Jihadist anti-Americanism opposes who rules, not imperial domination itself

Evidence

Osama bin Laden and his followers define the American enemy not as imperialists but as Crusaders (an earlier offender). They have no objection to imperial domination as such, provided that it is the true believers who rule the unbelievers, and not the reverse. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1656

Categorization

• XREF: Complicates the Orientalist binary of ‘the West vs Islam’ — aligns with analyses that the conflict is framed by both sides in mirror-image civilizational terms (cf. Said’s critiques of Huntington).