Crisis-time scapegoating of religious out-groups masks political and economic causes

Evidence

Islamophobia—like all prejudices—actually reveals more about those holding the prejudice than it does about its objects. A demonic Islamic enemy is all the better for diverting attention from intractable economic and social problems caused by late capitalism and the socially eviscerating tendencies of neoliberalism. Islamophobia makes its claim to the ground of common sense by providing simplistic explanations and scapegoats for society’s ills. It directs the attention of those who have suffered most at the hands of an inequitable system away from national political failures toward an alien wedge portrayed as intent on mayhem and carnage. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 40 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Although Muslim Americans are bona fide citizens, their religious identity induces scrutiny of their citizenship status, patriotism, and belonging. This scrutiny is strongest after national crises, and specifically in the direct aftermath of a terror attack committed by a Muslim culprit. As constitutional law scholar Kenneth Karst writes, “In times of trouble … fears tend to focus on particular groups of cultural outsiders as a source of danger.” This is particularly true for Muslim Americans, whose religious affiliation can negate any legal or material claim to Americanness and hold them out to be threatening interlopers. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 340 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Crowds in crisis project their need for protection onto a single figure; A government can manufacture crisis to construct its own people as enemy — , The Braided Reading EPUB: 5-Year…, 111; Declining ex-imperial societies scapegoat minorities to explain their problems (+30 more)

Related

• Anti-Muslim crisis periods simultaneously empower and marginalize Arab American communities (similarity 0.88)
• Crisis scapegoating of out-groups masks the true political and economic causes (similarity 0.88)
• Crisis circumstances expose laïcité as a mask for Islamophobia (similarity 0.85)
• Muslim citizenship in America is negated by religious identity after crises (similarity 0.85)
• Crisis bigotry obscures real political and economic causes to aid the state. (similarity 0.83)
• Political crisis inclusion simultaneously mainstreams and marginalizes Arab-American communities (similarity 0.82)
• Attacks on out-groups divert attention from real crises and expand state power (similarity 0.82)
• The pandemic generated new Islamophobic scapegoating across countries (similarity 0.81)
• Muslim Americans appeared only as hypothetical threat in 1789, not as real persons (similarity 0.80)
• Islam in America operates as a political identity of otherness beyond religion (similarity 0.80)
• Islamophobia functions as scapegoating that diverts attention from capitalism’s failures. (similarity 0.79)
• Islamophobic crisis produces simultaneous mainstreaming and marginalization of Arab American communities (similarity 0.79)
• Muslim lives are less grievable than American ones in public memory (similarity 0.79)
• The Satanic Verses affair forged Muslims into an organized political identity category. (similarity 0.79)
• Islamophobia adapts to each society’s own governing concerns (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Islamophobia functions as scapegoating that diverts attention from capitalism’s failures. #corroborates (0.85) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 40
• Muslim citizenship in America is negated by religious identity after crises #exemplifies (0.65) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 340
• Islamophobic crisis produces simultaneous mainstreaming and marginalization of Arab American communities #exemplifies (0.60)
• Ideologies act on people structurally through a process that escapes them #expands (0.60)