this NAILED/NAILS it, however I have to warn Ms. Riboua that even cosmopolitan, highly educated Muslims in the Middle East are still at least somewhat drawn to anti colonialist ideas and slogans, ESPECIALLY whenever it pertains to the "Zionist Entity". So when they attend US re=education faciltiies. err. universities , they readily find and identify with the diaspora (much of which is Palestinian AND from lower socio economic strata) on especially THAT topic. (even though they love taking shopping trips to Dubai) How do I know this? taught in Middle East in Saudi and Egypt for 7 years .
Excellent analysis, as always, but I do pause on one assertion:
"After 9/11, American strategy focused on political Islam. Al-Qaeda and its eventual Islamic State offshoot, the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran’s Islamic Republic differed sharply in theology and tactics but shared a revolutionary ambition to overturn the Western led order."
But did American strategy truly focus on political Islam? In retrospect, it appears to have targeted the violent extremist branches of political Islam while ignoring, downplaying and sometimes even partnering with articulate mainstream figures and organizations that have presented themselves as moderate but serve as strategic conduits for advancing an underlying Islamist agenda through Western liberal language, public relations and institutions. It seems to me that it is the tolerance of Islamism in the West, and the sharp distinction drawn between it and movements that engage in violence, that allowed the hijacking of Western liberal elites, academia and other societal institutions you describe to take place.
Islam will never gel with western society. As long as Islam has Sharia this will be so. All Islamic societies do Islam/ Sharia. Because Islam is a political ideology. So, it naturally attaches Sharia to it. They are really the same.
Islam and the west are like oil and water, it ain't going to mix fellows. Try to spin it as much as you want.
Only way it will work is if you allow parallel societies. Then you will slowly become the Habsburg Empire dying by slow cuts at a time from weakness but called liberalism.
Liberals are liberals because they can be. Once the conditions are gone liberalism goes with it. One has to be a rich well-fed society to be liberal. Physics and basic facts. Sorry, take the rose-colored glasses off.
Same goes for western middle and upper class university educated liberals/leftists vs working class / lower middle class non university educated population...
While the dichotomy is useful, the reality is not as clear cut. What's missing and perhaps a great topic for another essay is how some countries, esp Qatar and Iran other private funding sources play a role in fueling Islamic activism in the West.
The quest for leadership in the "muslim" world between Iran (Shia) and Saudia Arabia (Sunni) . created the spread of extremism and violence. Lot of good books written on this.
In january 2026 the UAE removed UK universities from its funding scheme, fearing Emirati students would return radicalized. Western progressive newssources carefully avoided reporting on it, some in the center and more on the right did report. Just like some professional education outlets. But most of the reporting is EM based. Apparently only there media trusts the populace enough to allow it read and discussed by all...
The Palestinians are overrepresented in at least the US "diaspora", and they've long used and overused Islam, including forms more fundamentalist than Wahhabis (experienced this first hand) as a substitute and proxy for their nationalism.
A wonderful article. My fear is this: Islam doesn’t really have a “non-political” mode like Christianity does. There has never been a separation between the religious and the secular. What does a fully secularized Muslim polity even look like? What does a fully secularized system of jurisprudence look like in a majority Muslim country? I think the “extremists” are sensing that if Islam loses its political/legal dimension, it will probably no longer be Islam in any meaningful sense. These modernizing tendencies in the ME are being pushed by elites from the top down. But I think the masses share that same existential fear the extremists do.
Clearly, the weird support of Islamism via the 'colonialism and resistance' perspective only prospers while the success and luxury of western liberalism survives unchallenged.
Anything that smacks of existential Islamist threat, such as Hamas moving in next door, would swiftly change the indulgent attitude.
Instinct again suggests DONT LET THE WRONG ONES IN!
“…..Anything that smacks of existential Islamist threat, such as Hamas moving in next door, would swiftly change the indulgent attitude….”
