Since it was first popularised by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in the 1920s,the frightening signs of fascism are growing around the globe and come at different levels and in different stripes in modern times.

In a book by former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright titled Fascism: A Warning, she implores the global community not to take democracy for granted.

It is a grim fact that democracy is “under assault and retreat” across Asia, Africa, South America, Europe and the US. Mankind must not bury the threat of encroaching fascism and instead work together against its rise by recognising the omnipresent signs.

Fascism is hostile to a free society and loathes democracy. It brazenly champions might is right, a survival strategy of the nastiest. The sight of weakness brings out the jackboot in the fascist mind. Fascists promote charismatic leaders and political demagogues as strong leaders.

Fascism and its horrific unchecked trajectory in Asia will ultimately propel nations into a conflict of immense proportions from which the planet will never recover. The long-term project of modern fascism is a global ethnic war that will send humanity back into the Stone Age.

Today, the word “fascism’ has become synonymous with political thuggery, religious persecution, resulting in massive human rights violation on an epic scale. Eminent historians have warned the global masses that democracy “is either withering or in full scale collapse globally”.

In the wake of the Covid-19 plague, according to experts, "the temptation to take refuge in a figure of arrogant strength is now greater than ever”.

Farouk Araie, Actonville, Benoni