Richard Jackson describes how states deliberately construct extreme threats from the outside in order to justify disciplining the domestic populace. Moral panics and folk devils provide a ready means to achieve this construction. Moreover, "some fears are better than others for politicians, because some fears—such as the fear of being without health care or employment—are not amenable to quick-fix solutions and carry the risk of policy failure. The fear of terrorism, on the other hand, is perfect for the authorities because it is ubiquitous, catastrophic, opaque (reliant on government control of secret information) and rooted in deep cultural anxieties"

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 854