Engineers from rural families dominated Islamist leadership of the 1970s-90s

Evidence

The typical Islamist of this era was an engineer born sometime in the 1950s whose parents were from the countryside. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of an ultraconservative faction of the Afghan mujahedeen, was trained as an engineer; Hacene Hashani, the spokesperson for the Algerian Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) in 1991, was an oil engineer; Ayman al-Zawahari of al-Qaeda was trained as a medical doctor. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 341

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Algerian nationalist leaders came from professions open to Muslims — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 130; Islamist groups arise from local conditions, not from anti-American plots — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 376

Broader Connections

• Algerian nationalist leaders came from professions open to Muslims #corroborates (0.45) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 130
• Islamist groups arise from local conditions, not from anti-American plots #expands (0.40) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 376