American society uses religion to explain crimes committed by a tiny fraction of Muslims.

Evidence

In 2003, another thousand people were arrested as part of a program to catch “absconders” from Middle Eastern nations who had overstayed their visas and who might have knowledge of “terrorist activity.” Many of these people were put “on planes to destinations where they knew no one. They left behind jobs, homes, and families, including American-born children.” Such actions are nothing if not the wholesale demonization of Muslims, who are now “guilty until proven innocent.” Their consequences reach far beyond the Arab and South Asian Muslim communities. Non-Muslim peace activists and antiwar organizers soon became targets of surveillance and interrogation as well. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 448 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Anglo-American observers explained Muslim expansion as caused by inherent religious fanaticism. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 85; American society explains rare Muslim terror through religion itself; Muslim Americans bear collective guilt for unrelated Muslim terrorists — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 346 (+6 more)

Related

• Muslims are presumed guilty until proven innocent in US enforcement (similarity 0.87)
• Muslims are presumed terrorists until interrogation proves otherwise (similarity 0.85)
• Americans explain minority terror via religion despite the tiny perpetrator share (similarity 0.84)
• Even high-ranking Muslim American officials were surveilled without criminal cause (similarity 0.83)
• Religion gets invoked to explain violence committed by a tiny Muslim minority (similarity 0.83)
• Fewer than one in a million Western Muslims per year turned to political violence (similarity 0.82)
• Muslim Americans bear collective guilt for unrelated Muslim terrorists (similarity 0.81)
• American society explains rare Muslim terror through religion itself (similarity 0.81)
• Muslims are positioned as an external threat against America’s internal enemies. (similarity 0.79)
• US policy frames the world’s 2 billion Muslims as presumptive terrorists. (similarity 0.79)
• Routine Muslim religious practice is legally treated as evidence of terrorist predisposition (similarity 0.78)
• Religious labeling of criminals applies to Muslims but not to Christians (similarity 0.78)
• Radicalization theory targets Muslims who have committed no crime (similarity 0.78)
• No US religious community endures such simultaneous embrace and surveillance (similarity 0.78)
• Private citizens surveil Muslim religious practice as a threat to American values. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Religious labeling of criminals applies to Muslims but not to Christians #expands (0.70)
• Religious identity replaced ethnicity as the marker making Muslim Americans seen as anti-American #expands (0.60)
• Muslims are presumed guilty until proven innocent in US enforcement #corroborates (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 448
• Suspicion of Muslims is based on association rather than evidence #corroborates (0.55)
• Muslims in the United States endure discrimination in their everyday lives #expands (0.50) — Evelyn Alsultany, Antisemitism and Islamophobia The…, 32