![Maajid Nawaz speaking at LibDem campaign event](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Maajid_Nawaz_speaking_at_LibDem_campaign_event.jpg)
The regressive left (also called regressive liberals or regressive leftists) is a term for a branch of
left-wing politics
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soc ...
that is accused of being accepting of or sympathetic to views that conflict with
liberal principles, particularly by tolerating
Islamism.
The British political activist
Maajid Nawaz
Maajid Usman Nawaz (; born 2 November 1977) is a British activist and former radio presenter. He was the founding chairman of Quilliam. Until January 2022, he was the host of an LBC radio show on Saturdays and Sundays.
Born in Southend-on-Sea ...
, American political talk-show hosts such as
Bill Maher and
Dave Rubin
David Joshua Rubin (born in June 1976) is an American conservative political commentator and YouTuber. He is the creator and host of ''The Rubin Report'', a political talk show on YouTube and on the network BlazeTV. Launched in 2013, his show ...
, and
New Atheist writers like
Sam Harris
Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics ...
and
Richard Dawkins are among those who have used the term.
Concept
In 2007,
Maajid Nawaz
Maajid Usman Nawaz (; born 2 November 1977) is a British activist and former radio presenter. He was the founding chairman of Quilliam. Until January 2022, he was the host of an LBC radio show on Saturdays and Sundays.
Born in Southend-on-Sea ...
, a former
Islamist who had renounced his association with the radical Islamist group
Hizb ut-Tahrir in favour of
secular Islam,
used the phrase ''regressive left'' to describe left-leaning people who, according to him, pander to Islamism, which he defines as a "global totalitarian theo-political project" with a "desire to impose any given interpretation of Islam over society as law".
He opposes this on the grounds that "any desire to impose any version of Islam over anyone anywhere, ever, is a fundamental violation of our basic civil liberties".
Nawaz believes that it is possible to denounce both
neoconservative
Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and count ...
foreign policies such as the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
, which he opposed, and theocratic
extremism, but he labels as "regressive leftists" those who fail to do so.
Use of term
In September 2015, Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz participated in a public forum hosted by
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
's Institute of Politics, which was later published in a short book, ''
Islam and the Future of Tolerance'' (2015). In a review of the book in the magazine ''
National Review Online'', the political writer Brian Stewart noted that according to both Nawaz and Harris, "regressive leftists" in the West are "willfully blind" to the fact that jihadists and Islamists make up a significant portion (20% in Harris's estimate) of the global Muslim community and the minority Muslim communities within the West, even though these factions are opposed to liberal values such as individual autonomy, freedom of expression, democracy, women's rights, gay rights, etc.
Nawaz and Harris denounce what they describe as the paradoxically illiberal, isolationist, and censuring attitude towards any criticism of that phenomenon, which they contend to betray universal liberal values and to abandon supporting and defending the most vulnerable liberal members living within the Muslim community, such as women, homosexuals, and apostates.
In October 2015, ''
The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...
'' reported that the American comedian and show host
Bill Maher and British biologist and
New Atheist author
Richard Dawkins "lamented regressive leftists who fail to understand they are anything but liberal when it comes to Islam".
Maher noted a willingness to criticise anything except
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
but to excuse it as "their culture" to which Dawkins responded: "Well, to hell with their culture".
Referring to student initiatives to disinvite ex-Muslim speakers on campus, Dawkins saw this as "a betrayal of the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s".
In October and November 2015, Harris frequently used the term in his exchanges with the media and said that the greatest danger is that the "regressive left" is willing to give up
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
"out of fear of offending minorities", which will lead to
censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...
imposed by those minorities. He cited American journalist
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...
's comments on the
Charlie Hebdo shooting
On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. CET local time, two French Muslim terrorists and brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper '' Charlie Hebdo'' in Paris. Armed with ...
as an example.
Harris considers
Reza Aslan
Reza Aslan ( fa, رضا اصلان, ; born May 3, 1972) is an Iranian-American scholar of sociology of religion, writer, and television host. A convert to evangelical Christianity from Shia Islam as a youth, Aslan eventually reverted to Islam b ...
[ and ]Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...
to be of the regressive left. During a 2015 interview on ''The Rubin Report
''The Rubin Report'' is a conservative political news talk show hosted by Dave Rubin, airing on BlazeTV and YouTube. The full audio of each episode is additionally available for download as a podcast. In the show, Rubin interviews authors, activ ...
'' Maajid Nawaz cited the British Labour Party
The Labour Party is a List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of Social democracy, social democrats, Democratic socialism, democratic socialists and trade u ...
leader, Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
, as an example of someone to be part of the regressive left by citing that Corbyn was anti-war but also "historically very close" to supporters of violent Islamist organisations such as Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
and Hezbollah
Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...
.
In November 2015, in an appearance on the talk radio show '' The Humanist Hour'', the philosopher Peter Boghossian
Peter Gregory Boghossian (; born July 25, 1966) is an American philosopher and pedagogist. Born in Boston, he was a non-tenure track assistant professor of philosophy at Portland State University for ten years, and his areas of academic focus i ...
defined the term as a pejorative used to describe those on the left that have made the "strangest bedfellows" with Islamists. According to him, the word ''regressive'' contrasts the word '' progressive'', the former being a group that " ooksfor the worst in people... and oes Oes or owes were metallic "O" shaped rings or eyelets sewn on to clothes and furnishing textiles for decorative effect in England and at the Elizabethan and Jacobean court. They were smaller than modern sequins.
