Islamism risen in the past 20 years because the Cold War ended? - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#14807616
Hi my question is that I have heard and read that Islamism risen in the past 20 years because the Cold War ended could there some truth in this what I mean by that is because it seems during the Cold War because the Western Media starting to claim Communism/Socialism/Marxism is dead it used to be that Youths/Younger People if they wanted radical/revolutionary change a better society that they turned to supporting the Left when I say the Left I don't mean Democrats or Liberals/Progressives or Social Democrats/Democratic Socialists like Bernie Sanders who just want to reform Capitalism I mean Marxists and Communists revolutionary Socialists anyways now a days since people think Communism is dead and the Soviet Union came apart and the Cold War is over it seems some not all but some Youths who want revolutionary change want to be seen as cool or rebels in society convert to Islam and become Islamists even Terrorists or you have young Muslims to to turn to Islamism to feel that void I just believe if the Soviet Union was still on this Earth that many of these youths younger people both Non Muslims and Muslims would turn to to Socialism and Marxism for answers and join a Communist Party/Socialist Party/Marxist Political Parties and be Pro Working Class Pro Worker for the Workers Pro Labor Or Trade Unions it does seem that before the 1980s that the Arab/Muslim World was Secular in fact the PLO was supported by the Soviet Union and other Marxists and Communists I think I read the PLO had Marxists as members like the popular front for the liberation of Palestine the point Im making is I don't agree with Right Wingers that believe Islam/Muslims are all Radical Islamists like ISIS that can never be changed or reform because the West has played a big role in the rise of Political Islamists the CIA helped the Muslim Brotherhood since they thought Islamists would be a ally during the Cold War or the CIA funding the Islamists like Bin Laden in Afghanistan what what became the Taliban or Mujahideen Steven Emerson Daniel Pipes and Frank Gaffney among others admit this Gamal Abdel Nasser I think promoted what he called Arab Socialism like Malcolm X the Black Nationalist who left the Nation of Islam and became a Sunni Orthodox Muslim because he saw White Muslims and Muslims of all Races in Mecca he said Islam would end Racism and White Supremacy and promote Universal Brotherhood it seems that in the 1950s 1960s and 1970s that the Muslim World was more Secular than today for the most part Islamists back than were a tiny minority with very little support in fact Nasser jailed the Muslim Brother leaders like Sayyid Qutb even before 911 2001 I never heard anyone talk about Islamists or Sharia Law or a Caliphate I believe the Muslim and Arab World has turned to Political Islamism for many reasons one reason could be because of Western Foreign Policy the economy in the Islamic World poverty in many places and the fall of the Soviet Union who supported Secular and Nationalist causes in the Muslim world also because the Arab Nations lost to Israel in 1967 and 1973 and the Islamic Scholars told Muslims that Islam is the answer also the Cia is the reason why Iran turned to Islamism given what the West did to Iran in 1953 many Right Wingers call the War on Terrorism the New Cold War sorry if my post is so long I just had a lot to say anyways what does everyone think anyone agree thank you for your time ?


First off, I do not have an opposition to Islam. After watching a recent documentary, it was mentioned that Islam increased in Tajikistan after the fall of the Soviet Union, so I began to think about the effects of religious choice after years of being forced in atheism. Does anyone have a more historical context about the evolution of religion in this region?

It's not necessarily accurate to say it gave way to a rise in Islam, but the increasing Islamization of societies in the Arab and Muslim world is at least in part linked to the Cold War. The very short version is that in the 60s, at the height of Nasserism in Egypt and the formation of the United Arab Republic between Egypt and Syria, the US was far more worried about communism in the Middle East than it was about Islamism. As a result, the US supported a sort of incubator of Islamism in the Gulf, especially in Saudi. Islamists fleeing Syria and Nasser's Egypt fled to Saudi, where they found extensive Saudi and American political patronage and money. That movement grew throughout the 1960s, and then by the early 70s, when all the Arab communist regimes had collapsed, these newly empowered and rich Islamist ideologues, businessmen, thinkers, etc. flowed back out of the Gulf to their countries of origin, especially Egypt. President Sadat in Egypt greatly relaxed the state's stance toward Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood (at least compared to Nasser) and also began liberalizing the economy. As such, when all these Islamists returned to Egypt, they had far more latitude to operate Islamist groups and also many more avenues for making money. That was one of the principal causes of the Islamization of Egyptian society. Along with the fact that when Sadat (and Mubarak and Sisi) began this neoliberal remaking of Egypt's economy, it greatly exacerbated both urban and rural poverty and also removed state subsidies that had been supporting the poor, and Islamist charities stepped into that void, wielding their newfound power and money to feed, clothe, and educate the poor while also pushing their slogan: al-Islam huwwa al-hal -- Islam is the solution.

TL;DR - All of the above is a roundabout way of saying that the rise of societal Islamization in the Middle East is tangentially connected to the USSR in that the West's efforts to bring down the USSR often involved bolstering Islamists.
Source: MA in Arab Studies

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#14807634
Sorry I didn't read your post as it was Wall of Text but the TL;DR is an interesting idea. The middle east was certainly a place caught between the struggle between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, though the same could be said of the pacific rim... However the Islamists have always been there and Islam has always been an aggressive creed since its origins. If anything the drama of the cold war simply overshadowed the threat from Islam, people were more worried of catching a nuke from Moscow than whatever kooky crap the Islamists were doing.
#14807649
The Cold war was, at least from the perspective of analysing the relationship between the western world and the developing world, a pretext for resource acquisition. It was a justification for the ongoing neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism that typifies the relationship between the western and developing worlds.

In other words, the US and the UK claimed to be fighting communism, but not actually caring about that. What they did care about was when some developing country tried to protect its economy from global capitalism. They would then send in the soldiers to kill locals, and blame the Soviets for supposedly forcing their hand.

Now they claim to be fighting terrorism, but not actually caring about that. What they do care about is when some developing country tries to protect its economy or oil from global capitalism. They then send in the soldiers to kill locals, and blame the Islamists for supposedly forcing their hand.
#14807670
The rise of Islamism took place independently of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Even in the 1970s the Arab and wider Islamic world was starting to grow tired of secular ideologies. Many of the regimes that had been established in the 1950s had become ideologically cynical and had failed to provide a good standard of living for their citizens. They failed to provide a compelling vision for the Arab future and to make matters worse they could never achieve a complete or thorough victory against the State of Israel.

I do agree with you that Islamism became trendy as a way of rejecting the mass appeal of Arab socialist nationalism that existed in the Arab world during the 1950s and 1960s. A lot university students were easily recruited into Islamism. Cairo University was known to be a centre of Islamism in Egypt during the Sadat years, for example.

The West also had contact with Islamists in Indonesia during this time as well.
#14807699
You can't exactly separate the two. Islam has risen because it has seen an opportunity to strike back after decades of American Imperialism, justified by the cold war.

In the end both are caused by the fact that America refuses to stay out of other people's business
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