During the early Cold War, Islam was coded positively in US discourse

Evidence

To the extent that “Islam” and “Muslims” were part of political discourse in the early Cold War era, the terms tended to be coded positively. As I have argued elsewhere, Saudi Islam in service of empire was the “right” kind of Islam. Moreover, the parties of political Islam such as the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (founded in 1928) or the Saudi monarchy and its state-sanctioned version of Islam known as Wahhabism were comparatively less significant on the political stage. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 392

Categorization

• XREF: Directly reverses today’s association of Muslims with threat; this contrast is the spine of the whole book’s argument about how Islamophobia shifted after the Cold War. — connects to: Early Cold War discourse coded Islam positively when anti-communist — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 392; US facilitated Muslim violence when it served Cold War interests — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 288; America’s 1980s Muslim-world posture was Cold War proxy strategy, not ideology — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 683 (+6 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: exactly when and via what mechanism did the coded positive framing flip into Islamophobia? What speeches or events mark the hinge?

Broader Connections

• Early Cold War discourse coded Islam positively when anti-communist #corroborates (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 392
• US cold war propaganda framed Christianity and Islam as allied against atheist communism #exemplifies (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 388
• US facilitated Muslim violence when it served Cold War interests #expands (0.80) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 288
• America’s 1980s Muslim-world posture was Cold War proxy strategy, not ideology #qualifies (0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 683
• Cold War logic led the US to fund Islamists even after Iran’s revolution #corroborates (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 247
• US cold-war strategy deliberately weaponized religion against nationalism and communism in Muslim regions #expands (0.72) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 388
• Islam replaced communism as the U.S. constructed menace #qualifies (0.70) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 302