Terrorism racialization evolved from Arabs to Iranians and South Asians from the late 1960s

Evidence

In the postwar era, a new process of racialization was born, tied to US imperial ambitions in the MENA region. Scholars in the field of Arab American studies have shown that starting in the late 1960s, Arab Americans were turned into a threatening race of people. Drawing on this work, I argue that terrorist racial formation is an evolving project that goes from a focus on Arabs to include Iranians and later South Asians. It was the crisis of empire and the use of counterinsurgency methods to handle threats abroad and at home that gave rise to the global “Arab terrorist,” produced in conjunction with Israel. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 215

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Pre-1970s Muslim-targeted discrimination belonged to older white-supremacy systems; Postwar empire-building and the Israel partnership produced the racialized Arab terrorist category — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 91; The Arab terrorist figure predates and evolves into the Islamic terrorist. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 97 (+16 more)

Broader Connections

• Muslim racialization in America predated the September 11 attacks #corroborates (0.85)
• Renewed Muslim immigration shifted Islam’s racialization from Black radicals to Brown aliens #expands (0.85) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 246
• The War on Terror racially constructed Muslims as terrorists. #corroborates (0.80)
• Religious identity racializes Arab and South Asian Muslims along shared lines #corroborates (0.80)
• No enemy-state immigrant group lost its social standing faster than Iranians #corroborates (0.80) — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 89
• The INS prepared an internment camp for Arabs and Iranians in 1986 #exemplifies (0.80)
• The War on Terror globally embedded a racialized terrorist stereotype of Muslims #qualifies (0.75) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1120
• State-perpetuated fear racializes Muslim bodies as terrorist enemies #expands (0.75)
• Muslim racialization developed relationally with other minority racializations. #expands (0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 833
• American media conflated Iranians, Arabs, Sunnis, and Shiites into one Muslim menace. #expands (0.75) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 254
• Conversion to Islam fused Black radicalism and foreign menace in white 1960s imagination #qualifies (0.72) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1055
• American casting conflates Arabs and South Asians into a single racialized Muslim figure #exemplifies (0.72)
• Citizens conflate Muslim nationalities so South Asians get slurred as Arab #expands (0.70) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 259