Early British anti-Muslim imagery was borrowed from Native American encounters

Evidence

This early modern view of the Ottomans reflected the fact that England was not in a position to challenge the Turks. Matar argues that the construction of Muslims in this period drew not from the actual encounter with Muslims but with the Native Americans. Whereas Britain had succeeded in dominating Native Americans, they were unable to do the same with Muslims. Thus, they “borrowed constructions of alterity and demonization from their encounter with the American Indians” and applied them to Muslims. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 111

Categorization

• XREF: Strongly connects to the reader’s settler-colonialism thread (Aziz, Rana): the demonization template for Muslims is itself a settler-colonial product, transplanted from the Americas to the Islamic world. — connects to: Britain borrowed demonization of Native Americans and applied it to Muslims — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 111; Early Americans’ image of Islam derived secondhand from British sources — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 115; Anti-Ottoman crusader attitudes were transferred onto Native Americans by English colonists — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 206 (+5 more)
• SEED: Angles toward an essay tracing how imperial powers reuse one subjugated people’s caricature against the next — demonization as portable imperial technology.

Broader Connections

• European imperial channels transmitted Islamophobic frameworks westward to North America #expands (0.88) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 108
• Early Americans’ image of Islam derived secondhand from British sources #expands (0.82) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 115
• Lack of direct Muslim contact drove Americans to borrow British colonial stereotypes #expands (0.82) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 38
• Anti-Turk attitudes shaped English views of Native Americans as savages #corroborates (0.78)
• Anti-Ottoman crusader attitudes were transferred onto Native Americans by English colonists #corroborates (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 206
• British colonizers imagined American Indians as descendants of North African Muslims #expands (0.72) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 188
• Roosevelt equated Muslim unrest in the Philippines with Native American rebellions. #corroborates (0.70) — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 85