For ABC, NBC, CBS, and the upstart CNN (the only major American network that provided twenty-four-hour news coverage), the fact that Hussein was an ardent secularist and alleged pan-Arab nationalist, again, was of no importance. He was dark, Arab, and from a region tethered to the maligned faith of Islam, so he fit the role. News outlets consistently emphasized the Iraqi dictator’s identity as Muslim, shaping the narrative in line with the “clash of civilizations” binary.

Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Unde…, loc. 255