US allied with Saudi Islamization while praising authoritarian Shah Iran
Evidence
The new US security paradigm under the Nixon doctrine, announced in 1969, rested on building up three regional strongmen: Israel, the Shah’s Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Officially, it was known as the “twin pillar” strategy, but in addition to Iran and Saudi Arabia, Israel, and later Egypt and Turkey, helped secure US interests in the region. An alliance with Saudi Arabia meant US support for the kingdom’s attempts to Islamize politics in the region. Meanwhile, it supported and encouraged the Shah in Iran, who waged a relentless campaign against Communists in the Tudeh Party and later dissolved all parties except for his own. Because he led a program of modernization and rapid industrialization, and even though he had dealt a blow to political plurality and democracy, he was cast as a “good” secular Iranian since he fell in line with US capitalist imperial goals. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 394
Categorization
- XREF: Key evidence for the cluster claim that US imperial strategy actively cultivated Islamist forces (Saudi Wahhabism) while rhetorically lionizing the Shah — contradicts the innocent post-9/11 ‘good Muslim’ framing. — connects to: The US once allied with Islamist forces before treating them as enemies; US officials welcomed Saudi Islamicization as a Cold War counterweight to Nasser — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 390; Islam organizations were US allies before the 1979 Iranian Revolution — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 389 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- US facilitated Muslim violence when it served Cold War interests
#expands(0.90) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 288 - The US held contradictory Islamist allies and enemies simultaneously
#expands(0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 214 - Islamist groups are labeled allies or terrorists based on US interests
#expands(0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 400 - Cold War logic led the US to fund Islamists even after Iran’s revolution
#expands(0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 247 - US imperial interests, not Islamist actions, determine Islamist ally or enemy status
#expands(0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 278 - US hostility to Islamism depended on whether it served US interests
#expands(0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 233 - Islam organizations were US allies before the 1979 Iranian Revolution
#exemplifies(0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 389 - The US alternately armed and opposed Islamist forces to preserve its regional domination.
#expands(0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 29