The Empire meets Islam

يُرِيدُونَ أَن يُطْفِؤُواْ نُورَ اللّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَيَأْبَى اللّهُ

إِلاَّ أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ

كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ (9:32)

Fain would they extinguish Allah's light with their mouths, but Allah will not
allow

but that His light should be perfected, even though the Unbelievers may detest (it). (9:32)

After the cold war, the U.S. sought to maintain its status as a superpower by using military might and pre-emptive methods to prevent any power from arising to challenge its global dominance. The events of September 11, 2001 gave the U.S. justification to use such methods (Harris 2006). Harris states in a paper entitled “The Military/Industrial Complex in the Conflict for Power:”

In such a Hobbesian world the U.S. must achieve military preeminence to protect its strategic interests, and therefore the institutional structure for power becomes the MIC. But this alliance needs a broader popular base to consolidate as a ruling political bloc and so the fear of terrorism, patriotic narratives and national chauvinism are sued to create widespread internal support for their policies. (Harris 2006:14).

What is alarming is that in the published papers of the think thank Project for the American Century, is a statement that the U.S. needed a new “Pearl Harbor” or a “catalytic” event to carry out a new aggressive policy of pre-emption. The conspiracy theorists have postulated that the U.S. created and used the events of September 11, 2001 for their own “self interest.” Whether or not we believe this, September 11, 2001 was the event needed for the neoconservative hegemonic agenda.

“The grand strategy of permanent war signals the beginning of the end of American power” (Pieterse (2004:159). The world is not the same. Today people are more aware of global issues and more connected to one another, this includes Nations as well. Additionally, nationalism, especially within a multi ethnic, religious, and multi-racial country as the U.S., can be sustained to fight a war for years. How long can the fear tool be invoked to scare the American people into surrendering their rights, money, and lives for the benefit of the military industrial complex? Another huge obstacle for U.S. imperialism is the ideological conflict that it has with Islam. Many of the problems that the U.S. has with Islam are foundational. For example, the relationship between men and women in society, the selling or using of alcohol, or the taking of interest loans are all restricted things in Islam. However, all of these things are naturally accepted and practiced in West. What markets can be opened up in the Muslim world that would please trans-national capitalists? How can an age old religion with many practices contradictory to western practices be dealt with? If the U.S. is not fighting a state, but rather fighting a potential “radicalized” Muslim, how can a “potential” be defeated?