To be honest, I was pretty convinced they were just a rip-off of the Idirans from Consider Phlebas, because everything else in Halo is ripped-off wholesale from somewhere else. But, I can also see the comparison being made between a fascistic theocracy on a genocidal crusade vs. a bumbling head-in-the-sand neoliberal empire thumbing its own asshole.
To be honest, I was pretty convinced they were just a rip-off of the Idirans from Consider Phlebas, because everything else in Halo is ripped-off wholesale from somewhere else. But, I can also see the comparison being made between a fascistic theocracy on a genocidal crusade vs. a bumbling head-in-the-sand neoliberal empire thumbing its own asshole.