Anti-Sharia legislation spikes in pre-election years to mobilize conservative voters.

Evidence

To prove that anti-Sharia legislation is directly tied to moneyed right-wing American political movements, the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas Institute further highlighted the fact that the majority of anti-Sharia legislations in recent history were introduced in calendar years prior to midterm and/ or presidential election cycles (to ensure turnout from conservative Republican voters). For example, they showed that fifty-six anti-Sharia bills were introduced in 2011, thirty-five bills were introduced in 2013, and thirty-five bills were introduced in 2015. By contrast, fourteen, twenty-five, fifteen, and fourteen anti-Sharia bills were introduced in the election years of 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016, respectively. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 634

Categorization

• XREF: Electoral-cycle-driven scapegoating echoes the moral-panic machinery in Cohen and the fear-driven politics Iftikhar traces globally. — connects to: Anti-Sharia initiatives function like anti-gay marriage initiatives as a GOP wedge issue — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 602; Anti-sharia panic manufactures political support while Muslims pose no such threat; Islamophobic campaign rhetoric is traded for votes and converted into policy — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 57 (+5 more)
• SEED: Angle: legislative rhythm as electoral infrastructure — chart the pre-election year spike as a predictable pattern.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 634

Related

• Anti-Sharia initiatives function like anti-gay marriage initiatives as a GOP wedge issue (similarity 0.84)
• Anti-sharia panic manufactures political support while Muslims pose no such threat (similarity 0.82)
• Anti-sharia campaigns exploit fabricated fears to gain political support (similarity 0.81)
• Anti-Sharia legislation correlates with a 67 percent rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Islamophobic campaign rhetoric is traded for votes and converted into policy #exemplifies (0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 57
• The 2016 race weaponized nonspecific Muslim fear for electoral gain #exemplifies (0.80) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 33
• Explicit Islamophobia has become an effective electoral strategy #expands (0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 508
• Anti-sharia panic manufactures political support while Muslims pose no such threat #expands (0.75)
• Anti-Shari’a bills converted private Islamophobia into state structural policy #expands (0.70) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 306
• Islamophobic fringe politicians have become mainstream coalition power-brokers #expands (0.65) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 519