Counter-subversive measures built for leftists get redeployed against Arab and Muslim Americans

Evidence

This should not surprise anyone since measures used to control Communists and later the New Left, anti-war, and civil rights activists like COINTELPRO were applied to Arab Americans and later Iranian Americans. The McCarran–Walter Act originally designed to target leftists was expanded to include supporters of Palestinian rights. Whether during the Cold War and the “red scare” or the war on terror and the “green scare,” the imperial state is ever vigilant, seeking to quell insurgency before it can threaten the system. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 631

Categorization

• XREF: The red scare/green scare parallel resonates with the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ pattern of reusing moral-panic apparatus on new targets; also connects to prior chapters’ account of surveillance infrastructure staying put after its nominal target fades. — connects to: Material support laws criminalize peace activism by non-Muslim leftists — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 580; Arab American activism drew surveillance paralleling Red Scare treatment of Jewish leftists — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 652; Both anti-Semitic and anti-Arab prejudice disguise themselves as support for the opposite side — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1225 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Arab American activism drew surveillance paralleling Red Scare treatment of Jewish leftists #corroborates (0.92) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 652
• Both anti-Semitic and anti-Arab prejudice disguise themselves as support for the opposite side #expands (0.85) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1225