Anti-Islam rhetoric gained legitimacy by wrapping itself in liberal values.

Evidence

The new voices spewing new fictions were younger, smartly dressed, and smarter in word. They often championed liberal values, like same-sex marriage and gender equality, and touted the virtues of multiculturalism and inclusion. Their followings and influence swelled by the day, along with a singular blind spot that at first appeared to be a philosophical caveat to their modern worldviews. A caveat that, upon closer scrutiny, was in fact a catapult: a vehement aversion to Islam. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 316

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors the framing in the reader’s own immodesty moral-panics article — how progressive signifiers mask exclusionary politics. Also parallels the structural-institutional arguments of the Frankfurt School materials about rationalization masking domination. — connects to: Anti-Muslim propaganda won mainstream legitimacy on PBS as early as 1994; Liberal security hysteria functionally powered the right-wing mosque campaign’s success — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 659