The FBI constructed a good versus bad Islam split as early as 1955.

Evidence

The 1955 report outlined the central tenets of what the FBI considered to be “orthodox” Islam (which it approved of), which were then contrasted with the NOI’s practice, which was deemed “unorthodox.” There was a “good” Islam and a “bad” or inauthentic Islam for the FBI. Further, the domestic good Muslims, as Pasquinelli writes, were “imams of Middle Eastern (rather than African) descent who were opposed to (Arab-, African-, and Black-) nationalism” who were then “treated as representatives of an authentic, peaceful Islam.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 235

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: This prefigures the post-9/11 ‘moderate Muslim’ discourse and connects to Mamdani’s ‘Good Muslim, Bad Muslim’ framework.
• DEEPTHINKING: The state’s co-optation of religious authenticity — deciding which imams are ‘authentic’ based on their politics — is a dense, paradigm-shifting insight about how empire manufactures religious orthodoxy.
• SEED: Essay angle: the FBI’s 1950s construction of ‘authentic Islam’ as a state-approved category, and how that taxonomy still governs counterterrorism partnerships today.

Related

• The FBI ranked Middle Eastern descent over African as authentic Islamic authority (similarity 0.91)
• The FBI designated orthodoxy by political loyalty rather than theology (similarity 0.89)
• The FBI treated Black Muslims’ political Islam as a national security threat for decades. (similarity 0.79)
• US counterterrorism agencies divide over whether Islam causes radicalization or merely justifies it (similarity 0.78)