American media conflated Iranians, Arabs, Sunnis, and Shiites into one Muslim menace.

Evidence

Coverage of the Persian Gulf War bolstered the modern image of the menacing Arab, synonymous with Muslim, in the mind of the American viewer. The Iranians at the center of the hostage crisis were not Arab, and the Iranian government the United States tapped as the embodiment of Islamic fundamentalism was a Shiite-controlled state, whereas Hussein himself was a secular Sunni Muslim. But these distinctions were unimportant to most Americans, who conflated Iranian with Arab and had no clue what Sunni or Shiite meant. Saddam Hussein, whom the news media focused on by way of special reports, vignettes, and documentaries, succeeded his old foe, the Ayatollah Khomeini, in becoming the new embodiment of Muslim terror. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 254

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Rana’s work on how the racialization of Muslims erases sect and ethnicity distinctions. — connects to: Mainstream media misattributed the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to Muslims. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 504; Iran’s 1979 events made Islamism the coming Green Menace for the US. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 254; Representations of jihad in American film and television are also very relevant to how Americans view jihad and Islam. (+18 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 254

Broader Connections

• Western media frames Islam chiefly through terrorism and women’s oppression. #exemplifies (0.55) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 499
• Media frames Muslim terrorists as religion-driven simpletons while psychologizing non-Muslim perpetrators #expands (0.50) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 506
• American society uses religion to explain crimes committed by a tiny fraction of Muslims. #expands (0.45)
• Religious identity replaced ethnicity as the marker making Muslim Americans seen as anti-American #expands (0.40)