New Imperialists : Ideologies of Empire

MOJAB: Gender, Political Islam, and Imperialism 63
anti-Semitism of the 1930s. Is it such a great leap of imagination to see
mass round-ups and internment of Muslims in Western countries being
undertaken in the name of the war on terror? We need knowledge,
theoretical perspectives, and education aimed at overcoming imperialist
racism. Cultural relativism, which was a powerful intellectual tool in
the struggle against the eugenic strand of early twentieth-century
racism, fails to contribute to the struggle today. I will argue that poststructuralism,
too, is in a weak position to offer alternatives.
POLITICAL ISLAM AND THE PRODUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE
With the foundation of Iran’s theocracy in 1979, Islam became a major
site of political and intellectual conflict throughout the world. Ayatollah
Khomeini created this theocracy in the wake of a very popular revolution,
which overthrew the half-century rule of a Westernizing, “modernizing,”
and secularist monarchy. He inspired Muslims throughout the world to
fight not for Islam-friendly regimes, as he himself did until the early
1970s, but for the creation of Islamic states. Some fifteen years later, the
absolutist theocracy of the Taliban assumed power in neighboring
Afghanistan in the wake of a highly destructive war between a pro-Soviet
secular regime and Muslim groups supported by the U.S.A. and the
region’s conservative states.
When the Shah of Iran (labeled the “U.S. policeman” by American
media) was on the verge of falling, Western powers, especially Washington,
opted for Khomeini’s takeover of Iran in order to thwart a potential
communist takeover in a strategically vital part of the world. There was
nothing unusual in this policy, especially during the Cold War era. Back
in the 1940s and early 1950s, the U.S.A. had advised the Shah to use Islam
against growing social movements. In 1953, Washington planned and
executed a coup d’état, which overthrew the democratically elected
government of the nationalist leader, Dr. Mossadeq. Similar plans to
support Islam against “communists” were on the agendas of other
Middle Eastern countries (for example, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia).
The imperialist interests of the United States and other Western powers
acted as a brake on the struggle for the separation of state and religion,
which had begun in the late nineteenth century. Western states consistently
encouraged the suppression of civil liberties, nascent civil societies,
and public spheres, which they considered to favor communism. 3 As a