A fabricated mosque statistic spread from far right into mainstream media

Evidence

One example illustrates how Islamophobic propaganda is amplified in the mainstream media. The new McCarthyites have long claimed that 80 percent of mosques are controlled by jihadists. In 2004, Republican congressman Peter King stated on the Fox News network’s Sean Hannity Show that “eighty to eighty-five percent of mosques in this country are controlled by Islamic fundamentalists.” He backed up his claim by citing the research of Emerson and Pipes. This nonsense was repeated again and again by the Islamophobes, even in the mainstream media. In 2010, Pamela Geller stated that “four out of five mosques preach hate” on CNN. In March 2011, King held his “green scare” hearings on the supposed radicalization in American Muslim communities. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 559 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

That was the justification espoused by Congressman Peter King when he held two high-profile hearings in 2011, “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response” and “Homegrown Threat of Violent Islamic Extremist Terrorism.” As early as 2004, King proclaimed that most Muslim leaders are “enemies living amongst us.” He alleged that 80 percent to 85 percent of mosques in the United States are run by Islamic fundamentalists, a thinly veiled accusation of terrorism. The implication is obvious: mosques are not houses of worship under the purview of religious freedom protections. Rather, they are nefarious places that breed terrorists. Hence Religious Racial Muslims are legitimate targets of law enforcement scrutiny. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 818 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: An unfounded claim about mosques spread across media for years unchallenged; A false 80 percent mosque statistic powered the anti-Sharia legislative campaign. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 680; Islamophobic propaganda about mosques seeded hearings and counterterror surveilling of Muslim communities — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 697 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• The false eighty-percent-mosque claim circulated unchallenged across mainstream media #corroborates (1.00) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 559
• An unchallenged false mosque statistic legitimized McCarthy-style Muslim monitoring #expands (0.90)
• The framing of mosques as terror nest legitimated surveillance of religious practice #expands (0.90) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 818
• A factually distorted anti-jihad meme spread over fifty thousand times online #expands (0.85) — Asena Karipek, Portrayals of Jihad, 46
• Right-wing figures coordinated identical anti-mosque talking points through funded blogs #expands (0.85)
• Islamophobic discourse moves from right-wing media to mainstream and shifts the center rightward #expands (0.80)
• Wealthy right-wing networks fabricated the sharia law panic #expands (0.75) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 277