Western commentators frame Muslim leaders as irrational while granting Israelis and Americans rationality

Evidence

Quite obviously rational deduction does not have a place in the mentality of Hezbollah’s leader, the Rev. Hassan Nasrallah, in the mentality of the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who raves on about how Israel must be destroyed and the misery he is going to cause America. Rational deduction does play a role in the mentality of the Israelis and the Americans. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 331

Categorization

• SEED: The claim that ‘rationality’ is awarded to your own side and denied to enemies suggests an essay on how the rationality distinction is itself a weapon of empire.
• XREF: connects to: Declared irrationality rationalized coercing Muslims and Jews by force; Media portrayals frame Muslim religious expression itself as irrational fanaticism — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race…, 971; The Western image of Muslims dehumanizes them to enable colonial rule — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 44 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Media portrayals frame Muslim religious expression itself as irrational fanaticism #exemplifies (0.85) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 971
• Declared irrationality rationalized coercing Muslims and Jews by force #expands (0.80)
• The Western image of Muslims dehumanizes them to enable colonial rule #expands (0.80) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 44
• The West’s polemical image of Islam was self-serving rather than descriptive #corroborates (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1508
• Jews and Muslims collapsed into one irrational-infidel category as both resisted rational polemic #corroborates (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1363
• Christian polemicists repeatedly charged Islam with being fundamentally irrational #corroborates (0.75)