A concentrated wave of 2009 arrests cast Muslims as wartime internal enemies

Evidence

The world itself was at a crucial impasse. Everybody could feel it in the air, particularly the world’s Muslims, who found themselves on the wrong side of the civilizational divide marked by the neoconservative Bush administration, the hawks that steered it from Washington, and the limitless school of vultures deployed around the world. … The War on Terror, about sixteen months into its existence, had swiftly remade the structures of American government, unleashing strident legislation that enabled almost unchecked surveillance of Muslim citizens and residents on the home front and beyond. … Muslim Americans like myself were under intense scrutiny. Our religious expression and political views, our entire beings relentlessly examined and categorized. Were we “moderate” Muslims acting in line with the dictates of the state? Or “bad” Muslims voicing our concern over the strident surveillance and sweeping dragnets imposed on Muslims at home and abroad? — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 261 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A cluster of 2009 arrests fueled a media narrative conflating Muslim identity with terrorism; Media coverage of Muslim arrests shifted citizens into the enemy category; The War on Terror surveilled and classified Muslims into state-approved or suspect categories — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 261 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Media coverage of Muslim arrests shifted citizens into the enemy category #corroborates (0.92)
• The War on Terror surveilled and classified Muslims into state-approved or suspect categories #expands (0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 261
• Muslims are positioned as an external threat against America’s internal enemies. #contradicts (0.75)
• Islamophobia is powered by the overlap of Muslims being both inside and outside #expands (0.72)