Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream

by Chris Bail

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691173634
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/02/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Christopher Bail is assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

List of Tables xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Acronyms xvii

Chapter 1 1

The Cultural Environment of Collective Behavior 1

How Civil Society Organizations Create Cultural Change 5

The Argument 9

Studying Cultural Change with Big Data 11

Outline of the Book 12

Chapter 2 17

From the Slave Trade to the September 11th Attacks 17

Civil Society Organizations and Islam in Early American History 19

The Middle East Conflict 20

The Emergence of the Mainstream 23

The Foundation of the Fringe 28

Chapter 3 33

The September 11th Attacks and the Rise of Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations 33

Shaping Shared Understandings of Islam in the Media 37

Making the News 38

Why Fringe Organizations Fascinate 39

Studying the Evolution of Shared Understandings of Islam in the Mass Media 42

Islam in the American Media, 2001–3 43

The Fearful Fringe 46

Chapter 4 53

The Rip Tide: Mainstream Muslim Organizations Respond 53

Condemning Terrorism 54

Condemning the Fringe 58

Splintering within the Mainstream 61

Chapter 5 67

Fringe Benefits: How Anti-Muslim Organizations Became Mainstream 67

Fringe Networks 68

From the Fringe to the Mainstream 72

How Fringe Organizations Became Authorities about Islam 76

Chapter 6 87

The Return of the Repressed in the Policy Process 87

Casting Mainstream Muslim Organizations as Radicals 89

Marginalizing Mainstream Muslims from the Policy Process 95

Barack Hussein Obama: The 2008 Election 97

Local Politics and the Growth of Anti-Shariʾah Legislation 99

Training Counterterrorism Agents 104

Chapter 7 109

Civil Society Organizations and Public Understandings of Islam 109

The Struggle to Shape American Public Attitudes toward Islam 110

Using Big Data to Study How Civil Society Organizations Shape Public Understandings of Islam 114

Anti-Mosque Activity 121

Chapter 8 131

The Evolution of Cultural Environments 131

Lost in Translation 133

Lessons Learned 134

The Evolution of Cultural Environments 139

Methodological Appendix 141

Sampling Civil Society Organizations and Press Releases 141

Mapping Cultural Environments 145

Measuring Social Psychological Processes 148

Tracing the Evolution of Culture Using Plagiarism Detection Software 149

Alternative Explanations of Cultural Change 151

In-Depth Interviews 156

Notes 159

References 189

Index 213

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"In this groundbreaking and methodologically sophisticated book, Christopher Bail traces the emergence and proliferation of anti-Muslim organizations from the periphery to the mainstream, describing their influence on the media, public policy, and popular culture. Terrified is a must-read."—John L. Esposito, author of The Future of Islam

"Christopher Bail's book is not only a carefully researched, subtly written, and thorough account of anti-Muslim panic, but an astute demonstration of investigative sociology at its best, combining big data, content analysis, interviews, and the history of a whole ecology of sentiment. Terrified is one of the best studies of media impact in many years."—Todd Gitlin, Columbia University

"This book explains how the media's emphasis on fringe messages and sensational issues has produced a massive shift away from favorable views of Islam to ones where Muslim Americans are viewed as harboring terrorists and supporting harsh Shari'ah law. Terrified is perhaps the most advanced study yet done on what shapes changes in public opinion."—Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania

"In this important and groundbreaking book, Bail uses a rich combination of data to map the efforts of civil society organizations to shape the popular understanding of Islam in the wake of September 11. Empirically rich and theoretically compelling, Terrified will find a large and receptive audience among those interested in September 11, Islam, and the dynamics of cultural change."—Doug McAdam, Stanford University

"Many Americans are terrified of Islam, or at least of a version of Islam portrayed in the mainstream media. As this pioneering and well-researched book demonstrates, the first step to combat this error is to expose its sources. Terrified is a necessary read for all who care about freedom of speech and protection of minorities as foundational American rights."—Bruce B. Lawrence, author of Shattering the Myth: Islam beyond Violence

"Timely and important, Terrified looks at the rise of anti-Muslim beliefs among Americans and policymakers in the wake of September 11. This book offers one of the most incisive analyses of the role of the media in amplifying some voices while muting others in the public sphere."—Francesca Polletta, University of California, Irvine

Editorial Reviews

"Bail quite effectively shows how and why anti-Muslim content and ‘experts' worked their way into positions of prominence, even though they were not well funded or well connected in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Terrified is highly recommended for all levels."

Choice

Winner of the 2016 Distinguished Book Award, Sociology of Religion Section of the American Sociological Association

"Winner of the 2015 ARNOVA Award for Outstanding Book in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research"

Honorable Mention for the 2016 Charles Tilly Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award, Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section of the American Sociological Association

From the Publisher