Muslim radicalization discourse was built to serve counterterrorist policy, not to explain terrorism.

Evidence

In the context of the mass multiracial BLM uprisings against police violence in the summer of 2020, Trump declared his intention to designate the anti-fascist political movement Antifa as a terrorist organization. This should not surprise anyone since measures used to control Communists and later the New Left, anti-war, and civil rights activists like COINTELPRO were applied to Arab Americans and later Iranian Americans. The McCarran–Walter Act originally designed to target leftists was expanded to include supporters of Palestinian rights. Whether during the Cold War and the “red scare” or the war on terror and the “green scare,” the imperial state is ever vigilant, seeking to quell insurgency before it can threaten the system. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 643 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Long before this, the Doll is already a marginal figure: certainly beyond the limits of respectability as a sex worker, although “providing a service” in the valorized terms of commodity culture. Falsely accused and pursued, she is ejected from society, becomes persona non grata—another homo sacer and victim of the war on terror. However, the success of the ritual casting out is guaranteed only when ordinary citizens can be made to implement it. The unusual thing about The Unknown Terrorist is that it is a white Australian non-Muslim rather than a Muslim who undergoes this process. The Doll is forced to inhabit the space in contemporary demonology occupied by the Muslim, but in the novel as a whole Muslims are almost entirely absent. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 375 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Radicalization discourse was built to serve counterterrorism policy, not science.; Radicalization theory was designed to serve counterterrorism policy, not truth — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 599; The radicalized Muslim threat narrative is a fear instrument rather than a safety measure — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 32 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The terrorism label is a trans-ideological tool for suppressing dissent, not Muslim-specific #complicates (0.74) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 643
• The war-on-terror scapegoat need not be Muslim to fill the Muslim’s demonized space. #complicates (0.71) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 375