Interwar experts framed Islam as an irreducible opposite force in world politics.

Evidence

His line is a simple one: that Orient and Occident are irreducibly opposed to each other, and that the Orient—in particular “Mohammedanism”—is one of “the great world-forces” responsible for “the deepest lines of cleavage” in the world. Chirol’s sweeping generalizations are, I think, adequately represented by the titles of his six lectures: “Their Ancient Battleground”; “The Passing of the Ottoman Empire, the Peculiar Case of Egypt”; “The Great British Experiment in Egypt”; “Protectorates and Mandates”; “The New Factor of Bolshevism”; and “Some General Conclusions.” — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 650

Categorization

• XREF: Direct scaffolding into Islamophobia discussions: the ‘irreducibly opposed’ framing persists in contemporary anti-Muslim discourse.
• SEED: Chirol’s 1924 lecture series with its telling lecture titles could anchor a piece on how expert framing of Islam as a ‘world-force’ predates current foreign-policy Islamophobia.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 650