His presidency began with much optimism and concluded with the bitter realization that Obama did not put an end to the war on terror launched by his predecessor, but mutated, modernized, and marched it forward. With a fresh new face, rhetorical smoke signals, and the pacifying effect afforded by his racial identity and strategic deployment of progressive ideas and language, the war on terror was craftily pushed forward for another eight years under the Obama administration, and Islamophobia swelled right alongside of it.

QUESTION: This makes a strong, contestable claim. Worth investigating specific policy evidence — drone strikes, surveillance, executive orders — to assess how Obama's counterterrorism record compared with Bush's.

Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Unde…, loc. 329