Sadat weaponized Islam domestically and was later killed by those forces

Evidence

Although the Iranian revolution of 1979 was the pivotal moment that shifted US attitudes against what the West labeled “Islamic fundamentalism,” certain incidents prefigured this shift. These incidents persuaded the United States that Islamists could not always be trusted to act in the interests of the West. In 1973, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, Nasser’s successor, led a war against Israel under the banner of Islam. Whereas Nasser had mobilized pan-Arab nationalism, Sadat turned to religion. His domestic strategy involved promoting the Muslim Brotherhood as a way to weaken and isolate the secular nationalists. Islam was therefore a useful tool for him in the same ways it was for the United States. In fact, Sadat went on to become the West’s darling after making peace with Israel, until the forces that he helped unleash turned against him and assassinated him in 1981. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 232

Categorization

• SEED: The Sadat story is a compact parable of blowback — a leader using religious forces as a tool who gets turned on by them. Could anchor an essay on the recurring pattern of Islamist backlash against their patrons.
• XREF: connects to: Sadat’s regime deliberately cultivated Islamist groups against secularist policies — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 331; Sadat’s assassination drew little public grief in Egypt — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 209

Broader Connections

• Sadat’s regime deliberately cultivated Islamist groups against secularist policies #expands (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 331