Does the masculinity of Islam make left-liberals randy? Rabbi Daniel Lapin thinks so - and he could be right.

Sexual? Could be. A certain type of political enthusiast undoubtedly experiences a frisson when contemplating a certain kind of "manly" terrorist. It would help explain why images of revolutionary dreamboat and all-round despicable psychopathic shit Che Guevara are still so popular with young left-liberal bedwetters around the globe. The same type of perverted adulation of people who've shown the "courage" to slip civilisation's bounds - and their own humanity - by giving way to their basest and most destructive animal urgings can also be seen in the phenomenon of silly British schoolgirls heading for Syria: one minute they're kissing photos of Justin Bieber - the next they're being inexpertly boffed by some malodorous, socially inept, delusional dickhead in an infernal, chaotic Third World craphole. (And it's all the fault of "the authorities", apparently, rather than down to their parents, their communities, their mosques, or their peace-loving religion.)

Of course, this sort of twisted attraction to "men of action" isn't confined to the Left. Despite his thoroughly amusing diaries, I always thought there was something distinctly creepy about Alan Clark's obsession with Hitler ("Wolf", for goodness sake!), and, over the years, many a plump, pink-faced Tory of a certain age has no doubt hankered for some medal-bestrewn military strongman to grab the reins of power and mete out summary justice to these damned traitorous lefties who seem hell-bent on destroying the country. But, in these cases, I never got the sense that there was anything remotely sexual about it.

Leaving the sexual element aside, the main difference between the two sides is that the Right has largely left that sort of "men of action" fantasy behind. Partly, that's because of a growing change in the way the political spectrum is perceived. Right-wingers are far more to do with democracy and traditional political freedoms (as opposed to the type of sexual licence, pernicious multiculturalism and ugly intolerance of opposing views beloved by many metropolitan leftists). These days, right-wingers seem far more aware that an extreme version of their beliefs leads not to fascism (a variant of Marxism, with race taking the place of class), but to libertarianism: the Right nowadays isn't really about totalitiarianism - we leave that sort of thing to the Left, who, while eager for all of us to express our sexuality, no matter how absurd or unpleasant it might be, are absolutely insistent that we must all believe the same thing (no matter how absurd or unplesant it might be).

When it comes to forcing your views on other people, leftists are far more prone to tolerating or even admiring illegal violence, especially if perpetrated by irrational extremists (violence carried out by the police or the military in order to defend the people of their country is, if course, entirely unacceptable. Fascists!) One gets the sense that many young male lefties (and many middle-aged Guardian writers) look at violent political extremists and feel some bizarre affinity with them - that's what I'd do if only I had the guts, and hadn't been to Oxbridge, and didn't come from Cheltenham, and could grow a full beard etc. If only we could get them to fanatasise about Israeli soldiers, who, I'm told, tend to be well buff. But, then, Israelis  rspresent civilisation and culture, unlike the murderous brutes trying to destroy their country, so they probably don't give off the sort of pheromones that excite left-wingers. Pity - it might solve a lot of problems.