American Islam (term)
American Islam 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 Sayyid Qutb in 1952, an Islamist and prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood. 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.
Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader and founder of the Islamic Republic, used the term describing it as "fake Islam", intended to deceive Muslims, preaching a separation of state and religion, that stands in opposition to "pure Mohammedan Islam". According to the current Supreme Leader of Iran, Seyyed Ali Khamenei,, "American Islam means ceremonial Islam, an Islam that is indifferent in the face of oppression."
Background
At least according to the Iranian Fars News Agency, Sayyid Qutb,, was the first one to use the phrase American Islam.American-religion (idiom)
In addition to this idiom, Iran's first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini used a similar idiom called "American-religion"; at 1989, he wrote a letter to Mikhail Gorbachev. There, Khomeini mentions the expression of "American religion", and called it an "unreal religion".On the other hand, Khomeini mostly referred to "pure and authentic Muhammadan Islam" which stood in sharp contradiction to "American Islam"; In his perception, "American-Islam" called for the separation of "religion and politics".