CIA Islamic-geopolitics strategy failed because elites preferred communism or nationalism

Evidence

US officials attempted to promote Saudi Arabia as an Islamic alternative to radical nationalism. The strategy, however, was doomed to fail because it drew on homogenizing racist caricatures of people in the region. Historian Walter Laqueur, perhaps the only establishment political commentator who saw a problem with this approach, noted in 1956 that what “is decisive is that Islam has gradually ceased to be a serious competitor of Communism in the struggle for the souls of the present and potential elites in the countries of the Middle East” [emphasis in original]. Indeed, as political scientist Tareq Ismael shows, there were significant communist parties in several Arab countries. Indonesia, the most populous Muslimmajority country, had the largest communist party in the world. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 391

Categorization

• SHARE: The detail that Indonesia had the world’s largest communist party is exactly the sort of corrective someone who assumes Muslim-majority populations naturally align with Islamist politics would appreciate.
• CANDY: Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority country, once hosted the world’s largest communist party a crisp counterintuitive fact.
• XREF: connects to: The CIA deliberately cultivated Islamist groups as Cold War counterweights to Nasserism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 389; An anticommunist Islam strategy failed because elites preferred communism and socialism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 403; The US religion-versus-communism strategy failed because Islam did not compete with communism for elites (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• An anticommunist Islam strategy failed because elites preferred communism and socialism #corroborates (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 403
• The US religion-versus-communism strategy failed because Islam did not compete with communism for elites #qualifies (0.80)
• Eisenhower’s Islam strategy armed Islamists against secular nationalists #responds-to (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 397
• US cold-war strategy deliberately weaponized religion against nationalism and communism in Muslim regions #expands (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 388
• American Cold War strategy cultivated Islamists against secular nationalism #complicates (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 219