The West’s question should be why it fears Muslims, not why they hate us

Evidence

Statistically, Americans are more likely to die from a bolt of lightning than from an act of “terror.” The focus on “radicalized” Muslim Americans serves not to keep the American people safe, but to whip up a sense of fear and paranoia which can then be used to squash dissent and win consent for violations of civil liberties at home and wars abroad. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 32 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Native informants leverage insider credibility to justify Western fears of Islam — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 463; The US needed Islam as a foil to define itself as Western — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 154; Interrogating Western-ness is required to expunge Islamophobia (+7 more)

Related

• The radicalized Muslim threat narrative is a fear instrument rather than a safety measure (similarity 0.88)
• Islamophobia stems from nationalism’s ambiguities rather than fear of Islam (similarity 0.84)
• Islamic challenge forged the collective identity of ‘the West’ (similarity 0.83)
• Muslims are positioned as an external threat against America’s internal enemies. (similarity 0.83)
• The US needed Islam as a foil to define itself as Western (similarity 0.83)
• Fewer than one in a million Western Muslims per year turned to political violence (similarity 0.83)
• Western claims that Islam blocks democracy mask Islamophobic motives (similarity 0.82)
• Radicalization discourse was built to serve counterterrorism policy, not science. (similarity 0.82)
• The roots of Islamic terrorism may lie in colonialism and Western intervention. (similarity 0.82)
• Islamophobia is a largely unwarranted social anxiety about Islam and Muslims (similarity 0.82)
• Islamophobia functions as a screen hiding Western geopolitical responsibility (similarity 0.82)
• Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice (similarity 0.81)
• Religion gets invoked to explain violence committed by a tiny Muslim minority (similarity 0.81)
• Both Americans and Britons held Islam a perennial menace by its proselytizing and violence (similarity 0.81)
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Just as conversions aren’t causing massive demographic shifts, jihadists aren’t causing massive numbers of terror attacks on Western soil. Therefore, it seems clear that Western fears of both… #corroborates (0.70)
• The radicalized Muslim threat narrative is a fear instrument rather than a safety measure #corroborates (0.65) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 32
• Interrogating Western-ness is required to expunge Islamophobia #expands (0.60)
• The US needed Islam as a foil to define itself as Western #expands (0.55) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 154
• Islamophobia has material and political causes beyond ignorance or xenophobia #expands (0.55) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 706
• Islamophobia is driven by state violence rather than mere ignorance #expands (0.55)
• Islamophobia functions as a screen hiding Western geopolitical responsibility #expands (0.50) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 513