The 1979 Iranian revolution and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan triggered the Middle East buildup

Evidence

Not only was the Shah—a key pillar in US policy in the region—defeated, but fifty-two Americans were taken hostage for 444 days. This was a blow to US hegemony in the region, and soon the terms “terrorist,” “fanatic,” and “extremist,” which earlier had been used to describe secular nationalism, were projected onto Islamism. Khomeini came to symbolize all things evil and irrational. As Fawaz Gerges writes, it “was under the impact of the Iranian revolution, then, that Islamism replaced secular nationalism as a security threat to US interests, and fear of a clash between Islam and the West crystallized in the minds of Americans.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 246 (#expands, via linked claim)

As a result of the revolution and the hostage crisis, political Islam increasingly became the object of great suspicion if not outright hostility in US political circles. Islamism was becoming the enemy, the “Green Menace” (because green is the color symbolizing Islam) that would eventually replace the Soviet threat. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 254 (#expands, via linked claim)

Muslims as the threatening “Other” are found not only in the news but also on popular television programming and in films. Arab and Muslim characters have been a part of the American film and television industry’s history from the beginning, though depictions of these characters adapted to the times. With the United States’ rise to global superpower status after World War II, violence and terrorism became central features in representations of Muslims and Islam, mainly because of events in the Middle East that increasingly occupied the United States’ attention, including the establishment of Israel (1948), the Six-Day War (1967), the Arab oil embargo (1973), and the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis (1979–1980). These events, covered extensively by the news media, fed the popular image of Muslims and Muslim-majority regions as sources of anti-Western, anti-American violence and terrorism. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 521 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Middle East buildup was one of history’s greatest base construction efforts; Iran’s 1979 revolution redirected US fear from secular nationalism to Islamism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 246; Iran’s 1979 events made Islamism the coming Green Menace for the US. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 254 (+2 more)

Related

• Iran’s 1979 events made Islamism the coming Green Menace for the US. (similarity 0.89)
• Iran’s 1979 revolution redirected US fear from secular nationalism to Islamism (similarity 0.89)
• The 1979 Iranian Revolution shifted US policy from promoting Islam to denouncing it (similarity 0.86)
• Post-war Middle East events made violence central to US Muslim depictions (similarity 0.84)
• The 1979 Iran hostage crisis made Khomeini the embodiment of Islamic evil to Americans. (similarity 0.83)
• The Iranian Revolution blindsided US Cold War planners. (similarity 0.81)
• Iran’s 1979 revolution shifted the frame from Arabs to Islamism (similarity 0.81)
• The American public first linked Islam with terrorism only after the Iranian Revolution. (similarity 0.81)
• US policymakers treated Islamist movements as allies before the Iranian Revolution. (similarity 0.80)
• Televised Tehran hostage images brought the conceptual threat of Islam into Western homes (similarity 0.80)
• Islam organizations were US allies before the 1979 Iranian Revolution (similarity 0.80)
• US policy was always split between anti-Soviet and anti-Islamist interests (similarity 0.79)
• US-weakened leftists let Khomeini seize leadership of Iran’s revolution (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Iran’s 1979 revolution redirected US fear from secular nationalism to Islamism #expands (0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 246
• Iran’s 1979 events made Islamism the coming Green Menace for the US. #expands (0.60) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 254
• Post-war Middle East events made violence central to US Muslim depictions #corroborates (0.50) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 521