Embargo-breaking by Iran was labeled fundamentalism only when it aided Muslims

Evidence

Similarly, when the NATO nations refused to lift the arms embargo on Bosnia, the Bosnians accepted military aid from nations such as Iran and the Sudan that were willing to break the embargo. Serb nationalists and Western politicians pointed to such desperate moves as evidence of the militant fundamentalism of the Bosnian Muslims. Yet when Iran was caught breaking the economic embargo against Serbia (with an effort to smuggle a massive oil-drilling complex directly to the Milosevic regime), the Serb nationalists in Belgrade escaped being labeled militant Islamic fundamentalists. — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 631

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A crisp demonstration of how the same act is read through a racialized lens depending on who benefits — Iran smuggling oil rigs to Serbia drew no ‘Islamic fundamentalist’ label, while Iran arming Bosnia did. This is the kind of asymmetry that should recalibrate how one reads media framing.

Related

• Western arms embargo in Bosnia effectively armed the Serb radicals (similarity 0.78)