Theodore Roosevelt ranked Muslims an inferior people unfit for self-government

Evidence

Echoes of such attitudes were to be found in the United States as well. In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt, who shared Balfour’s and Cromer’s views of Egyptians, stated that they were “a people of Moslem fellahin who have never in all time exercised any self-government whatever.” A firm believer in race hierarchies and the “white man’s burden,” he asserted that Muslims were an inferior people: “It is impossible to expect moral, intellectual and material well-being where Mohammedism is supreme.” Often these ideas were used to explain why it was that “democracy-loving” imperialists couldn’t bring democracy to the countries they colonized—the people just weren’t ready for it. At other times it was suggested that colonialism paved the way for self-rule and that without such Western influence democracy would not have taken root in the East. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 205

Categorization

• XREF: The US line of this myth establishes continuity between British and American empire — a key thread in the reader’s inquiry. — connects to: Roosevelt equated Muslim unrest in the Philippines with Native American rebellions. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 85; Bush-era discourse gendered Muslim others as incapable of self-determination; Nineteenth-century Orientalism essentialized Muslims as intrinsically inferior during colonial expansion. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 201 (+4 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing how TR’s anti-Muslim racialism mapped onto his imperial policies in the Philippines.

Broader Connections

• Nineteenth-century Orientalism essentialized Muslims as intrinsically inferior during colonial expansion. #exemplifies (0.72) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 201
• Bush-era discourse gendered Muslim others as incapable of self-determination #corroborates (0.60)