i said. It says this b. Graham was a 16-year-old african american paraplegic female Haberdash nodded. It shows it runs in the blood he  fun and games. And the onus is clearly on Mcginniss is what he writes congruent with what we know of reality that is the surviving question. Cd Universal Prosa Syndicate