The War on Terror was a globalized crusade recruiting nations for domestic political gain

Evidence

The “clash of civilizations” rhetoric therefore became dominant in the aftermath of 9/11 and was the ideological basis for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well domestic attacks on Muslims and Arabs. For a while it appeared that the neocons were unstoppable—but they overplayed their hand. During its first term, the Bush administration built a “coalition of the willing” to invade Iraq, rejecting criticisms from allies it derogatorily labeled “old Europe.” The war on Iraq, however, did not go the way the neocons wanted it to. Instead of greeting US forces as liberators, the Iraqi people resisted and rejected US hegemony. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 421 (#expands, via linked claim)

The clash of civilizations explanation reduced the conflict between radical Muslim terrorism and the West to something inherent within Islam (and thus something that can only be fixed within Islam). On this understanding, the irrational anger and hatred of Muslims toward the West leads some Muslims to use the teachings of Islam to justify their terrorist activities against innocent people. Neither the Bush administration nor the larger political establishment devoted much effort to reflecting critically on the history of Western involvement in the Muslim world, nor did they seriously consider whether the particular economic and political grievances toward the West articulated by many Muslims, not just the small minority of terrorists, might require a significant rethinking of foreign policy to minimize the chance of future attacks. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 266 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Bush’s ‘crusade’ rhetoric revived medieval holy war framing against Islam — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 279; The War on Terror legitimizes expanded police repression at home; The global Islamophobic crusade spans China India France and Myanmar (+16 more)

Related

• The War on Terror was ideologically framed as a civilizational clash (similarity 0.92)
• Orientalism supplied the pre-existing tropes that the War on Terror redeployed against Muslims (similarity 0.91)
• Bush’s ‘crusade’ rhetoric revived medieval holy war framing against Islam (similarity 0.86)
• Clash-of-civilizations rhetoric ideologically legitimized both foreign wars and domestic attacks (similarity 0.86)
• The War on Terror metastasized into a global network of state crusades against Muslims (similarity 0.85)
• The War on Terror exported Muslim-suspicion doctrine that nations adapted locally (similarity 0.84)
• Juxtaposing contending ideologies lets thrillers move beyond war-on-terror binaries. (similarity 0.84)
• The War on Terror weaponizes an invented Orientalist past to victimize Muslims today (similarity 0.84)
• Bush’s war declaration framed the enemy as Islamic and civilizational. (similarity 0.83)
• The war on terror authorized a unilateral US break from global rules and institutions (similarity 0.82)
• The War on Terror was deliberately marketed globally from its start (similarity 0.82)
• Anti-Muhammad tropes were repurposed to attack domestic political figures (similarity 0.82)
• Clash-of-civilizations ideology animated the Trump administration’s core policies (similarity 0.82)
• The clash of civilizations narrative is a constructed frame, not a given fact (similarity 0.81)
• The Bush administration’s Iraq war justifications rested on three anti-Muslim stereotypes (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Clash-of-civilizations rhetoric ideologically legitimized both foreign wars and domestic attacks #expands (0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 421
• Clash of civilizations framing located terrorism’s cause within Islam itself #expands (0.65) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 266
• The global War on Terror legitimized China’s Han supremacist crackdown on Uyghurs #exemplifies (0.60)
• Orientalism supplied the pre-existing tropes that the War on Terror redeployed against Muslims #expands (0.60)
• The War on Terror weaponizes an invented Orientalist past to victimize Muslims today #expands (0.60)
• Domestic war on terror functions as a manufactured spectacle of fear rather than safety #complicates (0.55) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 484
• The War on Terror conditioned the American public to want Trump. #expands (0.50)