Have you ever noticed the connection which seems to exist between the radical left and radical Islam?
Sirvan Karimi studied this question in a 2025 article, noting that the partnership between these two groups “has trivialized the left’s anti-oppression commitment.” He also notes that the shared hatred of Western civilization may be the magnet between the two groups.
I agree, but it strikes me that two deeper reasons account for this strange alliance. First is the absolutist belief prevalent in both groups that they know what’s best for everyone else and that the world would be a better place if their inferiors simply followed their lead. Second is the notion that deception and even violence rather than reason and persuasion are tools justified in the imposition of these creeds. After all, if you own the truth and the right path, forcing others to walk that path is justifiable. Like a good mom and dad, you’re only doing it for their own good, right?
And that last comment brings me to teenagers, parenting, and mentorship.
Since September, one of my granddaughters, age 17 and a senior in high school, has lived with me. She’s had some difficulties over her middle-school and high school years, so my principal objective right now is to see that she receives a high school diploma in May.
After agreeing on some basic grounds rules designed for amicable living in a two-bedroom apartment – she’s responsible for two suppers a week, for instance, and isn’t permitted to walk alone after dark – the course of action I’ve chosen in loco parentis is not to command her, but to offer suggestions as to the pursuit of her studies, friends, and future.
Does my granddaughter always listen and act as I hope? Hardly. And that causes me worry and distress. How much easier it would be to tell her that’s it my way or the highway. My age and experience suggest I know more about life, though she might disagree.
Still, I have resisted that temptation of command and demand, so beloved by totalitarians of whatever ilk, because I believe she’ll mature if I keep a watchful eye out for her safety while giving her some room to maneuver. I leave it up to her, for instance, to manage her own time regarding study and school projects with the hope that she’ll tackle those projects without me bugging her.
And slowly, I’ve seen her grow in responsibility and take charge of her own life. She still drives me nuts at times, so much that there are days when I’m afflicted with Granddaughter Derangement Syndrome, engaging in extended and crazed conversations with myself about what she should and should not do to improve her life and future.
By force of will, I eventually brush aside those useless conversations and remind myself of what she’s becoming: an adult. She’s growing up. It’s a slow process, and she’s one who often learns things the hard way, disregarding advice and common sense, consequently getting smacked down before grasping another of life’s lessons. That’s a difficult thing for her to undergo, and a hard thing for me to witness, but independence and responsibility are also at work in that classroom. She’s learning just how tightly spliced those two cords of adulthood are.
The rabid Islamist wants obedience and conversion, even at the point of a gun. The rabid leftist wants the same. Spawned by a union of communism and Islam, the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79 brought together those revolvers and soon aimed them at the Iranian people. We’ve seen the consequences of that repressive regime playing out recently in a second revolution in which millions protested and fought for their natural rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
As children reach their later teens, parents must be wary of behaving like these tyrants of Islam and the left, making demands without dialogue and turning a deaf ear to calls for freedom. What parents should seek to mint for their children is a coin featuring liberty on one side and responsibility on the other. Give that piece of silver to the kids, and you’ll have given them a fortune.
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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.
Image credit: Pexels
