Muslim-world upheavals are driven by social and economic factors, not by Islam

Evidence

It is no accident that the turbulence and the upheavals which are now taking place in the Muslim world (and which have more to do with social, economic, and historical factors than they do unilaterally with Islam) have exposed the limitations of simple-minded Orientalist clichés about “fatalistic” Muslims without at the same time generating anything to put in their place except nostalgia for the old days, when European armies ruled almost the entire Muslim world, from the Indian subcontinent right across to North Africa. The recent success of books, journals, and public figures that argue for a reoccupation of the Gulf region and justify the argument by referring to Islamic barbarism is part of this phenomenon. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 73

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Both hawkish and accommodating Islam policies presume culture, not history, drives action — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 417

Related

• Islamization flowed from the cultural realm into social and political spheres. (similarity 0.84)
• Anti-Muslim sentiment is a pervasive mood and policy (similarity 0.83)
• Islamophobia descends directly from Orientalism’s civilizational divide between Islam and the West (similarity 0.83)
• Islam has varied regionally and adapted to historical transformations. (similarity 0.83)
• Western attitudes to Islam have shifted across history rather than forming a constant clash. (similarity 0.82)
• Western discourse reduces all Muslim societies to a single malevolent essence (similarity 0.82)
• Contemporary Islamophobia extends Orientalist blame onto all Muslims, not just Arabs (similarity 0.82)
• Both hawkish and accommodating Islam policies presume culture, not history, drives action (similarity 0.82)
• Western anti-Muslim hostility has been episodic and elite-driven, not a perpetual clash (similarity 0.82)
• Islamic doctrine has justified opposite political programs alike (similarity 0.82)
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries (similarity 0.81)
• Western ideological camps all reduce Islam to a scapegoat (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice (similarity 0.81)
• The reified notion of Islam has hindered rather than helped understanding of Muslim societies (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobic movements in India and Myanmar are of recent origin (similarity 0.81)