U.S. President George W. Bush walks with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

U.S. President George W. Bush walks with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah on his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

Excerpted from “One Islam, Many Muslim Worlds: Spirituality, Identity and Resistance Across Islamic Lands” Raymond William Baker. Published by Oxford University Press. Copyright 2015 by Oxford University Press.

The United States is at war with a very different, mythic Islam of its own making that has nothing at all to do with this Islam of the Qur’an. To make sense of that conjured threat, scholarly studies of Islam or Islamic movements are of no help at all. Even the examination of the real-world history and practice of empire has limited value, unless the perceived Islamic dimension is considered. The American imperial project cannot be brought into clear view without assessment of the distinctive rationale that the Islamist Imaginary provides. The task is not an easy one. The Islamist Imaginary has no simple and unitary […]

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