Echoes of such attitudes were to be found in the United States as well. In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt, who shared Balfour's and Cromer's views of Egyptians, stated that they were "a people of Moslem fellahin who have never in all time exercised any self-government whatever." A firm believer in race hierarchies and the "white man's burden," he asserted that Muslims were an inferior people: "It is impossible to expect moral, intellectual and material well-being where Mohammedism is supreme." Often these ideas were used to explain why it was that "democracy-loving" imperialists couldn't bring democracy to the countries they colonized—the people just weren't ready for it. At other times it was suggested that colonialism paved the way for self-rule and that without such Western influence democracy would not have taken root in the East.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 205