Both Americans and Britons held Islam a perennial menace by its proselytizing and violence

Evidence

An historical exploration of British and American literature between 1690 and 1947 demonstrates the roots and qualities of Islamophobia that Britons and Americans have shared. Meanwhile significant differences between the perspectives found in the two countries demonstrate how these were fashioned by differing concerns about their own societies. In order to emphasize this difference, we choose to compare American views of Muslims with those found among Britons who had lived in India. In the latter context, predominantly white Christian Britons found themselves a minority in a land once ruled by successive Muslim rulers who left impressive vestiges of their once mighty empires. As a ruling elite, Britons had to adapt their Islamophobic inheritance to the exigencies of governing tens of millions of Muslims. In the United States, engagements with Muslims appeared to be a matter of international affairs alone, “Mohammedans” representing an “other” far more distant than the Jews, Catholics, and other religious minorities who lived among the Protestant majority. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 18 (#expands, via linked claim)

Muslims as the threatening “Other” are found not only in the news but also on popular television programming and in films. Arab and Muslim characters have been a part of the American film and television industry’s history from the beginning, though depictions of these characters adapted to the times. With the United States’ rise to global superpower status after World War II, violence and terrorism became central features in representations of Muslims and Islam, mainly because of events in the Middle East that increasingly occupied the United States’ attention, including the establishment of Israel (1948), the Six-Day War (1967), the Arab oil embargo (1973), and the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis (1979–1980). These events, covered extensively by the news media, fed the popular image of Muslims and Muslim-majority regions as sources of anti-Western, anti-American violence and terrorism. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 521 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

If the following historical overview demonstrates anything, it is that both discontinuity and continuity characterize the link between premodern and modern hostilities toward Islam. The most obvious discontinuity involves the overt theological interpretations of Islam at work in the Middle Ages, such as the common medieval conviction that Islam was a form of Christian heresy. By the time we reach the modern era, Western critics are much less concerned with demonizing Islam in order to promote and protect a particular version of orthodox Christianity. An important continuity pertains to the political rationale behind presenting Muslims as the ultimate enemies. From the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century, the West has feared Muslims because it has seen them as significant obstacles and threats to the building and preservation of Western empires and nations. Put simply, Western perceptions of Muslims as religious and political rivals drive most of the antagonistic renderings of Islam throughout history, with political rationales increasingly dominating religious ones in the modern period. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 106 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Britons in India, unlike Americans, faced an active (if exaggerated) Muslim threat to their political order, yet both shared convictions regarding Islam’s coercive proselytizing and violent spread.; Most Americans and Britons seemingly accepted that the inherent fanaticism of (male) Muslims produced their violent success.; Americans derived much of their Islamophobia from British colonial sources. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear:…, 40 (+9 more)

Related

• American Islamophobia borrowed British stereotypes because Americans had little contact with Muslims (similarity 0.89)
• Asian and American Islamophobia diverged according to each society’s domestic situation (similarity 0.89)
• Islamophobia took different shapes in Britain and America because each faced different Muslim relations (similarity 0.87)
• Americans derived much of their Islamophobia from British colonial sources. (similarity 0.87)
• Americans and Britons alike viewed Islam as inherently expansionist and violent. (similarity 0.85)
• American Islamophobia equipped China and India to persecute their Muslim populations. (similarity 0.85)
• Britons in India refashioned inherited Islamophobia to serve colonial governance needs (similarity 0.85)
• Post-war Middle East events made violence central to US Muslim depictions (similarity 0.84)
• Britons in India, unlike Americans, faced an active (if exaggerated) Muslim threat to their political order, yet both shared convictions regarding Islam’s coercive proselytizing and violent spread. (similarity 0.84)
• Kazi frames Asian Islamophobia only through American policy, not on its own terms (similarity 0.84)
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries (similarity 0.84)
• Islamophobia operated at multiple political and theological levels for both audiences. (similarity 0.84)
• A minority of Americans and Britons valued Islam despite dominant fear-based publications. (similarity 0.83)
• A worldwide Muslim threat narrative came to frame British perceptions (similarity 0.83)
• Anglo-American Islamophobia is not new, its roots demonstrated by an historical exploration of British and American literature between 1690 and 1947. (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Asian and American Islamophobia diverged according to each society’s domestic situation #expands (0.60) — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 18
• Post-war Middle East events made violence central to US Muslim depictions #exemplifies (0.60) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 521
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries #complicates (0.55) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 106