Textualism reduces every Muslim-majority failing to the Quran’s teachings

Evidence

The principal achievement of the Orientalist project is the false binary opposition between Islam and the West which has made this particularly oppositional “Islam” definitive to the cultures in which it is embedded. Historically, however, Islam (itself a vastly cosmopolitan product of its many contexts) has of course always been integral to what is inevitably (but always with reservation) referred to as “Muslim societies” but never definitive to them. Over the past 200 years, the Orientalist project has reduced these multifaceted societies to Islam, and Islam to Islamic law (Shari’ah). — Hamid Dabashi, Brown Skin, White Masks, 424 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

At a protest the night before Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, a woman accused me of “taqiyya” on the street. I didn’t know it at the time, but she was telling me I’m a liar because I’m Muslim. I’ve since learned that the concept of “taqiyya” has taken hold in anti-Muslim circles to mean deception—that any Muslim can lie to non-Muslims if it means advancing some hypothetical Islamic global conquest. The term is often deployed to refute anything a Muslim tries to say. After that night, I wanted to know where this conspiracy theory came from, and whether anyone would even believe me if I tried to prove it wrong. … The author herself has been confronted with demands to explain taqiyya. It is practice allowed in Shi’a Islam which allows the Muslim to dissemble about their religious faith in times of danger. It is by no means a blanket requirement to lie to all non-believers. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 306 (#expands, 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; Textual Islam became the catch-all explanation for every attributed lack in Muslim societies; Western discourse reduces all Muslim societies to a single malevolent essence — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam: How the Media and the…, 119 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Textual Islam became the catch-all explanation for every attributed lack in Muslim societies #corroborates (0.92)
• Orientalism reduced multifaceted Muslim societies to a single doctrinal Islam #qualifies (0.80) — Hamid Dabashi, Brown Skin, White Masks, 424
• Distorted taqiyya doctrine functions to dismiss any Muslim’s speech as deception #expands (0.80) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 306
• Western discourse reduces all Muslim societies to a single malevolent essence #qualifies (0.75) — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 119
• Radicalization theory reduces all Muslims to presumptive terrorists #exemplifies (0.75) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 138
• Native informer tell-alls reduce all Muslim violence to Islam itself #exemplifies (0.72) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 349