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Extreme right-wing Florida Congressman Allen West, who recently declined to run for United States senate, said in his weekly address that the Arab Spring of democratization in the Middle East and surrounding areas is really about Muslims trying to re-establish the historical caliphate:
This so-called “Arab Spring” is less about a democratic movement, than it is about the early phase of the restoration of an Islamic Caliphate, the last being the Ottoman Empire.
We are witnessing secular Muslim leaders being deposed in very volatile and unstable nations. This growing Islamic Totalitarianism manifested in militant Islam has had a modus operand [sic] of capitalizing on unstable political situations (Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia).
Now we see these same types of instances occurring in Egypt, Libya, and Syria and the rose-colored glasses of some seek to portray this as a great awakening of liberty. History does not support this in the Middle East.
We must evaluate these occurrences through the prism of keen strategic and operational insight which looks out 10, 20, or 30 years.
If we had done so during the deposing of the Shah of Iran, we might have been able to prevent what arose. The Iran with which we must contend today is the major exporter of Islamic totalitarianism and state sponsored terrorism.
In the rest of the essay, he goes on to condemn Barack Obama, Palestine and the United Nations, while calling for militant support for Israel and its current borders.
The term "caliphate" refers to the historical unified Islamic government that dominated much of the Middle East and northern Africa through 1924. West and others seem to be suggesting the return of a caliphate would involve a anti-Western, anti-Israeli unified Muslim front that could threaten the United States and its allies. West's remarks echo those of Glenn Beck who frequently warns of a coming caliphate.
West has a history of extreme rhetoric relating to Islam and the caliphate comments are far from the worst:
(h/t Saint Petersblog)
