Orientalist stereotypes institutionalized in government agencies drive Muslim policing
Evidence
Following 9/11, law scholar Leti Volpp observed how terror attacks involving a Muslim culprit spur the immediate “redeployment of Orientalist tropes.” These tropes are embedded within popular representations of Muslims, such as news coverage or depictions in film. But more saliently, they are embedded within the institutional memory of government agencies, including the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive branch—most notably, in the Department of Homeland Security and anti-terror law enforcement during the protracted war on terror. These foundational stereotypes, which portray Islam as irreconcilable with American values and society and Muslim identity as foreign, subversive, and harboring an inherent propensity for terrorism, move state agencies to enact policies that profile and closely police Muslim citizens and immigrants. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 126
Categorization
- XREF: Names Volpp directly and the stereotype-to-policy causal mechanism; connects to Selod’s surveillance work. — connects to: US counterterror policing imports Middle Eastern sectarian divides into domestic Muslim communities — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 395; Authoritarianism and preference for cultural homogeneity drive anti-Muslim stereotypes. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 253; Orientalism sustains the credibility of preexisting Muslim monster images (+10 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 126
Broader Connections
- Orientalism sustains the credibility of preexisting Muslim monster images
#expands(0.80) - Islamophobia is produced by state action, not only cultural bias
#corroborates(0.80) - State policies authorizing suspicion are the cornerstone of dialectical Islamophobia
#corroborates(0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 136 - Orientalism supplied the pre-existing tropes that the War on Terror redeployed against Muslims
#corroborates(0.75) - Structural Islamophobia and structural racism share embedded institutional stereotypes
#corroborates(0.70) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 130 - Airport profiling of Muslims is systemic and state-institutionalized rather than random
#exemplifies(0.70) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 285 - Authoritarianism and preference for cultural homogeneity drive anti-Muslim stereotypes.
#complicates(0.65) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 253 - Vague state anti-terror cues make citizens rely on stereotypes to profile Muslims
#corroborates(0.60)