Islam replaced communism as the West’s designated global enemy threat

Evidence

If simplistic arguments and theses can be in any way useful, what was occurring at the global level was, as Huntington put it, that both the West and Islam were being forced to shift their global perception and relationship: ‘the collapse of communism removed a common enemy of the West and Islam and left each the perceived threat of each other’. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 246 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Scholars such as Edward Said long ago documented a consistent anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias in the media. In the Canadian context, Karim Karim examined the media for the period 1980 to 2000, and showed how Islam became ‘the new red scare.’ The Muslim Other replaced the cold war script in the Canadian media, starting primarily with the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979. Muslim political violence was nearly always described as terrorism, Karim shows, and the media prepared the public to think of all Muslims and Arabs as irrational, terrorist fanatics. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 90 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

With the demise of communism and rise of international competition in the global order, Islam has emerged as the new menace, and the U.S. is focused on solving the problem via the War on Terror. Islamic peril is grounded in the history of American Orientalism that has placed the Muslim world in opposition to U.S. nationalism. Political diplomacy, popular culture, and the media construct the threats and dangers of Muslims in relation to other prominent constructed perils and menaces of the U.S. (Little 2002; McAlister 2005). — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 302 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Neoconservatives campaigned to replace the Soviet enemy with Islamism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 414; Islam served neocons as a substitute Cold War enemy when the USSR collapsed — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 675; Neocons replaced the Soviet enemy with an Islamic civilizational threat (+13 more)

Related

• The Cold War’s end positioned Islam as communism’s replacement global threat (similarity 0.91)
• Communism’s collapse left West and Islam as mutual perceived threats (similarity 0.90)
• The Cold War’s end left Islam and the West mutually perceived threats (similarity 0.90)
• The Islamic-terror enemy replaced the Soviet Union as an archnemesis. (similarity 0.90)
• Islam replaced communism as the West’s fear narrative after 1979 (similarity 0.90)
• Neocons needed Islam as a unifying substitute for the USSR enemy (similarity 0.86)
• Islamic challenge forged the collective identity of ‘the West’ (similarity 0.86)
• Islam served neocons as a substitute Cold War enemy when the USSR collapsed (similarity 0.86)
• Neoconservatives campaigned to replace the Soviet enemy with Islamism (similarity 0.86)
• Neocons replaced the Soviet enemy with an Islamic civilizational threat (similarity 0.86)
• The Muslim terrorist replaced the Soviet communist as the West’s public enemy number one (similarity 0.85)
• Islam replaced communism as the U.S. constructed menace (similarity 0.85)
• Western publics and leaders perceived Islam as the post-Cold War threat (similarity 0.85)
• Liberal imperialists and neocons both frame Islamism as the new totalitarianism requiring Western expungement (similarity 0.83)
• The US religion-versus-communism strategy failed because Islam did not compete with communism for elites (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Communism’s collapse left West and Islam as mutual perceived threats #corroborates (1.00) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 246
• Islam replaced communism as the West’s fear narrative after 1979 #corroborates (1.00) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 90
• The Cold War’s end left Islam and the West mutually perceived threats #corroborates (1.00) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 246
• Islam replaced communism as the U.S. constructed menace #corroborates (1.00) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 302
• The Muslim terrorist replaced the Soviet communist as the West’s public enemy number one #corroborates (0.95) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 259
• Western publics and leaders perceived Islam as the post-Cold War threat #corroborates (0.95) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 579
• Practicing Islam functionally replaced Communism as the most threatening subversive activity #corroborates (0.90) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 476
• An intercivilizational quasi war between Islam and the West developed after 1979 #expands (0.90)
• Cold War policies that Western powers drove cultivated Islamophobia globally. #qualifies (0.80) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 69
• Islam is the only civilization that has twice threatened the West’s survival #expands (0.70)