Media portrayal patterns reflect the terrorist attacks of the period studied

Evidence

Al Fajri’s (2019) study indicates that American news outlets depict Muslims as being associated with extremism and terrorism. Still, the author issues a warning to readers, noting that themes of terrorism and extremism dominated the period that followed terrorist assaults committed by extremist Indonesian ”Muslims”. — Muhammad Asad Latif, The Identity of Religion Always Comes Up, 31

Categorization

• QUESTION: If the representation is period-driven rather than fixed, how much of the wider ‘Muslim = terrorist’ finding is an artifact of sampling windows?
• BMF: Echoes Changez’s wary reading of American sentiment in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, where being Muslim is refracted through post-9/11 suspicion—though the link is thematic rather than a specific plot device.