Powell's study concludes that white, non-Muslim men who commit domestic terrorism or other mass shootings are frequently described as being 'mentally unstable,' whereas Muslim terrorists are…

Powell’s study concludes that white, non-Muslim men who commit domestic terrorism or other mass shootings are frequently described as being ‘mentally unstable,’ whereas Muslim terrorists are frequently described as angry extremists who are motivated primarily, if not solely, by religion.

Evidence

By contrast, Muslim terrorists were frequently described as angry extremists, motivated primarily if not solely by religion. Speculation on mental health problems was sparse and in most cases nonexistent. When Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad opened fire at a US military recruiting office in Arkansas in 2009, killing one, Fox News reported that “Muhammad was targeting U.S. soldiers ‘because of what they had done to Muslims in the past’ and was angry about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The same report suggested that the shooting “was part of what security experts call an alarming domestic trend” involving Muslim converts carrying out violent attacks in the United States. The New York Times initially focused on suggestions from experts, and even the defense lawyer, that Muhammad “was radicalized by Islamic fundamentalists in a Yemeni prison.” The media’s framing of Muhammad’s attack, like other terrorist attacks carried out by Muslims, reduced the perpetrator to a simple-minded, angry Islamic extremist with no complex motivations or forces shaping his actions other than revenge and religion. The media exerts little effort to psychologize, humanize, or nuance Muslim terrorists in the same manner as white non-Muslim perpetrators. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 506 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Powell’s study also claims that the media is much more likely to blame religion for the actions of Muslim terrorists than for white non-Muslim terrorists. This is evident in CNN’s description of Luke Halder, a university student who set off pipe bombs throughout the Midwest in 2002, as ‘an intelligent young man with strong family ties’ and the media’s speculation that his actions were motivated by mental instability.; Muslim male violence is framed as an innate Islamic or racial impulse; Media frames Muslim terrorists as religion-driven simpletons while psychologizing non-Muslim perpetrators — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 506 (+6 more)

Related

• Powell’s study also claims that the media is much more likely to blame religion for the actions of Muslim terrorists than for white non-Muslim terrorists. This is evident in CNN’s description of… (similarity 0.93)
• Media frames Muslim terrorists as religion-driven simpletons while psychologizing non-Muslim perpetrators (similarity 0.91)
• Muslims are uniquely cast as counterterrorism soldiers while white Americans never are (similarity 0.84)
• Muslim-perpetrated attacks receive dramatically disproportionate news coverage (similarity 0.83)
• The media codes only certain groups’ violence as religiously motivated (similarity 0.83)
• Radicalization discourse was built to serve counterterrorism policy, not science. (similarity 0.83)
• Terrorist racialization is gendered, targeting men differently than women (similarity 0.83)
• Only Muslim violence is read as caused by the perpetrators’ religion (similarity 0.82)
• Masculine Islamophobia frames Muslim men as imminent threats of violence (similarity 0.82)
• White supremacist violence is analyzed without racial profiling theories. (similarity 0.82)
• Terrorism and extremism are treated as exclusive to Islam (similarity 0.82)
• Terrorism is a racial construct that excludes white freedom fighters (similarity 0.81)
• Media coverage of Muslim violence superficially supports an Islam-violence link (similarity 0.81)
• Terrorism declined while mass shootings rose, yet only Muslims faced surveillance (similarity 0.81)
• Clash of civilizations framing located terrorism’s cause within Islam itself (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Media frames Muslim terrorists as religion-driven simpletons while psychologizing non-Muslim perpetrators #corroborates (0.95) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 506
• Muslim male violence is framed as an innate Islamic or racial impulse #corroborates (0.85)
• Whiteness is categorically dissociated from the label of terrorism regardless of evidence #corroborates (0.70)
• Terrorism is a racial construct that excludes white freedom fighters #expands (0.65)
• Masculine Islamophobia frames Muslim men as imminent threats of violence #corroborates (0.60)
• The War on Terror racially constructed Muslims as terrorists. #expands (0.60)
• Clash of civilizations framing located terrorism’s cause within Islam itself #corroborates (0.55) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 266
• Terrorist racialization is gendered, targeting men differently than women #expands (0.50)