Islamic fundamentalists condemn rule by infidels, not domination itself

Evidence

But the way this term is used in the literature of Islamic fundamentalists often suggests that it may not carry quite the same meaning for them as for its Western critics. In many of these writings the term “imperialist” is given a distinctly religious significance, being used in association, and sometimes interchangeably, with “missionary,” and denoting a form of attack that includes the Crusades as well as the modern colonial empires. One also sometimes gets the impression that the offense of imperialism is not— as for Western critics—the domination by one people over another but rather the allocation of roles in this relationship. What is truly evil and unacceptable is the domination of infidels over true believers. For true believers to rule mis­ believers is proper and natural, since this provides for the maintenance of the holy law, and gives the misbelievers both the opportunity and the incentive to embrace the true faith. But for misbelievers to rule over true believers is blas­ phemous and unnatural, since it leads to the corruption of religion and morality in society, and to the flouting or even the abrogation of God’s law. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1570

Categorization

• DEFINE: Redefines what ‘imperialism’ means within Islamic fundamentalist discourse versus Western usage.
• XREF: Connects to the existing Islam-West knowledge-production cluster on how regional self-understanding differs from Western framing.