And yet the UK Government allows the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’, which is the equivalent of Hamas moving in two doors down, to operate in the country with impunity.
The one great exception is Turkey, which under its autocratic, Islamist President is trying to form and lead an Islamist anti Western block.
Turkey is one of the most successful Islamic economies, with extensive middle industries and a growing defense industry.
Turkey's 400 year colonial rule of the Arab world makes it an inconvenient partner for the radicalized Islamic groups in the West. Erdogan's attempt to take leadership of the Arab Spring fizzled miserably after his trip to Egypt in 2012.
Fascinating. Thank you. What I appreciate most about your writing, Zineb, is the way you have synthesized so much information into a very coherent set of understanding.
An interesting analysis, and actually quite encouraging as it somewhat counters the ‘Islam as existential threat’ narrative pushed by elements of the Far Right in the West.
Also, given that this more conservative Middle East hosts the important traditional sacred sites of Islam, essentially its heart and soul, we might expect that this regions ideology will exert a moderating influence on Islams relationship to the West.
This might then enable us to view the radical arm of Islam currently infiltrating the West as an errant, over enthusiastic adolescent, who in time will be brought to heel by the disciplined guidance of a more mature adult guardian.
Let us hope it happens before the influence of the bastardised and confused Islamic / Socialist child fostered by the likes of the Mayor of New York gains too much traction.
"the radical arm of Islam". LMAO! Islam IS RADICAL, irreformably so for as long as Muhammad reigns as demi-god. Why, oh why won't Westerners take them at their word: they detail in all of their doctrine that we are are to be reduced to submission by any means ... including make-nice lies if we are foolish enough to fall for them.
Excellent and very illuminating analysis!! It also clearly identifies the hypocrisy so very evident in all those diaspora movements enabled and protected by western democracies.
this NAILED/NAILS it, however I have to warn Ms. Riboua that even cosmopolitan, highly educated Muslims in the Middle East are still at least somewhat drawn to anti colonialist ideas and slogans, ESPECIALLY whenever it pertains to the "Zionist Entity". So when they attend US re=education faciltiies. err. universities , they readily find and identify with the diaspora (much of which is Palestinian AND from lower socio economic strata) on especially THAT topic. (even though they love taking shopping trips to Dubai) How do I know this? taught in Middle East in Saudi and Egypt for 7 years .
Excellent analysis, as always, but I do pause on one assertion:
"After 9/11, American strategy focused on political Islam. Al-Qaeda and its eventual Islamic State offshoot, the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran’s Islamic Republic differed sharply in theology and tactics but shared a revolutionary ambition to overturn the Western led order."
But did American strategy truly focus on political Islam? In retrospect, it appears to have targeted the violent extremist branches of political Islam while ignoring, downplaying and sometimes even partnering with articulate mainstream figures and organizations that have presented themselves as moderate but serve as strategic conduits for advancing an underlying Islamist agenda through Western liberal language, public relations and institutions. It seems to me that it is the tolerance of Islamism in the West, and the sharp distinction drawn between it and movements that engage in violence, that allowed the hijacking of Western liberal elites, academia and other societal institutions you describe to take place.
Islam will never gel with western society. As long as Islam has Sharia this will be so. All Islamic societies do Islam/ Sharia. Because Islam is a political ideology. So, it naturally attaches Sharia to it. They are really the same.
Islam and the west are like oil and water, it ain't going to mix fellows. Try to spin it as much as you want.
Only way it will work is if you allow parallel societies. Then you will slowly become the Habsburg Empire dying by slow cuts at a time from weakness but called liberalism.
Liberals are liberals because they can be. Once the conditions are gone liberalism goes with it. One has to be a rich well-fed society to be liberal. Physics and basic facts. Sorry, take the rose-colored glasses off.
Excellent and very succinct analysis!!
Same goes for western middle and upper class university educated liberals/leftists vs working class / lower middle class non university educated population...
