Refusing provocation can disarm a staged public attack

Evidence

By not giving in to rage, I foiled his plan, and set the terms of our exchange. “Come speak to me after the question-and-answer period,” I finally responded. That ended his performance, and ended the war he wanted to wage with me. I did it without firing one hostile word. Not a single bullet of rage. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 376

Categorization

• XREF: This echoes the reader’s interest in Islamophobia as spectacle — the provocateur goading the Muslim speaker into embodying the stereotype he wants to project. Links to themes in The Reluctant Fundamentalist where conversation itself becomes the battleground. — connects to: Handing a hostile witness the floor can seal a trap he cannot escape — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 2196