Suppressing critical Muslim voices is a decades-old component of US statecraft.

Evidence

Islamophobia, although a relatively new term, is anything but a new form of hate. While “Islamophobia” claimed popular purchase before the rise of Trump and gained widespread resonance during the campaign as he called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” Islamophobia long preceded the man who would become the face of it. It is a system that redeploys stereotypes of Muslims deeply rooted in the collective American imagination and endorsed by formative case law, foundational policy on immigration and citizenship, and the writings and rhetoric of this nation’s founding fathers. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 79 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Though Islamophobia has deep roots in both American culture and US society, its vitality in those domains is a result, at least in part, of the state repression of political dissent organized around Islamic symbols and themes. Long before 9/11, the US government was concerned about the possibility that Muslims on American soil would challenge the political status quo. Beginning in the 1930s, this fear resulted in formal government surveillance and prosecution of African American Muslim civil and religious organizations and their members. Organized and state-supported Islamophobia was not confined to the use of state surveillance, local police departments, and the US courts. After World War II, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used mainstream media to prosecute a war of disinformation about Muslim groups, and by the 1960s, engaged in aggressive counterintelligence to repress what it deemed to be the threat of political radicalism among Muslim Americans. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 344 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: State repression, not just culture, sustained American Islamophobia — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 344; Islamophobia predates Trump by centuries as a state-backed system — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 79; American tolerance of Muslims conditioned on their political quiescence and departure. (+5 more)

Related

• Islamophobia predates Trump by centuries as a state-backed system (similarity 0.89)
• State repression, not just culture, sustained American Islamophobia (similarity 0.88)
• Modern Islamophobia is rooted in a 154-year naturalization ban and judicial memory (similarity 0.85)
• State disciplining of Muslim American politics is a decades-long pattern, not a recent development. (similarity 0.83)
• Islamophobia is produced by state action, not only cultural bias (similarity 0.83)
• US statecraft has long disciplined Muslim American political dissent (similarity 0.82)
• Trump’s campaign statement ‘I think Islam hates us’ and his proposed total shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S. constitute vitriolic anti-Muslim rhetoric foregrounded by an unprecedentedly… (similarity 0.81)
• Trump’s anti-Muslim measures continue rather than depart from prior policy (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia is driven by state violence rather than mere ignorance (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia is partly a product of state attempts to police Muslims. (similarity 0.81)
• Trump’s agenda threatened Muslims through surveillance, registry, and civic repression (similarity 0.80)
• Islamophobia’s salience stems from state control efforts, not just culture. (similarity 0.80)
• State policies authorizing suspicion are the cornerstone of dialectical Islamophobia (similarity 0.80)
• Trumpism predates Trump and will outlast his presidency (similarity 0.80)
• The US government manufactured Islamophobia as a disciplinary technique against black political activism (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Islamophobia predates Trump by centuries as a state-backed system #corroborates (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 79
• State repression, not just culture, sustained American Islamophobia #corroborates (0.80) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 344
• Islamophobia is produced by state action, not only cultural bias #corroborates (0.80)
• The War on Terror extended decades of American imperial aggression against Muslims. #expands (0.75)
• Modern Islamophobia is rooted in a 154-year naturalization ban and judicial memory #expands (0.70) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 200
• US administrations used symbolic inclusion of Islam to recruit Muslims into state interests. #complicates (0.65)
• American tolerance of Muslims conditioned on their political quiescence and departure. #expands (0.60)
• Anti-Palestinian racism historically produced Islamophobia in the United States #expands (0.60) — Evelyn Alsultany, Antisemitism and Islamophobia The…, 21