US presidents echoed the colonial claim that Muslims cannot self-govern

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 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: American presidents endorsed the myth of Muslim incapacity for self-rule; Theodore Roosevelt declared Muslims incapable of self-government on racial grounds; Theodore Roosevelt ranked Muslims an inferior people unfit for self-government — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 205 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Theodore Roosevelt declared Muslims incapable of self-government on racial grounds #exemplifies (0.95)
• Theodore Roosevelt ranked Muslims an inferior people unfit for self-government #exemplifies (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 205
• US presidents racialized Arabs as incapable of understanding freedom #exemplifies (0.85)
• US officials racialized Muslims as incapable of democracy while arming their dictators #exemplifies (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 368
• Presidents across party lines securitized Muslim identity through state action #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 108
• Washington Irving argued Muslims were unsuited for democratic self-governance #exemplifies (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 517
• Bush-era discourse gendered Muslim others as incapable of self-determination #exemplifies (0.80)
• Colonial discourse recasts Western self-government as a capacity Orientals lack #expands (0.75)