Positive rhetoric, prejudiced policy: the contradiction of Islamophobia in American government after 9-11.

Abstract

Following the tragic terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, local and national leaders responded to the security crisis by uniting the country under the American ideals of freedom and democracy while condemning the Islamic terrorist group responsible. With beliefs rooted in historical American and European prejudice, Western scholarship promoted a “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West wherein the cultures’ supposed irreconcilable differences would inevitably lead to warfare. Simultaneously, many Americans grew suspicious of Muslims after the attacks, including government officials. As hate crimes against Muslim and Middle Eastern Americans soared in the U.S., government leaders used positive rhetoric to discourage violence and further unite the country’s citizens. At the same time, however, these leaders implemented discriminatory policy and law enforcement practices like the U.S. Patriot Act that disproportionately targeted Muslim immigrants and citizens from Muslim-majority countries in the name of counterterrorism. These Islamophobic sentiments and policies have only continued to grow under the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, with hate crimes and anti-Muslim sentiment once again skyrocketing in 2016. This powerful disconnect between governmental rhetoric and policy has allowed for decades-long discrimination against Muslim and Middle Eastern citizens to continue to this day