Islamist terrorism and Evola

I've just noticed an interesting detail concerning Fuad "Ali" Salah, the leader during the 1980s of a French group calling itself the "Comité de soutien avec les prisonniers politiques et arabes et du Moyen-Orient" (Committee for solidarity with Arab and Middle Eastern political prisoners).

Salah was born in France. Of Tunisian origin, he would have been Sunni (if religious, which he might not have been). In his early thirties, however, he traveled to Shi'i Iran, and then joined forces with Hizbullah (also Shi'i). A small group that he organized in Paris in 1985-86 planted a number of bombs that killed some 14 people and injured some 200, with assistance from both Hizbullah and an Iranian diplomat. Iran, it was thought, wanted to discourage French support for Iraq, then at war with Iran.

Salah and his companions were caught, and tried in Paris 1990-92. During his trial, Salah dismissed his lawyer and conducted his own defense. As might have been expected, he quoted on several occasions from the Quran. And then finally he quoted--at length--from Evola's Revolt Against the Modern World.

Which came first: Evola or Islam? An alienated Frenchman of North African origin who read Evola might certainly turn to a revolutionary organization such as Hizbullah. Sunni Muslims conducting spiritual searches do not normally end up in Iran, however. Devout Shi'i Muslims do not normally discover higher justifications in the works of Westerners, either. My guess, then, would be that Evola came first.

Sources:

• "Saleh l’imprécateur," L'Humanité, February 3, 1990.
• "Devant la cour d'assises de Paris Fouad Salah a plaidé à la place de ses avocats," Le Monde, April 15, 1992.

From Le Monde:

Faut-il voir une tentative de justification de ses actes quand il évoque " les causes qui poussent les opprimés de la terre à combattre l'Occident " ? Mais la logique devient vacillante quand il cite pêle-mêle le maréchal Bugeaud, Ernest Renan, Spartacus, Krishna, Albert Schweitzer, " grand théologien ", et Richard Coeur de Lion, qu'il appelle " Coeur de Loup ". Reprenant son cahier, il lit sur un ton chantant, comme s'il s'agissait d'un psaume : " Sans la guerre, les peuples restent souvent opprimés. " Au milieu de quelques sourates du Coran, il parle aussi de " ses meilleurs amis " : Max Frérot et André Olivier, deux membres d'Action directe, et de ce surveillant-chef de la prison, " français et monarchiste ".

Salah s'interrompt, fouille dans son sac pendant de longues minutes, puis évoque saint Matthieu, avant de produire une image de Jeanne d'Arc, " une femme qui a donné l'exemple. Elle défendit son pays contre l'agresseur ". Une référence entendue ailleurs, et qui n'est pas nécessairement fortuite, car Salah se lance ensuite dans une interminable lecture de l'ouvrage Révolte contre le monde moderne, de Julius Evola, auteur italien souvent cité par les mouvements d'extrême droite.

Evola and Sex Magic: Book announcement

Hugh Urban (Ohio State University) has just published the "first history of western sexual magic as a modern spiritual tradition:" Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006).

Urban devotes one of his eight chapters to Julius Evola, described as "one of the most influential twentieth-century authors on Tantra and the spiritual aspects of sexuality." This is chapter 5, "The Yoga of Power: Sex Magic, Tantra, and Fascism in Twentieth-Century Europe" (pp. 140-61).

Traditionalism in Chechnya: research announcement

Eduard ten Houten, a graduate research student at the University of Amsterdam, is writing an MA thesis on the life and ideas of Khohz-Akhmed Noukhaev, the Chechen who developed "Hanific Traditionalism."

Mr ten Houten is a student in religious studies, working in the research group on the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents. He is also interested in the political forms of Traditionalism as developed by Julius Evola and Aleksandr Dugin, and in related currents, including those in fin-de-siècle Vienna and the Weimar Republic.

Mr ten Houten writes:

I welcome any information concerning Noukhaev, his business and political past, his network of contacts, his position in Chechen society and discourse, as well as any other aspect of his life and ideas. Especially information related to the period after October 2003 would be very much appreciated. All correspondence will be treated with discretion. You can contact me at: Eduard.tenHouten@student.uva.nl. Thank you in advance.

Alternative spellings of Noukhaev include: Noukhayev Noukhaev Nukhaev Nukhayev Noechajev Nuxaev Nuchajew Nuchajev Nouchaev Nugaev Nuhaev Nuhayev

Eurasianists in Ukraine

Late update:

In April 2006, Andreas Umland reported that a Ukrainian party connected with Dugin's Eurasia Movement had fallen just short of the 3% threshold for entering the Rada. Read more here.

Traditionalism and Fascism

The post on Nasr and the Shah has generated a certain amount of discussion (not all of it on topic, but still). Abdul-Halim V. wrote:

somehow Perennialism/Traditionalism seems to be associated to elitist and Fascist tendancies. Is that an accident? Are there thinkers out there who are serious thoughtful Perennialists but who are also progressive and democratic?

There are "progressive" perennialists, but I have not heard of many "progressive" Traditionalists. This is presumably because Guénon saw progress as an illusion, an important point with which few (if any) later Traditionalists have disagreed. This does not mean, however, that all Traditionalists have gone to the other extreme and become fascists. Many are not particularly interested in politics, progressive, fascist, or centrist.

There is an important political stream within Traditionalism, though, which follows Julius Evola and Alexander Dugin, and has often been described as "fascist," though I myself prefer a label such as "new right" or "far right." This has only limited implications for the spiritual Traditionalism represented by people such as S. H. Nasr, however. Since the 1920s, political Traditionalism has developed separately from other varieties of Traditionalism. Certainly, both spiritual and political Traditionalism ultimately derive from Guénon, even though Guénon himself had little interest in politics. But both S. H. Nasr and Sayyid Qutb ultimately derive from the Prophet Muhammad, without having anything much to do with each other.