Weak states, subempires, and European far-right parties all weaponize Islamophobia independent of US empire

Evidence

Even weaker states have weaponized Islamophobia as part of various political projects. Perhaps the most disturbing example has been Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar, which has used Islamophobia to legitimate its ethnic cleansing of the country’s Rohingya predominantly Muslim minority. Higher up the hierarchy of international state power, China and Russia have turned to Islamophobia to justify their national and imperial projects. China has deployed classic racist tropes about Muslims, Islam, and terrorism as part of its repression of the Uighur population in Xinjiang. Russia has done the same as part of its brutal war in Chechnya as well as in its projection of power in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Right-wing parties in Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and Holland have made gains through anti-immigrant and anti-Islam rhetoric. The key turning point was 2010, when Far Right parties across Europe using Islamophobia made unprecedented electoral gains both domestically and in European Parliament elections. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91

Categorization

• QUESTION: Kumar here explicitly widens Islamophobia beyond US empire to Europe’s far-right, Myanmar, China, Russia — but she frames the US as setting global terms. This is the comparative hinge the reader’s rotation question needs.
• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s MOC: does the personnel-rotation circuit generalize to European far-right Islamophobia rooted in colonial histories rather than the US war on terror? Kumar gestures at shared moments (2010 electoral turn) but does not supply the personnel-rotation mechanism. — connects to: States across the power spectrum weaponize Islamophobia for national and imperial projects — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 79; Islamophobia networks are structurally integral to US empire — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 89; Islamophobic projects span weak states, hegemons, and European far-right parties alike (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Modern Islamophobia began with 1990s sole-superpower America as an ideological tool #contradicts (0.85)
• Islamophobia now wages wars across both Western and non-Western states #corroborates (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1226
• Islamophobia functions as a transnational tool advancing American imperial aims #contradicts (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1826
• Islamophobia spans the political spectrum and is embedded in empire’s infrastructure #expands (0.75)
• Islamophobia is structural racism rooted in empire, not religious intolerance #corroborates (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 91
• Islamophobia operates as an empire advanced by cooperating governments with distinct anti-Muslim agendas #expands (0.75)
• Islamophobia is an empire advanced by a network of governments with distinct crusades #expands (0.75)
• Islamophobia is driven by state violence rather than mere ignorance #corroborates (0.72)