Islamist groups differ by national context despite monolithic labeling

Evidence

September 11, however, precipitated unanimous agreement in the foreign policy establishment that the War on Terror would henceforth frame US foreign policy. Barely had the ashes settled from the Twin Towers when loud proclamations that “Islamic terrorists” represented existential threats to the United States began to echo in the public sphere. From then on, US policy was geared toward “keeping Americans safe” from Muslim “evildoers.” These claims fly in the face of reality, as the previous chapter outlined, since Islamist organizations typically emerge from local conditions and are focused on those conditions. What then lies behind this Islamophobic rhetoric? The agenda behind this focus on the “Islamic threat” is the subject of this chapter. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 376 (#expands, via linked claim)

Worthy of note also is the way in which ‘Islam’ was used as a marker for identity within the closed views rather than and in preference of ‘Muslim(s)’. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 367 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islamist groups are locally shaped and resist homogenizing categorization; Labeling diverse Islamist movements with one term erases their national specificity; Islamist groups arise from local conditions, not from anti-American plots — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 376 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Labeling diverse Islamist movements with one term erases their national specificity #corroborates (1.00)
• Islamist groups arise from local conditions, not from anti-American plots #expands (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 376
• Terrorists’ shared religion triggered profiling despite differing national origins #qualifies (0.75) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 16
• The closed views typology targets Islam as identity rather than Muslims as people #complicates (0.75) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 367