While Craig Hicks's murder of the three Muslim students is generally framed as a deviant act committed by one deviant actor entirely divorced from the state, dialectical Islamophobia reveals an underlying thread that connects the (seemingly) deviant actions of hatemongers like Hicks with the state's repeated message that Muslim identity alone is grounds for suspicion that justifies vigilante action by private citizens. If the law is laden with damaging stereotypes of Islam and Muslims, and American citizens are expected and instructed to obey the law, the dialectic between the state and the citizen—and the hostility the state authorizes—is made clear.

DEFINE: Explains 'dialectical Islamophobia' as a framework linking state messaging to citizen actions against Muslims. Builds on: "State institutions authorize and reinforce individual Islamophobic violence."

Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Unde…, loc. 137