Islamic militant literature centers Muslim governments as usurpers more than external enemies

Evidence

This also suggests a parallel to the modern situation. Are we as mistaken as the Crusaders were in thinking that the main objective of Islamic terrorism is Israel? It is a legitimate question, and the answer may well be the same as in the Middle Ages. The literature of the fundamentalists shows that they are much more preoccupied with their Islamic enemies, with the Muslim governments that they denounce as not truly Islamic, as tyrants and usurpers. The usurpation is more important than the tyranny. Tyranny is difficult to define in an area where authoritarian government is the norm; usurpation is explicit and unambiguous. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 573

Categorization

• XREF: Directly corroborates the takfir-against-Muslim-rulers priority that runs through analyses of Islamist ideology alongside Said’s critique of Western framing.
• QUESTION: Lewis’s ‘usurpation more important than tyranny’ distinction is crisp — worth testing whether contemporary Islamist texts genuinely corroborate it or whether Lewis is over-reading his medieval template.