US officials openly framed Arab peoples as incapable of self-rule while backing dictators
Evidence
John Foster Dulles, as Eisenhower’s secretary of state, called Nasser and other Arab nationalists like him “pathological” for their suspicion of the West and referred to the secular nationalist Iranian leader Mohammed Mossadegh as “a wily Oriental.” Eisenhower himself believed that secular nationalists were little more than Oriental despots. He said: “If you go and live with these Arabs, you will find that they simply cannot understand our ideas of freedom and dignity… . They have lived so long under dictatorships of one form or another, how can we expect them to run successfully a free government?” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 207 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: US officials justified backing Arab dictators by deeming Arabs incapable of democratic self-rule — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 368; American presidents endorsed the myth of Muslim incapacity for self-rule; US officials racialized Muslims as incapable of democracy while arming their dictators — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 368 (+12 more)
Broader Connections
- US officials pathologized Arab nationalists as unfit for democracy
#expands(0.93) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 207 - US elites pathological labeled Arab nationalists resisting Western interests
#expands(0.92)