Over half of sampled editorials naturalize Islamophobia as a spontaneous social phenomenon.

Evidence

Additionally, the findings showed that 51.3 percent of editorials described Islamophobia as a natural phenomenon, emphasizing the hidden mechanisms at work in society to foster such views. These findings align with the Hockenos (2011) research, which demonstrated how the European media depicted Islam as a xenophobic religion in order to legitimize the spread of anti-Islamic sentiments throughout Europe. … Every newspaper has a crucial but independent role in determining whether Islamophobia spreads more quickly or less widely (See RQ 4). — Muhammad Asad Latif, The Identity of Religion Always Comes Up, 98

Categorization

• CANDY: A crisp, quotable statistic: 51.3 percent of editorials treated Islamophobia as a natural phenomenon rather than a produced one.
• XREF: Connects to media-framing literature on how journalism legitimizes prejudice by naturalizing it.
• SEED: Angle: ‘When Bigotry Gets Called Natural’ — how the word ‘natural’ does rhetorical work in editorial pages.