Post-1979 US media negativity and 1990s antiterrorism law intensified discrimination against Muslims and Sikhs.

Evidence

After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, US media coverage of Muslims became increasingly negative, which heightened discriminatory attitudes. In the 1980s, stereotypical images of the “terrorist” were applied to Middle Eastern communities, including Muslims and Sikhs.8,11 In 1996, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act led to investigation of Muslim American social activity and to the deportation of Muslims with links to terrorist activity. — Goleen Samari, Islamophobia and Public Health in the…, 12

Categorization

• XREF: The lumping of Sikhs into the ‘terrorist’ stereotype parallels how the Lex Oppia-era moral panics folded unrelated groups into one stigmatized category.

Related

• The American public first linked Islam with terrorism only after the Iranian Revolution. (similarity 0.80)
• Anti-Muslim sentiment is shifting from terror fear to cultural-threat framing (similarity 0.78)