The American public first linked Islam with terrorism only after the Iranian Revolution.

Evidence

Although the Arab terrorist trope implied a Muslim connection, it was not until the 1979 Iranian Revolution (also known as the Islamic Revolution) and the Iran Hostage Crisis that the American public directly linked Islam with terrorist violence. Following two years of populist protests and strikes, the US-backed shah of Iran was forced into exile in early 1979. Ayatollah Khomeini, who became Iran’s Supreme Leader, railed against Westernization and American imperialism, calling it a plague that was corrupting and enslaving Iran. His revolutionary slogan, “Neither East, nor West—Islamic Republic!,” appealed to lowerand middle-class Iranians. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 669

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: to what extent did the Iranian hostage crisis specifically, rather than earlier events, cement the Islam-equals-terrorism association in American media?
• XREF: connects to: Islam organizations were US allies before the 1979 Iranian Revolution — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 389; The 1979 Iranian Revolution shifted US policy from promoting Islam to denouncing it — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 407