Terrified How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream
Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream

In July 2010, Terry Jones, the pastor of a small fundamentalist church in Florida, announced plans to burn two hundred Qur'ans on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Though he ended up canceling the stunt in the face of widespread public backlash, his threat sparked violent protests ac...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bail, Chris (Author)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press [2014]
Edition:Pilot project. eBook available to selected US libraries only
Subjects:
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology of Religion
Corporations > Religious aspects
Corporations > United States > Religious aspects
Islam > Public opinion
Islam > United States > Public opinion
Islam
Islamophobia > United States
Islamophobia
Online Access:DE-1046
DE-1043
DE-858
DE-859
DE-860
DE-739
DE-473
Volltext
Summary:In July 2010, Terry Jones, the pastor of a small fundamentalist church in Florida, announced plans to burn two hundred Qur'ans on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Though he ended up canceling the stunt in the face of widespread public backlash, his threat sparked violent protests across the Muslim world that left at least twenty people dead. In Terrified, Christopher Bail demonstrates how the beliefs of fanatics like Jones are inspired by a rapidly expanding network of anti-Muslim organizations that exert profound influence on American understanding of Islam.Bail traces how the anti-Muslim narrative of the political fringe has captivated large segments of the American media, government, and general public, validating the views of extremists who argue that the United States is at war with Islam and marginalizing mainstream Muslim-Americans who are uniquely positioned to discredit such claims. Drawing on cultural sociology, social network theory, and social psychology, he shows how anti-Muslim organizations gained visibility in the public sphere, commandeered a sense of legitimacy, and redefined the contours of contemporary debate, shifting it ever outward toward the fringe. Bail illustrates his pioneering theoretical argument through a big-data analysis of more than one hundred organizations struggling to shape public discourse about Islam, tracing their impact on hundreds of thousands of newspaper articles, television transcripts, legislative debates, and social media messages produced since the September 11 attacks. The book also features in-depth interviews with the leaders of these organizations, providing a rare look at how anti-Muslim organizations entered the American mainstream
Item Description:Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)
Physical Description:1 online resource (248 pages)
ISBN:9781400852628
DOI:10.1515/9781400852628

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