HATE SPIN AND THE ISLAMOPHOBIA INDUSTRY

Cherian George, Hate Spin: The Manufacture of Religious Offense and Its Threat to Democracy (Cambridge, Massachusetts, & London, England: The MIT Press, 2016) ("So far, we've lacked a vocabulary to deal with this double-sided use of offense by the forces of intolerance. I call it hate spin, a term that encompasses both hate speech and its 180-degree-flipped cousin. I define hate spin as manufactured vilification or indignation, used as a political strategy that exploits group identities to mobilize supporters and coerce opponents." Id. at 4. "Constitutional and legal frameworks shape the practice of hate spin. Laws protecting freedom of expression expand the space for hate speech, while those that prohibit incitement restrict it. When the state bans blasphemy or the wounding of religious feelings, this creates opportunities for hate spin agents to manufacture righteous indignation as a political weapon." Id. at 25. "Islamophobia has taken root within a sizable section of American society. [] The ground sentiments that Trump cynically exploited cannot be explained by jihadist terrorism alone. Six months after 9/11, the proportion of Americans who said that Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence was 25 percent. A decade later, in 2011, it was 35 percent. The percentage with favorable views of Islam fell from 41 percent in 2005 to 30 percent in 2010. Oddly enough, therefore, anti0Muslim feeling increased during the lull period between 9/11 and the emergence of IS" [that is, the Islamic State]. "Hate watch groups attribute this rise to a misinformation campaign engineered by a small but identifiable group of agitators on the political right. . . The manufacture of offense and offends by far-right pundits and think tanks is so systematic and self-interested that analysts of intolerance have dubbed them the 'Islamophobia industry.' The term 'Islamophobia' refers to an unfounded fear of Muslims that operates at the individual, psychological level, but that can also be institutionalized as a set of policies and practices." Id. at 140-141.).