Fear of Muslim violence led civic leaders to muzzle a provocateur

Evidence

Self-policing was intense, as mosque leaders did their best to monitor the behavior of “the shabab ” (young men). City leaders feared that local Muslims would overreact, that Jones had to be muzzled to protect the community from its own worst impulses, and that if someone killed Jones (this possibility was widely discussed), it would do great harm to the reputation of Dearborn, Detroit, and Muslims in the United States. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 677

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the protective/displacement dynamic the reader is tracking: fearing ‘them’ redirects blame onto the provoker and onto young Muslim men themselves. — connects to: Fear of Arab attackers inflates support for security measures targeting minorities. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 267