Real torture crimes mask a prior belief that Muslims are subhuman

Evidence

What lies behind these crimes? This question has received considerably less attention than the crimes (and their aesthetic resonances) themselves. The answer is found in the belief that Muslims are less-than-zero- post-human. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 756

Categorization

• DEFINE: The rhetorical device — a paragraph break held open by an em-dash — plants the shocking claim ‘less-than-zero’ before the page turn.