Anti-Muslim images were deployed against unrelated domestic targets

Evidence

First, depictions of Muslims and of the final Islamic prophet, in particular, often served as a foil serving social critiques of British and American domestic issues entirely unconnected to Islam. Just in the various editions of the two influential examples noted above, depictions of Muhammad’s life aided endeavors to warn Britons and Americans against deism, federalism, political tyranny, religious apathy, and religious zealotry. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 29

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the ‘immodesty panics as class/political signaling’ pattern in published ADDENDUM (2), where moral panic is really about a different domestic target. — connects to: A minority of Americans and Britons valued Islam despite dominant fear-based publications. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 117; Muslim depictions served as foils for unrelated domestic critiques — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 106; Anti-Muhammad tropes were repurposed to attack domestic political figures (+1 more)

Related

• Muslim depictions served as foils for unrelated domestic critiques (similarity 0.87)
• Islamophobic depictions chiefly served domestic critiques unrelated to Islam. (similarity 0.85)
• Anti-Muhammad tropes were repurposed to attack domestic political figures (similarity 0.84)
• Secularists and Christians alike deployed Muslims as foils (similarity 0.82)
• Encyclopedists used Islam as a disguised symbol for criticizing Christianity (similarity 0.82)
• Even antiwar critics defaulted to Islamic imagery for violence and unreason (similarity 0.81)
• Islam functioned as an opposing foil shared by secularists and Christians alike. (similarity 0.80)
• The image of Muslims shifted with military threat, not with religion per se (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Muslim depictions served as foils for unrelated domestic critiques #corroborates (0.92) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 106
• Anti-Muhammad tropes were repurposed to attack domestic political figures #expands (0.85)