In the past, the targets have been Jews, the Irish, the Chinese, Roma (pejoratively referred to as “gypsies”), LGBTQ people…. The list goes on and on. Each time it has been expedient for a scapegoat or a nonspecific “threat” to be found, morally bankrupt politicians and race-baiters have been happy to do so.

XREF: Connects to broader historical patterns of scapegoating and moral panic theory across societies.

XREF: Connects to broader literature on scapegoating theory and how demagoguery recurs across eras targeting successive minority groups.

Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Gl…, loc. 37