When Marx Meets Islam: Inside the Rise of the Red-Green Alliance

Back to the Iranian situation, like whether it was the Ayatollah Khomeini or Khomeini who just died recently, they seem to use that leftist, even though as Islamists, they seem to use that in their messaging.

There were some of the obituaries of Khomeini after his death in February talked about, you know, he read Fanon.

It was stuff like that.

Yeah.

Well, there you go.

Yeah.

So did you read his letter to the American university students during the height of the student protests?

I did, but was there anything in particular?

it was like standard left-wing political rhetoric, like far left progressive, you know, it's like the, you're, you're oppressed.

You have no freedom of speech.

You have no freedom of religion.

You're supporting the just and the righteous.

And he even said, if you want to come over and study in Iran, you can do that.

And I would not advise young impressionable university students.

Yeah.

To, to go to Iran and, to study because you'll be censored, you'll be muted, and perhaps even worse than that, there could be severe consequences for actually legitimately speaking your mind.

So I cite that in the book as a prime example of how Islamists are framing their messaging and directing their strategy towards the left in this country.

It's a soft war.

It's not necessarily a hard war, though there is a hard war.

We know that.

There's bombs and missiles and strategy and military.

But my concern, and I raise this in the book, is with the soft war.

It's with the messaging.

It's with what's happening on campus, what's happening in the classroom, what's happening in civil society, and what's happening in the political sphere, especially with the midterms in this country coming up.

Can you talk