Anti-Muslim racism in politics spans both parties in liberal and conservative forms

Evidence

Elected representatives in government at all levels have played an instrumental role in mobilizing Islamophobia. Posturing as “tough on terror” is a useful tactic during election season and plays a similar role to the “tough on crime” stance. Numerous politicians in both the Republican and Democratic Parties have resorted to anti-Muslim racism to advance their political careers. While Republican candidates are more blatant in their racist arguments, Democrats too deploy liberal Islamophobia as we saw in the analysis of the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy. Liberal Islamophobes employ a politics of inclusion with the price tag involving an acceptance of empire and a willingness to aid the war on terror. Conservative and right-wing Islamophobes operate on the logic of exclusion such as bans and/or the removal of Muslim symbols from public spaces. Moreover, liberal, conservative, and right-wing anti-Muslim racism do not line up neatly along party lines. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 743

Through this period liberal and conservative anti-Muslim racisms have mutually reinforced one another, with one form or the other predominant at any moment. The price paid by the global victims of empire has been devastating. Moreover, while the two imperial camps disagree with one another, they also come together within bipartisan think tanks such as the Council on Foreign Relations and its influential journal Foreign Affairs. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 744

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes liberal Islamophobia (inclusion contingent on accepting empire) from conservative/right-wing Islamophobia (exclusion via bans), two distinct mechanisms worth holding onto.
• XREF: Sharpens the Rana/Aziz claim that Islamophobia serves empire by adding the bipartisan think-tank convergence mechanism (CFR, Foreign Affairs). — connects to: Racist framing of Arabs spans both hardline and liberal camps.; Far-right and liberal racisms mutually reinforce each other on a spectrum — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 641; Anti-Muslim racism takes reactionary, conservative, and liberal forms in the media — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 751 (+13 more)
• SEED: An essay angle: how bipartisan foreign-policy institutions (not fringe conservatives) manufacture the Islamic-threat consensus across party lines.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 743; Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 744

Broader Connections

• Anti-Muslim sentiment spans opposing political groups, not just white conservatives #corroborates (0.90)
• Both conservative and liberal approaches to Islamism rest on cultural racism #corroborates (0.90)
• Conservative and liberal approaches to Islamic extremism share a cultural-racist frame #corroborates (0.90)
• Democratic and Republican parties practice different but complementary forms of Islamophobia #corroborates (0.90) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 327
• Anti-Muslim racism takes reactionary, conservative, and liberal forms in the media #corroborates (0.88) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 751
• Anti-Muslim sentiment now spans the political spectrum from left to right #corroborates (0.88) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 476
• Conservative and liberal Islamophobia are both forms of imperial racism. #corroborates (0.88)
• Both conservative and liberal anti-extremism approaches are forms of cultural racism #corroborates (0.86) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 429
• Liberal Islamophobia and right-wing racism are interchangeable imperial instruments #expands (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 544
• Anti-Muslim racialization is pervasive and not limited to white Southern Republicans #corroborates (0.85) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 567
• Far-right and liberal anti-Muslim racism are dialectically coupled, not separate phenomena #expands (0.82)
• Anti-Muslim racism operates even inside leftist and liberal anti-war movements #expands (0.80)
• Liberal criticism of overt anti-Muslim hearings masks liberalism’s own racializing policies #expands (0.80)
• Liberal rejection of open Islamophobia masks the same racializing policies #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 622