Making and metals
Robert Sharp obta ...
not extend hermeneutics
Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles or methods used when immediate c ...
of charity, or a charitable interpretation of anything anyone says, but uses it as a hammer to beat people down".
In late 2015, the talk show host Dave Rubin
David Joshua Rubin (born in June 1976) is an American conservative political commentator and YouTuber. He is the creator and host of ''The Rubin Report'', a political talk show on YouTube and on the network BlazeTV. Launched in 2013, his show ...
hosted discussions about the "regressive left" in several ''The Rubin Report
''The Rubin Report'' is a conservative political news talk show hosted by Dave Rubin, airing on BlazeTV and YouTube. The full audio of each episode is additionally available for download as a podcast. In the show, Rubin interviews authors, activ ...
'' segments. Rubin described the regressive left as "the left's version of the Tea Party
A tea party is a social gathering event held in the afternoon. For centuries, many societies have cherished drinking tea with a company at noon. Tea parties are considered for formal business meetings, social celebrations or just as an afternoon ...
" and said that the regressive left would damage the Democratic Party similarly to the way that the Tea Party damaged the Republican Party.
Criticism
In November 2015, the psychiatrist Khwaja Khusro Tariq, writing for ''The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'', classified the term as an unsubstantiated ''ad hominem
''Ad hominem'' (), short for ''argumentum ad hominem'' (), refers to several types of arguments, most of which are fallacious.
Typically, this term refers to a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other ...
'' attack and stated that the harshest critics of Islam are courted by both liberal and conservative media in the United States. Khusro also noted that the term had been directed towards Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...
and Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...
and said that both of them never condoned violence or opined on the doctrine of Islam. He argued that there was no genuine inhibition on speaking against the religion.
In March 2016, the ''BuzzFeed News
''BuzzFeed News'' is an American news website published by BuzzFeed. It has published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was heavily criticized, and the FinCEN Files. Since its establishment in 2011, it ...
'' reporter Joseph Bernstein wrote that according to Google Trends
Google Trends is a website by Google that analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The website uses graphs to compare the search volume of different queries over time.
On August 5, 20 ...
, interest in the term "shot up" in late 2015. According to Bernstein, instead of criticizing "cultural tolerance gone too far", the phrase has "become a catch-all for any element of the dominant new media
New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...
culture that the anti-social justice warrior
''Social justice warrior'' (SJW) is a pejorative term and internet meme used for an individual who promotes socially progressive, left-wing and liberal views, including feminism, civil rights, gay and transgender rights, identity politics, po ...
internet doesn't like". He also suggested that even though the term could be sourced back to self-identified liberal commentators like Nawaz, Maher and Dawkins, it was frequently being used by the alt-right
The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...
and other anti-social justice warrior groups on Internet forums and social media as part of their rhetorical warfare.
See also
* Baizuo
* Call-out culture
Cancel culture, or rarely also known as call-out culture, is a phrase contemporary to the late 2010s and early 2020s used to refer to a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles—whether it be online, on ...
* Cultural relativism
Cultural relativism is the idea that a person's beliefs and practices should be understood based on that person's own culture. Proponents of cultural relativism also tend to argue that the norms and values of one culture should not be evaluated ...
* Islamic socialism
Islamic socialism is a political philosophy that incorporates Islamic principles into socialism. As a term, it was coined by various Muslim leaders to describe a more spiritual form of socialism. Islamic socialists believe that the teachin ...
* Islamo-leftism
Islamo-leftism ( fa, چپ اسلامی; french: islamo(-)gauchisme, es, Islamo-izquierdismo), adjectivally Islamo-leftist (french: islamo(-)gauchiste, links=no), is a neologism applied to the alleged political alliance between Left-wing politics, ...
* New antisemitism
New antisemitism is the idea that a new form of antisemitism has developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, tending to manifest itself as anti-Zionism and criticism of the Israeli government. The concept is included in some definitions ...
* Paradox of tolerance
The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. Karl Popper described it as the seemingly self-contradictory idea that in order to mainta ...
* Red–green–brown alliance
The term red–green–brown alliance, originating in France in the 2000s, refers to the alliance of leftists (''red''), Islamists (''green''), and the far right (''brown''). The term has also been used to describe alleged alliances of industrial ...
* Social justice warrior
''Social justice warrior'' (SJW) is a pejorative term and internet meme used for an individual who promotes socially progressive, left-wing and liberal views, including feminism, civil rights, gay and transgender rights, identity politics, po ...
* Successor ideology
* White guilt
White guilt is a belief that white people bear a collective responsibility for the harm which has resulted from historical or current racist treatment of people belonging to other racial groups, as for example in the context of the Atlantic slave ...
* Woke
''Woke'' ( ) is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and Racial discrimination, discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social ineq ...
* Virtue signaling
Notes
References
{{Authority control
Censorship
Criticism of Islamism
Freedom of expression
Identity politics
Identity politics in the United States
Islamism
Left-wing politics
Liberalism
New Atheism
Progressivism
Political neologisms
Relativism
2007 neologisms