In this chapter I have laid out the conditions that have allowed the parties of political Islam to succeed. What we saw is that in contrast to the caricature of Islamists as a medieval-minded clergy railing against the modern world, political Islam is the product of specific historic conditions. These conditions include the failure of secular nationalist movements due to their own internal weaknesses; the inability of Stalinist parties to offer an effective alternative; and economic crises in various countries that could not be resolved through state capitalist methods and that neoliberalism exacerbated. However, it must be emphasized again that imperialist nations, particularly the United States, played a key role in bolstering the parties of political Islam and consequently weakening secular nationalists and the left (as discussed in chapter 4).

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 371