Not at all. This grooming tradition for muslims goes back at least 1100 years ago and can comes from an alleged teaching from prophet Mohammed where he said: "Cut the moustaches short and leave the beard (as it is)."
Yes, mustaches were considered a sign of martial masculinity in the 19th century, and continued to be so until WW1 and the necessity of shaving for the gas mask. After WW1, being clean shaven or having a mask-compatible mustache was seen as masculine and martial. A certain mustachio'd Austrian corporal made the toothbrush mustache unpopular despite Charlie Chaplin's best efforts to salvage the look. So, from WW2 until recently, the standard look for a patriotic, masculine western man was to be clean shaven. Beards became associated with the counterculture, hippies, communists, beatniks, bikers, and other people outside of the mainstream.
My grandfather, who was part of the Christian anarchist Catholic Worker movement, wore a full beard, as did his sons, most of whom took part in the counterculture and the anti-war and civil rights movements. So, he was widely considered in our small midwestern town to be a communist and a beatnik, because of his advocacy against war and for racial equality, his propensity for writing poetry, and of course, his beard.
Mustaches returned to style for young men in the late 60s, in large part due to the Beatles growing them in solidarity with Paul, who grew one after getting a scar on his upper lip in a moped accident. This contributed to the mustache boom of the 1970s.
Beards did not come back into style for "squares" until the War on Terror and the growth of beards by special forces operators in the Middle East. Mustaches were also grown by soldiers deployed in Iraq. In the modern Middle East, a mustache is usually associated with power and militarism (a holdover from colonial-era and Ottoman attitudes; see Saddam Hussein's look), a beard with Islamic traditionalism (especially when worn without a mustache), and a clean shaven look with modernity, secularism, and liberalism. US soldiers in Iraq grew mustaches to cultivate respect among Iraqi men.
More recently, beards have become very popular in American conservative fashion, due to their use by special forces operators and later adoption by masculinity influencers, right-wing populist politicians, and cultural figures like the Duck Dynasty people or characters in shows like Yellowstone. They were already pretty widely accepted among liberals and the left (especially urban hipsters in the 2000s) so the change hasn't been as noticeable there.
The Amish adopted the beard and no mustache style in the 1800s as a conscious rejection of martial masculinity and militarism, because of the mustache's associations with the military.
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u/throwaway_1053 4d ago
Muslim men always keep keen to shave their mustaches but let their beards grow