Racist framing of Arabs spans both hardline and liberal camps.

Evidence

Elected representatives in government at all levels have played an instrumental role in mobilizing Islamophobia. Posturing as “tough on terror” is a useful tactic during election season and plays a similar role to the “tough on crime” stance. Numerous politicians in both the Republican and Democratic Parties have resorted to anti-Muslim racism to advance their political careers. While Republican candidates are more blatant in their racist arguments, Democrats too deploy liberal Islamophobia as we saw in the analysis of the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy. Liberal Islamophobes employ a politics of inclusion with the price tag involving an acceptance of empire and a willingness to aid the war on terror. Conservative and right-wing Islamophobes operate on the logic of exclusion such as bans and/or the removal of Muslim symbols from public spaces. Moreover, liberal, conservative, and right-wing anti-Muslim racism do not line up neatly along party lines. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 743 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The new McCarthyites do not operate in isolation from other political and social actors. Rather, there is a dialectical relationship between far-right racism and liberal racism. All these racisms sit on a spectrum with each influencing the other. While the Far Right and sections of the neoconservative camp have forwarded conspiracy theories about Muslims that are obviously and blatantly racist (such as the claim that 80 percent of mosques in the United States promote or support violence, discussed below), establishment liberals put forward arguments that are more subtle but nevertheless racist. The so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy in 2010 is a good case study of the way in which overt right-wing Islamophobia interacts with liberal Islamophobia to produce the “Muslim” as a racialized other. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 641 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Multiculturalist representations of Arabs actually legitimize racism and torture — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race…, 305; Far-right and liberal racisms mutually reinforce each other on a spectrum — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 641; Conservative and liberal Islamophobia are both forms of imperial racism. (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Anti-Muslim racism in politics spans both parties in liberal and conservative forms #corroborates (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 743
• Far-right and liberal racisms mutually reinforce each other on a spectrum #corroborates (0.92) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 641
• Conservative and liberal Islamophobia are both forms of imperial racism. #corroborates (0.88)
• Multiculturalist representations of Arabs actually legitimize racism and torture #exemplifies (0.85) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 305
• Right-wing and liberal Islamophobia both serve imperial racism through exclusion and conditional inclusion. #corroborates (0.85)
• Accommodation versus confrontation of Islamists produce distinct liberal and conservative Islamophobias. #expands (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 380
• Racist and liberal framings can converge by homogenizing guilt onto an entire group #expands (0.82)
• Both conservative and liberal anti-extremism approaches are forms of cultural racism #corroborates (0.82) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 429
• Civil rights history is deployed to legitimate new racism against Arabs #exemplifies (0.80) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 366
• Politicized perception of Arabs stems from prejudice, Zionism, and lack of neutral cultural position #qualifies (0.75) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 99
• Racisms against distinct groups blend and combine without fixed borders. #expands (0.75)