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Source: https://jcfa.org/islamic-socialism-takes-on-the-west/
Islamic Socialism Takes on the West
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Tirza Shorr - There is a century-old ideological tradition that melds Islamic theology with socialist revolutionary theory in ways that produce unpredictable and often dangerous outcomes. This fusion operates according to a logic articulated by neo-Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse, who argued for destroying the liberal democratic order by creating a "new sensibility" that would demolish existing social structures. Islamic socialism was born in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, when Vladimir Lenin successfully courted Muslim constituents of the Russian empire. Both groups saw symmetry between their ideologies. For socialists, the end goal was societal transformation. Muslims saw their faith similarly - as a comprehensive system for remaking society. In Soviet propaganda posters, the Muslim revolutionary communist appeared as an Orientalist hero wielding a sword and straddling a horse. In Iran's 1979 revolution, Iranian Marxists and students joined forces with Ayatollah Khomeini to topple the Shah's Western-aligned monarchy. French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Michel Foucault, along with Americans Edward Said and Richard Falk, applauded the Islamic Revolution. Covering the revolution as a journalist, Foucault welcomed the Islamic government's "political spirituality" and called Khomeini "a kind of mystic saint." Islamic socialism represents a systematic challenge to Western democratic civilization. By racializing Muslim identity as inherently oppressed and framing any criticism as "Islamophobia," it immunizes itself from critique. When figures like Zohran Mamdani blend Islamic identity with socialist politics, they are participating in a century-old tradition of revolutionary ideology that has repeatedly produced authoritarian outcomes. The writer is a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center.