Monsters and Children: How Politicians Talk About Muslims and Islam
I have a new piece out in Foreign Policy, "Monsters and Children: How Politicians Talk About Muslims and Islam."
The power centers in American politics, both left and right, have grown increasingly counterproductive in their attitudes toward Muslim Americans.
On the right, embodied in comments by Republican presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich, Muslims are treated largely as monsters, a seething mass of people who do not share American values and could, at any moment, establish a Taliban-style theocracy right here in the United States.
On the left, as epitomized by President Barack Obama's new strategy, Muslims are treated as children who cannot be left to their own devices, who must be carefully tutored in proper behavior but not made to feel like they are singled out, lest someone pick on them.
Read the whole piece here.
For more about homegrown violent extremism, check out J.M. Berger's new book,
Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, on sale everywhere.
Labels: CVE, homegrown-terrorism
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