Indeed, the structural Islamophobia enacted by the Bush administration, and confirmed by media channels “redeployed [the embedded] Orientalist tropes” that Muslims were vile, violent, and bent on destroying the United States. The national security policies of the war on terror were far more than merely protective actions taken to bolster the country’s ability to preempt and prevent terrorism; they were a resounding call to action. They were a call to the broader polity to stand on guard and keep your eyes open, to participate in the national project of defeating terrorism by reporting suspicious activity, to enlist as informants, and, as demonstrated by the horrendous uptick in hate crimes and hate incidents, to take the law into your own hands if need be.

Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Unde…, loc. 294