Political Islam emerged from failures of secularism, Stalinism, and crises, aided by US sponsorship

Evidence

In this chapter I have laid out the conditions that have allowed the parties of political Islam to succeed. What we saw is that in contrast to the caricature of Islamists as a medieval-minded clergy railing against the modern world, political Islam is the product of specific historic conditions. These conditions include the failure of secular nationalist movements due to their own internal weaknesses; the inability of Stalinist parties to offer an effective alternative; and economic crises in various countries that could not be resolved through state capitalist methods and that neoliberalism exacerbated. However, it must be emphasized again that imperialist nations, particularly the United States, played a key role in bolstering the parties of political Islam and consequently weakening secular nationalists and the left (as discussed in chapter 4). — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 371

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors the reader’s Grosfoguel/Rana/Selod framework: foregrounding the material/imperial drivers behind a racialized enemy. — connects to: The 1967 defeat and 1970s economic crisis fueled political Islam’s rise. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 250; US administrations used symbolic inclusion of Islam to recruit Muslims into state interests.; American Cold War strategy cultivated Islamists against secular nationalism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 219 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• US hostility to Islamism depended on whether it served US interests #qualifies (0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 233
• Political Islam parallels other modern fundamentalisms rather than stemming from Islam’s essence #expands (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 285
• Crisis-time scapegoating of religious out-groups masks political and economic causes #complicates (0.55)
• Islamophobia is a US political weapon deployed through proxies in India and China #expands (0.40)