The US religion-versus-communism strategy failed because Islam did not compete with communism for elites

Evidence

The philosophy of praxis had two tasks to perform: to combat modern ideologies in their most refined form, in order to be able to constitute its own group of independent intellectuals; and to educate the popular masses, whose culture was medieval. This second task, which was fundamental, given the character of the new philosophy, has absorbed all its strength, not only in quantitative but also in qualitative terms. For “didactic” reasons, the new philosophy was combined into a form of culture which was a little higher than the popular average (which was very low) but was absolutely inadequate to combat the ideologies of the educated classes. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1396 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

For the neoliberals, communism was not simply a competing European political movement; communism was ‘a pseudo-religion within the shell of the Russian state, a sort of secularized Islam’, in Roepke’s words, communists were emissaries of an empire bent on world domination. With this ‘Communist Pseudo-Islam’ there could not be ‘one world’, but only a mobilisation of Europe against the threat of fanatical hordes from the East. This assimilation of communism, totalitarianism and Islam recurred frequently in the writings of the neoliberals, who drew on orientalist tropes of inassimilable otherness to discredit their adversaries. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 125 (#complicates, via linked claim)

With the demise of communism and rise of international competition in the global order, Islam has emerged as the new menace, and the U.S. is focused on solving the problem via the War on Terror. Islamic peril is grounded in the history of American Orientalism that has placed the Muslim world in opposition to U.S. nationalism. Political diplomacy, popular culture, and the media construct the threats and dangers of Muslims in relation to other prominent constructed perils and menaces of the U.S. (Little 2002; McAlister 2005). — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 302 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: US cold-war strategy deliberately weaponized religion against nationalism and communism in Muslim regions — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 388; CIA Islamic-geopolitics strategy failed because elites preferred communism or nationalism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 391; Islam replaced communism as the U.S. constructed menace — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims: Race and Labor in…, 302 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• A doctrine popularized for the masses becomes inadequate against elite ideologies #corroborates (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1396
• Islam replaced communism as the U.S. constructed menace #expands (0.80) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 302
• Neoliberal theorists conflated communism with Islam as an orientalist enemy. #complicates (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 125
• Christians underestimated Islam’s durability just as some now underestimate Communism’s #qualifies (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 51
• CFR realists rejected the Orientalist claim that Islam blocks communism #complicates (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 408