Four distinct constituencies coalesced into one anti-Muslim coalition

Evidence

There are four interconnected groups of people who have come together to project the image of a vicious and menacing “Muslim enemy” and to generate fear and hatred. They include members of the neocon camp who have devoted themselves to ferreting out the “Islamic terrorist”; Zionists whose goal of policing criticism of Israel dovetails neatly with the logic of Islamophobia; the Christian Right, which has joined the ranks of the Islamophobic warriors; and a group of former Muslims (and Christians) from the Middle East and South Asia who have profited from Islam-bashing. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 537 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

With similar sentiments, the apparently centre-left former Home Secretary, David Blunkett, verbally attacked those young British Muslims in Bradford peacefully campaigning against the harsh sentencing of their friends and family convicted of involvement in the 2001 disturbances, by openly calling them ‘whining maniacs’. In addition, Mr Blunkett also ensured widespread media coverage when he aired his endorsement of the more ‘rational’ claims of the assassinated Pim Fortuyn, suggesting that Muslims should accept and assimilate into ‘our culture’ and ‘our ways’; and that immigrants and asylum seekers – a group that are becoming increasingly interchangeable and indistinguishable from Muslims in the contemporary setting – were ‘swamping our’ schools’. echoing similar suggestions made by the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher some twenty or so years beforehand, this particular statement by Thatcher was deemed to be a formative moment in the development and transition of the ‘new racist’ ideologies of the early 1980s. Could Blunkett’s equivalent therefore be the precursor confirming the phenomenon of anti-Muslimism as the ‘new’ racist ideology emergent in the early twenty first century? — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 476 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Anti-Muslim sentiment spans opposing political groups, not just white conservatives; Anti-Muslim parties now hold significant political weight across European parliaments — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 532; Anti-racist groups split over whether mobilising on antisemitism alone alienated Muslim constituents — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 1372 (+16 more)

Broader Connections

• Four interconnected groups jointly project the Muslim-enemy image #exemplifies (1.00) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 537
• Anti-Muslim sentiment spans opposing political groups, not just white conservatives #corroborates (0.93)
• Anti-Muslim sentiment now spans the political spectrum from left to right #corroborates (0.92) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 476
• Anti-Muslim parties now hold significant political weight across European parliaments #complicates (0.85) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 532
• European anti-immigration parties mirror Islamist parties in structure and appeal. #complicates (0.79) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 536
• Anti-racist groups split over whether mobilising on antisemitism alone alienated Muslim constituents #complicates (0.76) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1372
• Hate speech censorship contributes to the rise of anti-Muslim parties #complicates (0.75) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 674
• Congress allied with pan-Islamist Muslims to broaden its national coalition #complicates (0.74)