Islamism, then, both mobilizes popular bitterness and paralyzes it; both builds up people's feelings that something must be done and directs those feelings into blind alleys; both destabilizes the state and limits the real struggle against the state. The contradictory character of Islamism follows from the class base of its core cadres. The petty bourgeoisie as a class cannot follow a consistent, independent policy of its own. This has always been true of the traditional petty bourgeoisie—the small shopkeepers, traders and self-employed professionals. They have always been caught between a conservative hankering for security that looks to the past and a hope that they individually will gain from radical change.

XREF: Connects to classic Marxist class analysis and to ongoing debates about the social base of religious-political movements.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 354