Media shifts terrorism’s cause from religion to sexual-psychological deviance yet keeps Islam as enabler.

Evidence

In their explanations to the public for the criminal involvements of Lindh and Padilla, the media has made one thing explicit: both are converts to Islam. The media has focused on and sensationalized the stories of these two men, constructing a narrative that links violence, criminality, terrorism, and a delusional mental state to Islam; and more specifically, violence committed by Muslim converts is explained through an interlinked narrative of failed heterosexuality. Lindh and Padilla are not necessarily portrayed as homosexual; rather, their trajectory into terrorism is linked to failed heterosexual masculinity. And this supports the larger narrative that the causes of terrorism stem from sexual, as opposed to political, reasons. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1095 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

By contrast, Muslim terrorists were frequently described as angry extremists, motivated primarily if not solely by religion. Speculation on mental health problems was sparse and in most cases nonexistent. When Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad opened fire at a US military recruiting office in Arkansas in 2009, killing one, Fox News reported that “Muhammad was targeting U.S. soldiers ‘because of what they had done to Muslims in the past’ and was angry about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The same report suggested that the shooting “was part of what security experts call an alarming domestic trend” involving Muslim converts carrying out violent attacks in the United States. The New York Times initially focused on suggestions from experts, and even the defense lawyer, that Muhammad “was radicalized by Islamic fundamentalists in a Yemeni prison.” The media’s framing of Muhammad’s attack, like other terrorist attacks carried out by Muslims, reduced the perpetrator to a simple-minded, angry Islamic extremist with no complex motivations or forces shaping his actions other than revenge and religion. The media exerts little effort to psychologize, humanize, or nuance Muslim terrorists in the same manner as white non-Muslim perpetrators. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 506 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Media frames Muslim terrorists as religion-driven simpletons while psychologizing non-Muslim perpetrators — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 506; Market incentives drive the media to reinforce rather than challenge religious explanations of terrorism; Media links terrorism, Islam, and perverse sexuality while ignoring political conditions. (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Media linked Muslim converts’ violence to failed heterosexuality rather than political motives #exemplifies (0.97) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1095
• Media links terrorism, Islam, and perverse sexuality while ignoring political conditions. #expands (0.95)
• Media frames Muslim terrorists as religion-driven simpletons while psychologizing non-Muslim perpetrators #expands (0.94) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 506
• Market incentives drive the media to reinforce rather than challenge religious explanations of terrorism #complicates (0.82)