American_Islam_(term)
American Islam (term)
Form of Islam alleged to be inauthentic
American Islam (Persian: اسلام آمریکایی, Arabic: الإسلام الأمريكي ) is a pejorative political term used by advocates of political Islam to describe an allegedly inauthentic form of Islam advocating separation of religion and state and lacking in anti-Americanism. The term was reportedly first used by Islamist Sayyid Qutb in 1952, a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood.[1] It is widely used in the Islamic Republic of Iran where its critics describe it as a type of Islam that is, among other things, indifferent to oppression, extravagance, encroachment on the rights of the oppressed, that helps the oppressors and the powerful, and emphasizes ceremonial Islam.[1]
Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader and founder of the Islamic Republic, used the term[2][3][4][5] describing it as "fake Islam",[6][7][8] intended to deceive Muslims, preaching a separation of state and religion,[9] that stands in opposition to "pure Mohammedan Islam".[9] According to the current Supreme Leader of Iran, Seyyed Ali Khamenei, (speaking in 2010), "American Islam means ceremonial Islam, an Islam that is indifferent in the face of oppression."[2][10]