Urban modern middle classes, not just traditional bazaaris, supplied most Islamist activists

Evidence

While students and intellectuals formed the militant cadres and shock troops of Islamist movements, urban middle-class people made up the bulk of the active membership. In some degree these came from what are often termed “traditional” middle-class groups: merchants, traders, small business proprietors, bazaaris. These played a crucial role in the Iranian Revolution and provided significant support to fundamentalist movements in Algeria, Turkey, and Indonesia. To an even greater extent, however, fundamentalists belonged to the more “modern” sectors of the middle class. Islamist activists “probably include a disproportionately large number of the best-educated and most intelligent young people in their respective populations,” including doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, teachers, civil servants. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 308 (#expands, via linked claim)

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Islamists made headway among yet another class—the very poor. This category includes declassed refugees and urban slum-dwellers, as well as those historically oppressed and exploited due to their religion. For instance, Hamas has recruited heavily from the refugee camps created by Israel, and while it has the support of businesspeople, the middle class, merchants, and the wealthy, its leadership and cadre are largely drawn from the refugee camps. This is true too of Hezbollah, whose mainstay is the Shi’a poor in the outskirts of big cities like Beirut, in what is known as the “belt of misery.” Similarly, the Sadrists in Iraq, both in the 1990s and today, draw much of their support and muscle from the slums of Sadr City. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 345 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Religious revivalism recruits educated urban middle classes, not peasants; Egyptian Islamist militants were young, elite-educated, upwardly mobile first-generation urbanites; Islamist movements recruit modernization’s mobile young rather than the traditional rural poor (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Islamist movements drew their active membership from modern urban professionals, not peasants #expands (0.92) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 308
• Islamist movements draw recruits from specific oppressed classes, not a monolithic bloc #complicates (0.78) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 345