Media imagery conflated Khomeini with all of Islam despite his minority Twelver Shi’a sect.

Evidence

Stereotypes of Islam as totalitarian, backward, and hostile were deeply embedded in the American imagination, supported by news coverage that regularly showcased airplane hijackers from the Middle East, angry mobs of Arabs collecting in city squares shouting at the camera, and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini—whom the media and policy positioned as the symbol of the faith at large (although he presided over one nation and was a member of a minority sect of Islam, Twelver Shi’ism) shouting on television, “Death to America, the Great Satan.” Indeed, “at the end of the Cold War, Islam became deeply entangled in America’s most recent search for a national identity” and was anointed as its new rival in the formation of this new identity. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 225

Categorization

• DEFINE: Identifies that Khomeini belonged to Twelver Shi’ism, a minority sect of Islam — correcting the monolith conflation.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 225
• XREF: connects to: The 1979 Iran hostage crisis made Khomeini the embodiment of Islamic evil to Americans. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 248; The ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ discourse was born from a media-driven agenda around Khomeini’s Iran — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 219

Broader Connections

• The 1979 Iran hostage crisis made Khomeini the embodiment of Islamic evil to Americans. #corroborates (0.70) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 248