‘Anti-Islamists small in number, but influential beyond US’

A report on the Islamophobia network in the United States released by the Washington-based Center for American Progress (CAP) has highlighted that although the sources that spread anti-Islam sentiments based on false information in the country are but a handful of people, their influence on American politics and public opinion reach beyond the US borders and reach distant corners of the world as well as extremists, including the Norwegian assailant who murdered 76 people in a matter of hours to underscore his claim that Islam is a threat to the world.

The extensive research, titled “Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America,” was published in August with collaborative efforts by prominent experts of the center on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, which traumatized not only the US but the whole world when planes hijacked by the al-Qaeda terrorist organization brought down the World Trade Center towers, a scene that still haunts the American psyche to this day.

The center noted in the study that the anniversary of the tragic events might be an opportunity for right-wing extremists in the US to manipulate and “to ratchet up the nonexistent threat of Shariah and warn of apocalyptic dangers stemming from Muslims living in America,” while it claimed that the groups espousing anti-Islamic rhetoric were “small but effective,” with a reaching and extending influence over right-wing extremists across the world.

»» Click here to access original source of the report by Center for American Progress

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