Islamism rose as the left’s demise left Muslim rage with no other outlet

Evidence

The rise of Islamism must be correlated with the demise of the left. If it has become the default repository for Muslim rage against injustice then that is partly due to the US, which, as is well-known, funded Islamist Jihadis in a bid to defeat Communism. Since only something like Communism could absorb and re-direct the energies that are fuelling alQaeda, I look forward to the day when the US will fund Islamic Communism, and the circle will be complete. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1439

In this context, it is worth remembering Giuliani’s jaw-dropping proclamation (to which Savonarola has been assiduous in drawing our attention): “People who live in freedom always prevail over people who live in oppression.” So speak the Masters, the Winners… Who speaks for the oppressed then? The rise of Islamism must be correlated with the demise of the left. If it has become the default repository for Muslim rage against injustice then that is partly due to the US, which, as is well-known, funded Islamist Jihadis in a bid to defeat Communism. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1439

Categorization

• XREF: This vanished-left-as-terrorism-fodder logic relates to Fisher’s ch85 claims about psychiatric disorder and depoliticized anger under capitalism. — connects to: Islamism rose from secular nationalist failure, left weakness, and economic crises — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 323; Islamists dominated Muslim opposition because liberal and leftist alternatives had collapsed; Political Islam filled the vacuum left by exhausted secular ideologies — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 1145 (+4 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The deft move — Giuliani’s winners’ triumphalism literally leaves the oppressed no one to speak for them, and Fisher points out the US armed the very force that filled the gap.
• ADDENDUM: The claim that Islamism filled the space the dying left vacated parallels how ritual-sacrifice scholars frame sacred violence filling a legitimating void.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1439

Broader Connections

• Islamism rose from secular nationalist failure, left weakness, and economic crises #corroborates (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 323
• Islamists dominated Muslim opposition because liberal and leftist alternatives had collapsed #corroborates (0.93)
• Political Islam filled the vacuum left by exhausted secular ideologies #expands (0.85) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 1145
• Political Islam’s rise depended on the collapse of secular nationalism #corroborates (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 312
• Leftists dismissed Islamic revival as superficial based on electoral results that later reversed #responds-to (0.75) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 20
• Islamism functionally substituted for liberal democracy as opposition to Muslim authoritarianism #expands (0.72)
• Postwar Islamic anti-imperial anger transferred from Europe to the superpowers #complicates (0.72) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 692