American perceptions of Islam turned sharply more negative after 2001

Evidence

There is a long history of negative stereotypes of Islam in European and American culture, parts of which are sketched here in the essay by Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg. This history goes back to medieval diatribes against Islam by Christian clerics, although it took on especially potent forms during the colonial era, when European colonial administrators and Orientalist scholars justified the conquest of Asian and African lands by the “civilizing mission” that was being brought to inferior peoples. … Before 2001, survey data on American opinions regarding Islam revealed a fairly even split between positive and negative impressions of Islam, although the majority of Americans registered no opinion at all because of lack of any knowledge. But that balance has shifted over the past decade, as negative perceptions of Islam have become more widespread. Focusing more precisely on the association between Islam and violence, ten years ago, only 25% of Americans believed that Islam encourages violence, while 51 percent disagreed with that position; as of 2011, 40 percent say that Islam encourages violence, while 42 percent do not. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 26

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports the book’s stated claim that the ‘frightened subject’ emerged post-2001; pairs with Grosfoguel’s chapter on geoculture/coloniality. — connects to: Belief in fossil-fuel-driven climate change fell sharply in the US between 2007 and 2011 — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 668