Within the realm of geopolitics, race, religion, and interests still matter. The three are deeply entwined, particularly in relation to the Middle East and the Muslim world, where a protracted War on Terror renders anybody Arab, Brown, or Muslim a putative terrorist, notwithstanding the righteousness of their struggle or the unhinged imperialism of their opponents. The public imagining of freedom fighter and terrorist, victim and villain is intensely racial, which enables the seeing of everyday Ukrainians who take up arms and throw Molotov cocktails as heroes and powerless Muslims engaged in the very same acts, in pursuit of the same self-determination, as extremists.

XREF: Echoes Edward Said's orientalism and critical race theory on how framing of resistance is shaped by race and empire.

Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamopho…, loc. 1191