Anti-Arab terrorism framing preceded and prepared anti-Islamic framing

Evidence

This conference was a response to various resolutions that were passed by the UN General Assembly that legitimated the use of armed struggle in ending colonialism and that validated Palestinian self-determination. Benjamin Netanyahu thus characterized the UN as being “incapable” of dealing with terrorism. For Netanyahu the UN’s “legitimation of terror groups” was an “intolerable spectacle” that necessitated the 1979 conference. One presenter at the conference argued that the PLO had served as an intermediary between Moscow and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in the plot to overthrow the US-backed Shah. At this stage, the emphasis was on the PLO and the conflation of Arabs with terrorism. “Islamic terrorism” was barely referenced, and overall, Islam was marginal to this conference. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 454

Categorization

• XREF: Directly feeds the MOC thread question: the 1979 Jerusalem conference is a concrete institutional channel by which anti-Arab racism (PLO-terrorist conflation) preceded ‘Islamophobia.’ — connects to: Official rhetoric framing Islam as ideology licensed anti-Muslim suspicion — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 864; Clash of civilizations framing located terrorism’s cause within Islam itself — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 266; the MOC “The Enemy-Making Machine: How Ourselves, the True, and Every Other Are Built from War”
• DEFINE: Shows the analytical distinction being traced: the 1979 event racialized Arabs without yet invoking Islam at all.

Broader Connections

• Official rhetoric framing Islam as ideology licensed anti-Muslim suspicion #expands (0.85) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 864
• Clash of civilizations framing located terrorism’s cause within Islam itself #exemplifies (0.75) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 266