Hate crimes function as terroristic message crimes targeting entire communities.

Evidence

Awareness of the potential for anti-Muslim hate crime enhances the sense of fearfulness and insecurity of all Muslims due to their group membership. Consequently, the threat of anti-Muslim hate crime impacts upon notions of belonging and cohesion among Muslims, who are reminded of the appropriate alignment of ‘us’ and ‘them’. This shows that Islamophobic hostility affects not only the individual victim but also the community to which victims belong. Indeed, as Perry (2001) points out, hate crimes are ‘message crimes’ whereby a message of hate, terror and vulnerability is communicated to the victim’s broader community. Within this framework, incidents of anti-Muslim hate crime send out a terroristic message to the wider Muslim community. Specifically, the intent of hate crime offenders is to send a message to multiple audiences: the victim, who needs to be punished for his/her inappropriate performance of identity; the victim’s community, who need to learn that they too are vulnerable to the same fate; and the broader community, who are also reminded of the appropriate alignment of ‘us’ and ‘them’. — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 372

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the ‘message crime’ concept from Perry that reframes hate crime as communication to multiple audiences, defining the mechanism by which individual incidents radiate harm.
• XREF: Connects to the definitional debate over Islamophobia — this ‘message crime’ framing treats Islamophobic hostility as a threat to community belonging and cohesion, positioning the text within the critical/Runnymede camp that sees Islamophobia as socially consequential beyond individual prejudice. — connects to: Hate crimes inflict greater harm than equivalent non-targeted crimes. — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 361; Anti-Muslim hate crime harms target victims’ intrinsic identity and reach the whole Muslim community — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 366; Anti-Muslim hate crime functions as repeat victimization, not isolated incidents — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 358 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Anti-Muslim hate crime harms target victims’ intrinsic identity and reach the whole Muslim community #corroborates (0.90) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 366
• Anti-Muslim hate crime functions as repeat victimization, not isolated incidents #expands (0.85) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 358
• Anti-Muslim hate crime creates parallel lives by preventing cross-community engagement #expands (0.80) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 368
• Hate harms bystanders beyond its direct targets #corroborates (0.75) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 286
• Contract theory makes every crime an attack on the whole social body #corroborates (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 146