Imperialism is both an economic and cultural process. It is no accident that there has been an emergence of an arrogant, blinded, religious zeal to rescue the fallen, the cursed, the barbaric. Today the label of barbarism is being applied to Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. Two centuries ago when India was the target for imperial conquest, it was viewed as needing imperial salvation….
The rise of empire goes hand in hand with the imperialism of religion and culture. Both share an intolerance for diversity and the illusion of deliverance through destruction. The evangelical fundamentalists in the US today had their counterparts in another age of empire. Imperialism of religion and culture simultaneously performs two functions−it hides the roots of economic injustice and dispossession and it offers cultural colonization as a cure.
