Courts legitimize treating an entire religious community as suspicious

Evidence

The logic underlying these cases is that Muslims are naturally “predisposed” to commit violent acts and should therefore be put away. Downs explains that “to prove predisposition, the government claims that routine, normal behavior of the defendants––dress, religious observances, Islamic financial transactions, literature, etc.––indicates a ‘predisposition’ to commit terrorism, based on the false stereotype that all Muslims are predisposed to commit terrorism. If they are sufficiently ‘Muslim,’ they are sufficiently ‘predisposed.’” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 463 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

“Acting Muslim” today in the United States invites suspicion from the state and maximizes the prospect of backlash from hatemongers. For Muslim Americans who confirm their religious identity by wearing headscarves or Islamic dress, fasting on Ramadan and regularly attending the mosque, merely practicing their First Amendment rights is perilous. Muslim Americans like Nora, driven by fear to conform, cover, or conceal their Muslim identity, may diminish the prospect of suspicion from the state or backlash from bigots, but in doing so they are complicit in supporting the very mission Islamophobia aims to advance—eroding and eliminating every manifestation of Islam, until it is gone from America altogether. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 540 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Religions must be judged by social standards based on social ethics — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1264; Constitutional violations are deemed acceptable when targeting Islam or Muslims. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 310; Visible Muslim religious practice invites state suspicion and hate-motivated backlash — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 540 (+9 more)

Related

• Routine Muslim religious practice is legally treated as evidence of terrorist predisposition (similarity 0.90)
• Courts treated ordinary Muslim religiosity as evidence of terrorist predisposition (similarity 0.88)
• Visible Muslim religious practice invites state suspicion and hate-motivated backlash (similarity 0.85)
• Suspicion of Muslims is based on association rather than evidence (similarity 0.85)
• Terrorism and extremism are treated as exclusive to Islam (similarity 0.83)
• Even Muslim civil rights organizations are surveilled and discredited by the state (similarity 0.82)
• Visible religious practice gets read as potential for radicalization (similarity 0.82)
• State surveillance escalates with how visibly Muslim a person is (similarity 0.81)
• Religious practices get reframed as security threats justifying citizen surveillance (similarity 0.81)
• Racial targeting makes mere category membership, not enmity, grounds for persecution (similarity 0.81)
• Surveillance justified by religious identity constitutes racialization of Muslims (similarity 0.81)
• Mere religiosity triggers US state suspicion apart from any political dissent (similarity 0.80)
• Racialized religious signifiers trigger hostile surveillance interactions with state and citizens (similarity 0.80)
• Constitutional violations are deemed acceptable when targeting Islam or Muslims. (similarity 0.80)
• No US religious community endures such simultaneous embrace and surveillance (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Routine Muslim religious practice is legally treated as evidence of terrorist predisposition #corroborates (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 463
• Visible Muslim religious practice invites state suspicion and hate-motivated backlash #expands (0.70) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 540
• Religious identity can be racialized when signifiers trigger profiling #expands (0.70)
• Racialized religious signifiers trigger hostile surveillance interactions with state and citizens #expands (0.70) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 650
• State surveillance targets religious identity rather than class or political loyalty #expands (0.65)
• State rhetoric authorizes ordinary people to persecute Muslims #expands (0.60) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 342