Antebellum officials embraced Muslim ‘foreigners’ only as they served political and religious interests

Evidence

A few such as Abdul Rahman Ibrahima (ca. 1762–1829) and Lamen Kebe (ca. 1767–?) were genuine American celebrities and the federal government took extraordinary measures to intervene on behalf of individuals whom, despite their long residence on American soil, the government defined as foreigners. These Muslim “foreigners” were the friendly kind—friendly, that is, to the interests of certain antebellum political and religious groups. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 349

Categorization

• XREF: The exposed instrumentality of the ‘friendly foreigner’ is exactly the ‘anatomy’ the reader wants—fear/acceptance as a function of the fearer’s interests. Echoes the ‘frightened subject’ scaffold.
• SEED: Potential essay: the ‘friendly foreigner’ as a recurring US pattern—admitting exceptional nonwhite figures only when they serve the majority’s symbolic or political needs, from Ibrahima’s emancipation to contemporary model-minority rhetoric.
• DEEPTHINKING: The emphasis on ‘friendly to the interests of certain political and religious groups’ is the load-bearing dissective move—acceptance of the Muslim is shown to be a projection of the fearer’s needs, not recognition of the Muslim. This is the chapter’s sharpest expression of the book’s pivot.