Loyalty and disavowal (al wala wal bara) are not just an essential part of Islam. They’re a key part of any successful war effort. There is lots of documentation of this from recent wars, yet somehow many Muslims have been conditioned against it. In fact, many Muslims show affection and acceptance for the cultures that are invading their lands and stealing their wealth. It’s impossible to win a war, or even fight, in such a condition.

Western societies dissociated or disavowed the culture of their enemies during war time in many different ways. One of the reasons that the spelling of words is different in American and British English is because after the American revolution some scholars wanted to distinguish America from Britain, and so they published dictionaries with American spellings.

During WW1, anti-German sentiment in Britain was so strong that the king of England was forced to change his German sounding last name, Saxe-Coburg and Gothe, to the English sounding name “Windsor.” Boycotts of German products continued even after the war ended.

During the war, the “German shepherd” dog breed was renamed “Alsatian” in the English-speaking world, and the name wasn’t changed back until 60 years later. US President Theodore Roosevelt rejected “hyphenated” American identities (ie. German-Americans) during the war, asserting that you are either American or you are not. Many German owned businesses in America were looted, leading Germans to change their last names. Cities and streets with German sounding names were changed. Many schools canceled German language classes. Germans in the US were forced to buy war bonds to prove their loyalty. In America, they even changed the name of “hamburgers” to “liberty sandwich” until the end of the war. Boycotts of German products were widespread in the US as well.

The Cold War between the communist Soviet Union and the capitalist West also saw plenty of culture war. In Belarus, protesters against the pro-Soviet government used a denim shirt as a flag, because blue jeans were perceived as a symbol of Western culture. The import of blue jeans was banned in the Soviet Union, and people wearing them or listening to American music would be viewed by many with contempt. A communist French philosopher once commented “There is more power in rock music and blue jeans than in the entire Red Army.” Cultural influence of the West was seen as breaking the unity of the Soviet Union, and the infatuation of Soviet citizens with American culture as a major cause for the decline in popular support for communism.

After the fall of the USSR, some remarked that the Russians “sold the motherland for blue jeans and chewing gum.” Something as trivial as chewing gum was also seen as a tacit endorsement of the capitalist system. Soviet propaganda depicted Americans chewing gum in disgusting and unmannerly ways, and some made up stories about Americans putting needles in gum in order to scare children away from chewing it. In a war that centers around establishing or preserving a way of life, it is of the utmost importance to take pride in your way of life, and to wholeheartedly reject the way of life of your enemy.