Textual Islam became the catch-all explanation for every attributed lack in Muslim societies

Evidence

It followed from this that Islam, as defined by its classical texts, was the key lens through which Muslim-majority societies could be understood. If women were oppressed it was because of the teachings of the Koran; if Muslims supposedly lacked an entrepreneurial spirit it was due to “Islamic tradition”; if modernization was rejected, again the Koran was to blame. In short, a whole host of characteristics associated with the West but allegedly absent from the “Muslim world” could be explained by recourse to religious texts and the mentalities they supposedly created. In this book, the term “Muslim world” has been put in quotation marks precisely to challenge the notion that Islam is the single most important factor in defining the people who live in the Middle East, North Africa, and elsewhere, or that there is a single undifferentiated entity called the “Muslim world.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 123 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

I should say finally that I recognize the need for informed expert opinion; that the United States as a great power is likely to have attitudes toward and therefore policies for the outside world that smaller powers do not; that there is great hope for improvement in the dismal situation now prevailing. Nevertheless, I do not believe as strongly and as firmly in the notion of “Islam” as many experts, policymakers, and general intellectuals do; on the contrary, I often think it has been more of a hindrance than a help in understanding what moves people and societies. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 83 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Textual Orientalism blames the Quran for every perceived Middle Eastern failing — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 176; Textualism reduces every Muslim-majority failing to the Quran’s teachings; Muslim societies’ traits were all explained by recourse to religious texts (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Muslim societies’ traits were all explained by recourse to religious texts #corroborates (0.97)
• Attributing every social characteristic to religious texts erases contextual factors #corroborates (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 123
• The reified notion of Islam has hindered rather than helped understanding of Muslim societies #corroborates (0.85) — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 83
• Textualist assumptions about Islam produce the fiction of a static, homogenous Muslim civilization #expands (0.85)
• Orientalist scholarship privileged a monolithic textual Islam over lived human realities #expands (0.82) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 710
• Homogenizing Islam as a monolithic culture anchors all Othering frames #expands (0.80)
• Orientalists claimed textual reading revealed the fixed essence of Muslims #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 179
• The myth that Islam is a monolith enables claims about inherent Muslim traits #expands (0.80)