Liberal anti-racist rhetoric licenses and amplifies far-right conspiracy theories.
Evidence
The dynamic is one where liberal and conservative Islamophobia create fertile ground for right-wing Islamophobia to flower. If the range of acceptable political discussion goes from a differentiation between “good” and “bad” Muslims (imperial ethnocentric racism) to a denunciation of Islam as the driving force of violence (neoconservative anti-Muslim racism), then conspiracy theories that Muslims are a fifth column trying to take over the United States and create an Islamic state find greater resonance. The Ground Zero Mosque controversy demonstrated this dynamic at work. In the context of a Far Right attack using language that harks back to the Crusades, the best arguments from the political class were weak defenses of religious freedom. Instead of taking a principled anti-racist position that states that Muslims are no more to blame for the events of 9/11 than Christians are for the violence of Christian fundamentalists, the liberal establishment chose to question the location of the proposed Islamic center. While less blatant than the rabid Islamophobes who were accusing Muslims of “triumphalism,” such an argument tacitly endorsed collective blame on all Muslims for the attacks on the Twin Towers. Obama further chose to counter the Far Right, raising the specter of suicide bombing, thereby justifying his own security measures. Such “indirect securitization,” however, also essentializes and homogenizes Muslims. Liberal racism of this sort then feeds right-wing conspiracy theories. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 721
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the ‘Overton window’ concept from political science, and to previous chapter material on how ‘good Muslim/bad Muslim’ framing operates. — connects to: Liberal Islamophobia legitimizes and amplifies right-wing anti-Muslim conspiracy theories; Liberal and conservative Islamophobia jointly enable far-right conspiracy theories — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 721; Liberal framing of the good-bad Muslim divide enables right-wing conspiracy theories (+8 more)
- DEFINE: Defines ‘indirect securitization’ as liberal framing that essentializes and homogenizes Muslims while appearing to defend them.
Broader Connections
- Liberal Islamophobia legitimizes and amplifies right-wing anti-Muslim conspiracy theories
#exemplifies(0.95) - Liberal and conservative Islamophobia jointly enable far-right conspiracy theories
#expands(0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 721 - Liberal framing of the good-bad Muslim divide enables right-wing conspiracy theories
#exemplifies(0.90) - Liberal defenses of Muslims feed rather than block right-wing conspiracy theories
#exemplifies(0.88) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 733 - Far-right and liberal anti-Muslim racism are dialectically coupled, not separate phenomena
#expands(0.85) - Denouncing right-wing extremism can license the expression of commonplace prejudice.
#exemplifies(0.85) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 225 - New racist rhetoric lets far-right groups deny racism while demarcating Muslims
#expands(0.80) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 464 - Official green-scare policy creates the terrain on which far-right conspiracy theories grow
#exemplifies(0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 737 - Official rhetoric framing Islam as ideology licensed anti-Muslim suspicion
#exemplifies(0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 864 - Anti-Muslim racism takes reactionary, conservative, and liberal forms in the media
#expands(0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 751 - Both conservative and liberal anti-extremism approaches are forms of cultural racism
#expands(0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 429