Concur Thomas.
The university = The "New Religion" (religion of nihilism)
While the dichotomy is useful, the reality is not as clear cut. What's missing and perhaps a great topic for another essay is how some countries, esp Qatar and Iran other private funding sources play a role in fueling Islamic activism in the West.
The quest for leadership in the "muslim" world between Iran (Shia) and Saudia Arabia (Sunni) . created the spread of extremism and violence. Lot of good books written on this.
In january 2026 the UAE removed UK universities from its funding scheme, fearing Emirati students would return radicalized. Western progressive newssources carefully avoided reporting on it, some in the center and more on the right did report. Just like some professional education outlets. But most of the reporting is EM based. Apparently only there media trusts the populace enough to allow it read and discussed by all...
The Palestinians are overrepresented in at least the US "diaspora", and they've long used and overused Islam, including forms more fundamentalist than Wahhabis (experienced this first hand) as a substitute and proxy for their nationalism.
A wonderful article. My fear is this: Islam doesn’t really have a “non-political” mode like Christianity does. There has never been a separation between the religious and the secular. What does a fully secularized Muslim polity even look like? What does a fully secularized system of jurisprudence look like in a majority Muslim country? I think the “extremists” are sensing that if Islam loses its political/legal dimension, it will probably no longer be Islam in any meaningful sense. These modernizing tendencies in the ME are being pushed by elites from the top down. But I think the masses share that same existential fear the extremists do.
Instinct suggests oil and water do not mix.
Clearly, the weird support of Islamism via the 'colonialism and resistance' perspective only prospers while the success and luxury of western liberalism survives unchallenged.
Anything that smacks of existential Islamist threat, such as Hamas moving in next door, would swiftly change the indulgent attitude.
Instinct again suggests DONT LET THE WRONG ONES IN!
“…..Anything that smacks of existential Islamist threat, such as Hamas moving in next door, would swiftly change the indulgent attitude….”
And yet the UK Government allows the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’, which is the equivalent of Hamas moving in two doors down, to operate in the country with impunity.
Square that equation.
Always interesting and different than what is available elsewhere. I might call it "seeing the signal through the noise"!
The one great exception is Turkey, which under its autocratic, Islamist President is trying to form and lead an Islamist anti Western block.
Turkey is one of the most successful Islamic economies, with extensive middle industries and a growing defense industry.
Turkey's 400 year colonial rule of the Arab world makes it an inconvenient partner for the radicalized Islamic groups in the West. Erdogan's attempt to take leadership of the Arab Spring fizzled miserably after his trip to Egypt in 2012.
Immensément apprécié.
Fascinating. Thank you. What I appreciate most about your writing, Zineb, is the way you have synthesized so much information into a very coherent set of understanding.
Profound x 10
Thanks, once again, for your clarity and wisdom.
An interesting analysis, and actually quite encouraging as it somewhat counters the ‘Islam as existential threat’ narrative pushed by elements of the Far Right in the West.
Also, given that this more conservative Middle East hosts the important traditional sacred sites of Islam, essentially its heart and soul, we might expect that this regions ideology will exert a moderating influence on Islams relationship to the West.
This might then enable us to view the radical arm of Islam currently infiltrating the West as an errant, over enthusiastic adolescent, who in time will be brought to heel by the disciplined guidance of a more mature adult guardian.
Let us hope it happens before the influence of the bastardised and confused Islamic / Socialist child fostered by the likes of the Mayor of New York gains too much traction.
"the radical arm of Islam". LMAO! Islam IS RADICAL, irreformably so for as long as Muhammad reigns as demi-god. Why, oh why won't Westerners take them at their word: they detail in all of their doctrine that we are are to be reduced to submission by any means ... including make-nice lies if we are foolish enough to fall for them.
Excellent and very illuminating analysis!! It also clearly identifies the hypocrisy so very evident in all those diaspora movements enabled and protected by western democracies.