The European New Right - A Shi'a Response: A Radical Critique of Alexander Dugin, E. Michael Jones, and Alain de Benoist

by Arash Najaf-Zādeh

After the defeat of National Socialism and Fascism in 1945 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the upshot of the performance of the vanquishing political ideology of Liberalism is that it has torn international law to shreds while bankrupting itself through the immoral practice of usury. Under its auspices, with the loss of faith in God, the traditional family has been destroyed, being replaced by moral depravity, leading to cultural decay. The isolation of the individual and anxiety about the future have become the hallmarks of 21st century liberal culture. In this midst, it would thus seem that there are three remaining contenders to the throne that Liberalism has vacated by its malfeasance and traditional Catholicism; the European New Right, led by Alain de Benoist and the Grecists, and Alexander Dugin’s Eurasianist movement. Arash Najaf-Zadeh argues that Catholicism recused itself with the broadside that it self-inflicted at the Second Vatican Council of 1962-5, which was effectively the last nail in its coffin. On the other hand, he points out the fatal flaws of the philosophical underpinnings of de Benoist’s and Dugin’s thought, which are based on the thoughts of Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger respectively, both of which posit a morally unsustainable subjectivist epistemology and its consequent pluralist ontology. This metaphysical posture, Najaf-Zadeh argues, is at variance with the reality of the world, whose existence is dependent on the only true ontological reality, which is God (and that which resides in God, by His leave). In addition to being a critique of the foremost Western ideologies, this treatise by a leading Shi’a scholar addresses the complex question of the efficacy of Shi’a Islam as an alternative religio-political ideology, and provides the broad outlines of the comprehensive and integral system of Shi’a Islam, which he posits as ultimately being the only truly viable alternative available to the West.

162 pages, Paperback

Published July 25, 2018

Reviews

[Murtaza]

A strange and obscure book; not about politics as I was perhaps expecting but more of a theological contestation between Shia Islam, Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. The author writes in the ironic, sharp-elbowed, intellectual style of internet forum posters, yet the book itself deals with the highest metaphysical questions. Unlike the Eurasian ideas of Aleksandr Dugin and post-liberal non-Christian beliefs of de Benoist, Islam posits a universal vision of mankind as opposed to a particularistic one. The author considers right wing Europeans comrades-in-arms against totalitarian liberalism and its ultimate embodiment, the American Empire. But he differs with them on the important question of whether truth is particular or absolute. The book is essentially the explication of this difference, while also making the rational case for the necessity of God's existence for those Europeans who due to their intellectual lineage are skeptical on that count.

I don't think I can really evaluate this book according to any rating. It was certainly a wild read and unlike anything that would be published in a normal press. At its core it is a scholastic, metaphysical contention as opposed to a book that engages directly with the politics of the new European right.

[Muhamed]

What a roller coaster this book was. The author is so mysterious. I cannot find any information about him online. At times, he is brilliant, at times funny, at times rude and appalling. I just don't know what to make of him. The book is definitely interesting and worth a read.

[Tony Buck]

The author claims that the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 was the last nail in the Catholic Church's coffin; but as the Church is still alive and well, clearly the author is mistaken.