Koenraad Elst: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia
Article Images
Content deleted Content added
| (One intermediate revision by one other user not shown) | |||
Line 1: '''Koenraad Elst''' is a [[Belgian]] [[writer]] and [[orientalist]] (without [[Academic institution|institutional]] affiliation). He was an editor of the [[New Right]] Flemish nationalist journal ''[[TeKoS|Teksten, Kommentaren en Studies]]'' from 1992 to 1995, focussing on [[criticism of Islam]] He has authored fifteen [[English language]] books on topics related to [[Hinduism]], [[Indian history]], and [[Indian politics]]. Line 35: Elst's book "BJP vis-à-vis Hindu Resurgence", and a chapter in "Decolonizing the Hindu Mind" criticizes the RSS Parivar.<ref>[http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/politics/bogey.html Hinduism, Environmentalism and the Nazi Bogey -- A preliminary reply to Ms. Meera Nanda]</ref> On the RSS, he says that its intellectual output is minimal: "Most of its pamphlets and manifestoes contain a lot of puffed-up patriotism and wailing over the Partition of the Hindu motherland, but little penetrating analysis that could be the basis for imaginative policies and a realistic strategy."<ref>Negationism in India - Concealing the Record of Islam (1992) ISBN 81-85990-01-8</ref> He criticized Hindutva writers for only complaining about Muslim atrocities, but refusing to search Islamic doctrine for a reason for the observed fact of Muslim fanaticism.<ref>Negationism in India - Concealing the Record of Islam (1992) ISBN 81-85990-01-8</ref> ===On allegations of "Hindu fascism"=== Line 43 ⟶ 45: ===On Nouvelle Droite and Vlaams Belang=== Elst rejected the [[Nouvelle Droite]] movement after initial sympathy in the early 1990s. Among the reasons for his rejection he cites that the collaborationist aspects of the careers of two Belgian writers were covered up in Nouvelle Droite articles, and that he suspected that "its critique of egalitarianism in the name of “differentialism” could at heart simply be a plea against equality in favour of inequality, Old-Right style". However, he does not actively oppose the Nouvelle Droite movement: "Wisely or unwisely, I have not taken my scepticism to be a reason for any active hostility to the Nouvelle Droite people, some of whom I count as friends... Time permitting, I accept invitations from that side, so that I spoke at their conference in Antwerp in 2000, if only as a stand-in for an announced speaker who had cancelled at the last minute for health reasons (Pim Fortuyn, no less, the Dutch liberal sociology professor who criticized Islam, subsequently went into politics, and ended up murdered by a leftist).<ref>http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/fascism/Nazi5Poewe1.html The religion of the Nazis</ref> Jan De Zutter criticized Elst for being too close with the Vlaams Belang, as in June 1992, Koenraad Elst gave a speech on the dangers of Islam at the [[Vlaams Blok]] Colloquium where the party proposed its first version of its 70 point anti-immigration policy<ref>Jan De Zutter "Heidenen voor het blok - Radicaal rechts en het moderne Heidendom" (Heathens in favour of the Blok - the radical Right and modern Heathenism), ISBN 90 5240 582 4 (Published by Uitgeverij Houtekiet, Antwerpen / Baarn; 2000), p 17</ref> Elst said that he spoke there because it was the only party where the problem of the Islam was brought up, but that he also explicitly said that he didn't agree with the party's solution for that problem, and disapproved of their xenophobia.<ref>http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/dutch/isvb.html Het VB en de islam</ref> He stated that the VB can not be and was never his party because of its xenophobia and ethnocentrism.<ref> Wat is racisme? [http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/dutch/watisracisme.html]</ref> Since this event, he has often been ===On Islam=== Line 53 ⟶ 55: Belgian journalist [[Paul Belien]] has reported that Elst thinks that “Islam is in decline, despite its impressive demographic and military surge” – which according to Dr Elst is merely a “last upheaval.” But Elst also thinks that it is possible that Islam will succeed in becoming the majority religion in Europe before collapsing<ref>[http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1360 Is Islam Dying? Europe Certainly Is Paul Belien]</ref> ===On racism and foreigners=== Elst Elst has helped Kurds and [[Pakistanis]] to integrate into Dutch society, and has a Chinese god child.<ref>Anders dan de meeste Blokkers, die inderdaad aan xenofobie ("vreemdelingenangst", overigens niet hetzelfde als vreemdelingenhaat) lijden, ga ik ook in het dagelijks leven veel met moslims en andere immigranten om, ondermeer mijn Chinees petekind en de Koerdische en Pakistaanse illegalen die ik met hun regularisatie help. http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/dutch/isvb.html Het VB en de islam</ref> ▲Elst disapproves of xenophobia and racism, and elaborated: "Of course I have nothing to do with racism and xenophobia, and I have my life-story to prove it. Given the democratic slump in Europe, I am convinced that a measured and carefully monitored immigration is necessary. My hometown is host to people from every country, and I have a lot of foreign friends, mostly Indian and Chinese. So, I am not at all against immigrants, and I have personally helped some to integrate or to get naturalized as citizens of my country. But my criticism of Islam stands: Islam is intrinsically separatist and hostile to neighbour communities." <ref>Negationism in India - Concealing the Record of Islam (1992) ISBN 81-85990-01-8</ref>
===On the Aryan Invasion theory=== Line 77 ⟶ 81: Manini Chatterjee, in a review in the Calcutta Telegraph, called Elst's book Ramjanmabhoomi vs. Babri Masjid a “very bad book”.<ref>Koenraad Elst ''[[Who is a Hindu?]]'' (2001)</ref> She also said that it was marred by miserably tentative terminology, like "maybe" and "possibly".<ref>Negationism in India - Concealing the Record of Islam (1992) ISBN 81-85990-01-8</ref> Paul Teunissen's review of the same book criticizes Elst for the unfavourable potrayal of Indian secularists like Syed Shahabuddin.<ref>Koenraad Elst ''[[Who is a Hindu?]]'' (2001)</ref> Thomas Hansen criticized Elst as a "Belgian Catholic of a radical anti-Muslim persuasion who tries to make himself useful as a 'fellow traveller' of the Hindu nationalist movement”<ref>Thomas Hansen. The Saffron Wave. (p.262) http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/reviews/saffronwave.html</ref> Ashis Nandy criticized Sarvapalli Gopal in the book "Anatomy of a Confrontation" calls Elst "a Catholic practitioner of polemics" who "fights the Crusades all over again on Indian soil". He also says that it is difficult to take serious an author who "speaks of the centuries when there were Muslim rulers in India as a bloodsoaked catastrophe".<ref>Negationism in India - Concealing the Record of Islam (1992) ISBN 81-85990-01-8</ref> Line 87 ⟶ 91: Hindu revivalists have been generally favorable to Elst's work. David Frawley wrote that Elst has a command of political and social issues in India that is unmatched by any western writer and researched in great detail.<ref>David Frawley:How I became a Hindu. http://www.hindubooks.org/david_frawley/how_i_became_a_hindu/journalistic_work/page9.htm </ref> Elst has replied to most of his critics in books or in articles.<ref>For example, ''[[Ayodhya == Bibliography == | |||