The flexible terrorist category is repurposed against domestic movements threatening empire

Evidence

U.S. officials may say that building new bases in East Asia (on top of hundreds of existing ones in the region) is defensive and will help ensure the peace. But how do those bases look from China’s perspective? A base that’s reassuring for one power can look like a threat to another. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1060 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Fundamentalism as the cause of terrorism has dominated discussion in the United States since 9/11. This rationale has set the terms of the debate and marginalizes the possibility of serious public discourse. The way in which Muslim fundamentalism is used to explain terrorism erases the complex political history that has led to authoritarian regimes and severe economic disparities. It also erases the ways in which Islamic militancy emerges from politics, not religion, even though it certainly converges with religion. Furthermore, it ignores the strong currents of secularism within Islam and suggests that the only path to democracy in Arab and Muslim countries is via secularism, as if democracy and Islam are incompatible. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 896 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The Great Wahhabi Case highlights the key role the phantom- figure of the Muslim fanatic played in contests between authoritarian and liberal strands of imperial ideology. — Julia Stephens, The Phantom Wahhabi, 21 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Manufactured external enemies alternately take domestic and foreign forms; Postwar empire-building and the Israel partnership produced the racialized Arab terrorist category — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 91; Material imperial domination, not ideology, created the racialized terrorist threat. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 253 (+23 more)

Broader Connections

• Provoking state repression is the core mechanism of modern revolutionary terrorism #complicates (0.75) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 368
• Terrorism explanations via Muslim fundamentalism erase the political roots of militancy #complicates (0.75) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 896
• A defensive ideology among Muslim subjects transformed into an aggressive tool of European conquest #complicates (0.75)
• Defensive bases can appear threatening to the nations they encircle #complicates (0.75) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1060
• The phantom Muslim fanatic structured contests between authoritarian and liberal imperial ideology #complicates (0.75) — Julia Stephens, The Phantom Wahhabi, 21