Muslim women are simultaneously attacked and pitied as victims needing rescue

Evidence

The gendering of terrorism is explicit in the stereotypes of male Muslim terrorists, who by definition must be suppressing Muslim women. Oddly, the American news media condemn Muslims for being homophobic (as in the Abu Ghraib scandal), at a time when homosexuality continues to be denounced by leading American political and religious leaders. Yet, Muslim women, whose voices are rarely sought out, are regularly both attacked in anti-Muslim hate crimes and viewed with pity as victims who need to be saved from their own religion. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 48

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Direct follow-up material for the reader’s ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ article: veiled women as the object of both attack and pity-saviorism echoes the moral-panic-over-dress theme.