Critical Analysis of the RAND Report "The Muslim World after 9/11": Securitization, Bias, and the Erasure of Muslim Agency
Keywords:
RAND Report, Securitization, Political Islam, Moderate Islam, Quranic Framework, CounterterrorismAbstract
This article provides a critical analysis of the RAND Corporation's 2004 report "The Muslim World After 9/11," examining its methodological frameworks, analytical biases, and policy recommendations through the lens of Islamic normative principles and post-colonial critique. The 564-page study, commissioned by the United States Air Force, represents one of the most ambitious attempts by a Western strategic institution to map the religious, political, and social terrain of global Islam. Through detailed analysis of the report's treatment of nine regional contexts—the Middle East, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Palestine, Iraq and Syria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, West Africa, and Muslim diasporas—the article identifies systematic patterns of securitization, state-centric bias, secular normativity, and the instrumentalization of "moderate Islam." The article argues that the report's analytical framework reduces complex civilizational phenomena to security variables, privileges authoritarian allies over Islamist movements, assumes secular state structures as normative, and defines "moderate Islam" in terms of compatibility with Western policy interests rather than authentic Islamic theological criteria. Most significantly, the report systematically excludes self-reflection on Western policy—including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, support for authoritarian regimes, drone strikes, and colonial legacies—as drivers of radicalization. The article contrasts RAND's policy worldview with a Quranic framework grounded in Divine sovereignty, justice ('adl), consultation (shura), and accountability, arguing that a justice-centered approach offers a more ethical and effective alternative to securitized engagement with Muslim societies.
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