What are some differences between radical Islam and Neo-Conservatism?

Answer 1

Definitions

First, we need to define our terms. "Radical Islam" can mean a number of different things that, in some cases, barely overlap. For this discussion, instead, I will discuss Jihadism, which is the closest any of the "Radical Islamic" groups come to Neo-Conservatism, because it is the most belligerent one.

(For an idea on the diversity of Political Islam alone, never mind the diversity of apoltiical Islamic fundamentalism, see this Related Question: Are all movements of political Islam Identical?- under the definitions in that question "Jihadism" would be "international militaristic" and, in some cases, equally applicable to "national militaristic". To see about fundamentalist Islam in particular, see this Related Question: What is Islamic fundamentalism and why has it become an important force in the politics and religion of Southwest Asia and North Africa?)

Jihadism: To clarify terms, Islam is a religion and Jihad is a religious concept within Islam. Islamism and Jihadism, however, are political ideologies whose goal is to bring the religious tenets of Islam into the daily functioning of a government and its laws. Jihadism not only wishes a particularly repressive version of Islamic Law to be instituted (Islamism), but believes that violence in defense of the faith is the preferred way to do this. Jihadism, like Islamism, is a political ideology rooted in Islamic religious concepts.

Neo-Conservatism: Neo-Conservatism is a political philosophy that asserts a clear set of values prioritizing the political implementation of Human Rights and seeking their promotion abroad. This leads to the acts of war or belligerency in order to promote democracy and Westerns national interests in international affairs. There is a also a strongly negative attitude towards communism and a strong feeling that cultural systems antithetical to democracy or Western influence should be radically altered.

Overlap

There is actually very little overlap between the two ideologies other than two major beliefs. The first is that they seek to radically alter the social and organizational structure of countries whose current social and organizational structures they deem to be immoral or inadequate. To equate the types of changes that each desire is the simple moral equivalence that all forms of violence are equally morally reprehensible regardless of intent or eventual long-term consequences. The other is that both movements deplore and despise moral relativism, holding that there are certain moral values and precepts which are superior to all others. The morals each values are fundamentally different and fundamentally at odds with one another.

Serious Differences

There are a number of key differences between the ideologies. Each point will have an (a) - referring to the perspective of Jihadism - and a (b) - referring to the perspective of Neo-Conservatism

Intentions for the People

(a) Jihadism holds that people should be subject to a constant, violent, totalitarian panopticon. This means the the government will constantly perform surveillance on the population, promote the creation of informants, support a single-thought-process, and enforce this all through violence such as beatings, tortures, and disappearances.

(b) Neo-Conservatism holds that people should be subject to a deregulated, small government that focuses primarily on the issue of national defense and foreign power-extension. As a result Neo-Cons generally approve of large business and business interests, as well as increases in military spending. As concerns individuals, Neo-Cons are generally in favor of personal rights, such as freedom of speech, freedom from search and seizure, freedom to own weapons, freedom of religion, etc., but less concerned about social rights, such as right to education, cultural freedoms, right to employment, freedom of movement, etc.

Values to be Implemented

(a) Jihadism supports a brutally repressive vision of Shari'a or Islamic Religious Law. The values under this form of Islam, such as slavery, discrimination against women and religious minority, death for apostates, critics, and sexual-orientation minorities, banning of alcohol and drugs, and Islam as a state religion are the values that underlie Jihadism. Jihadism embraces strict legal doctrine and segregation, the use of violence in the civilian sphere to enforce the law and to discourage intellectual movements, prompting of violent conquests, hostility to modernity, xenophobia, the use of national Propaganda to promote irridentism towards past empires, Judenhass (Anti-Semitism or Jew-hatred), sexual repression, and sees arts and literature as effeminate and degenerate.

(b) Neo-Conservatism supports a world vision similar to the Imperialists of the late 1800s, which is namely a World-Order along a European model of ethics and governmental disposition. They see democracy as something that should be implemented for all people across the planet and that liberal values should form the basis of new societies. They see the military as likely being of use in setting up such systems, but that the resultant governments should have a military subservient to the civilian government. Neo-Conservatives support the development and proliferation of culture, art, music, food, and integration while restricting and narrowing the variety of value-systems.

Intellectual Tradition

(a) Jihadism comes out of the breakup of Islam as a religious organization in the modern period (not the religion per se, but the way it was organized and led). During the Islamic Medieval Period, the Sunni World was led by the Caliph and an informal system where the Qadis or Islamic Judges served as the Islamic Jurists "to the masses" and the Sufis served as the Spiritualists for "the masses". One of the responses to the destruction of this system because of modernity was that of Islamism and Jihadism, arising in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which saw only Islamic Values and Islamic Law is being the rightful government and held that a true merger between Islamic Jurists and the Government could rule morally and properly. Some of the biggest leaders of the Islamism and Jihadism movements include Sayyed Qutb, Al-Maududi, and Hassan al-Banna. (Other movements that arose from modernity include Secularism, Nationalism, Pan-Arabism, Arab Socialism, and Liberalism.)

(b) Neo-Conservatism came from a generally, left-of-center ideology in US politics that was disillusioned with the shift leftward into counterculture and moral relativism of the mainstream left. Views which the mainstream left had previously endorsed, such as the Vietnam War, Israel in the Middle East, and social engineering in domestic American society, were abandoned. Neo-Conservatives drifted further to the right with the incorporation of its strongly pro-military agenda and as it argued that social interference in the US had had largely deleterious effects, taking on more typically conservative libertarian domestic views. As a result, former Democrats like Daniel Patrick Moynihan and lifelong conservatives like Irving Kristol were founders of the movement.

Economic Orientation

(a) Jihadists are usually not terribly concerned about economics, but if they are forced to implement an economic policy, they usually go with Islamic Socialist Economics, which is generally a form of re-distributive economics, similar to Socialism in a European context, but strictly between Muslims. Non-Muslims are required to pay into this system, but not receive any funds from it. As for industries, all are supposed to be organized or guided by the state, in something similar to "capitalism with Chinese characteristics". Of course, under Islamic Law, interest and speculation are banned, so capital is usually raised through direct investment as opposed to loans.

(b) Neo-Conservatives are usually advocates of capitalism with little governmental interaction, if not laissez-faire. They find the idea of government-regulated or government-controlled economy repugnant.

International Relations Orientation

(a) Jihadism has an orientation towards expanding the territory controlled by the Jihadist State until it covers the entire Earth and supporting similar revolutions elsewhere and incorporating them under one leadership. This style is clearly noticeable in the way the al-Qaeda previously and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is currently soliciting various Jihadist movements around the world to unite under one banner.

(b) Neo-Conservatives generally have a Pro-Western, Pro-Israeli, Pro-Japan/Korea perspective, seeking to align the US more closely with countries that share Western values and traditions. They also advocate military support for regimes seeking to align more closely with Western culture or Western interests or, at the very least, oppose Communism and Socialism.

Territorial Expansion

(a) Jihadists favor continual territorial expansion of the "countries" they control and the incorporation of those territories as part of their governance region.

(b) Neo-Conservatives do not want to have direct maintenance of a large empire, but rather strongly-allied states that function almost like vassals without the requisite upkeep of colonies.

Internal Regulation Methods

(a) Jihadists believe that clerics should rule and preside over all matters. Their vision should be enforced on the civilian population through the use of violent brigands, repressive police, and a system of secret informants.

(b) Neo-Conservatives endorse democratic institutions like legislatures, executive agencies for scientific regulations, and docile police who simply enforce the law.

Answer 2

Traditional American conservatives must come to grips with what has happened to their movement.Demonstrating that history is too weird ever to have been made up.