War against Islam is an alleged conspiracy theory narrative in Islamist discourse to describe a concerted effort to harm , weaken or annihilate the societal system of Islam , using military , economic , social and cultural means . The perpetrators of the theory are thought to be non-Muslims , particularly the Western world , White people and " false Muslims " , allegedly in collusion with political actors in the Western world . While the contemporary narrative of the " War against Islam " mostly covers general issues of societal transformations in modernization and secularization as well as general issues of international power politics among modern states , the crusades are often narrated as its alleged starting point . The phrase or similar phrases have been used by Islamists such as Sayyid Qutb , Ayatollah Khomeini , Anwar al-Awlaki , Osama bin Laden , Chechen militant Dokka Umarov , cleric Anjem Choudary , and Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hasan . It has also been used in propaganda by al-Qaida and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant . The English-language political neologism of " War on Islam " was coined in Islamist discourse in the 1990s and popularized as a conspiracy theory only after 2001
Fort Hood murderer
2009 Fort Hood shooting
War against Islam conspiracy theory