'Islamo-Fascism'? Well, Sort Of

David Horowitz, the radical leftist-turned-radical rightist who runs the FrontPage online magazine, wants to create a national movement to stand up to “the coalition between Islamo-fascists and American liberals at home who are running interference for the terrorists.” He thinks his fellow citizens should know that the pronouncements of Osama bin Laden are “increasingly cribbed from the work of the American Communist Michael Moore,” as he describes the liberal filmmaker who has criticized President Bush and American health care. And so, Horowitz has designated this week as “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” a period in which he is traveling to American university campuses to attack those who criticize the “War on Terror” and — parenthetically — those who see global warming as a major world threat.

And how is Horowitz publicizing his latest crusade against “anti-Americanism”? He’s circulating a press release that was captured in screen shots (right and below) by the enterprising folks at the Sadly, No! blog. The photo, Horowitz declares angrily, “shows a teenage girl buried before being stoned to death for alleged sexual offenses, [and] will serve as the poster for the protest Week. The stoning took place in Iran.”

Except it doesn’t, and she wasn’t. The photograph in question, as pointed out by Sadly, No!, actually comes from “De Steen” ("The Stone"), a 1994 Dutch indie film directed by Mahnaz Tamizi. Actress Smadar Monsinos plays the teenage girl.

Culturally sanctioned violence against women unquestionably remains a real and present danger in many different societies around the world. If, as Horowitz states, he really hopes to encourage “sit-in[s] outside the offices of Women’s Studies Department[s]” to end the violence, he might start by using real evidence instead of aging movie stills.