Nearly three-quarters of US terrorism convictions relied on perceived ideology, not criminal acts

Evidence

In a report titled Inventing Terrorists: The Lawfare of Preemptive Prosecution, lawyers Steve Downs and Kathy Manley analyzed the DOJ’s list of terrorism and terrorism-related convictions from 2001 to 2010. They found that 72.4 percent of the convictions were cases of preemptive prosecution where the “defendant’s perceived ideology and not … his/her criminal activity” was the basis of conviction. About 21.8 percent of the convictions involved people who engaged “in minor, non-terrorist criminal activity but whose cases were manipulated and inflated by the government to appear as though they were ‘terrorists’ ”. In short, a majority of cases were based on a racialized and essentialized understanding of Muslims. Downs explains: … To prove predisposition, the government claims that routine, normal behavior of the defendants—dress, religious observances, Islamic financial transactions, literature, etc.—indicate a “predisposition” to commit terrorism, based on the false stereotype that all Muslims are predisposed to commit terrorism. If they are sufficiently “Muslim,” they are sufficiently “predisposed” [emphasis in original]. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 585

Categorization

• XREF: Provides the hard numeric mechanism evidence for the reader’s MOC question: the specific legal channel (preemptive prosecution) carrying racialization into conviction; do those DOJ charging practices still operate under the Gaza war? — connects to: Americans explain minority terror via religion despite the tiny perpetrator share — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 261; Guilt by association rather than evidence determines suspicion of Muslims in the war-on-terror era. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 332; Terrorism labeling follows political allegiance, not acts of violence — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 413 (+5 more)
• QUESTION: Is the DOJ preemptive-prosecution rate still near 72 percent (or higher) post-2010, and have Gaza-war-era cases inflated it further?
• SEED: A data-backed angle: measure whether the share of ideology-based terrorism convictions has changed across Obama, Trump, and Biden, arguing continuity of the machine.

Broader Connections

• Terrorism labeling follows political allegiance, not acts of violence #corroborates (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 413
• Americans explain minority terror via religion despite the tiny perpetrator share #corroborates (0.88) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 261
• Potential for terrorism frames Muslim men as guilty regardless of actual crimes. #expands (0.85) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1103
• Terrorism explanations via Muslim fundamentalism erase the political roots of militancy #corroborates (0.85) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 896
• Terrorism is framed as irrational fanaticism rather than political response #corroborates (0.82)
• Guilt by association rather than evidence determines suspicion of Muslims in the war-on-terror era. #expands (0.80) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 332
• Muslim Americans bear collective guilt for unrelated Muslim terrorists #expands (0.78) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 346
• Terrorism studies situate the cause of violence in the terrorist psyche, not politics #complicates (0.75)