As the AVOT statement makes clear, it is not simply the violent section of the Islamist movement that they wish to “research,” but “Islam and Islamism” as a whole. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that simply being a Muslim makes you worthy of suspicion, according to this logic. Drawing a page from the McCarthyist playbook, Gaffney was one of many who claimed that Obama might be a “secret Muslim.” The implication, of course, is that being a Muslim is sufficient cause for not trusting him.

XREF: Parallels McCarthy-era guilt-by-association tactics against suspected communists, drawing a direct historical analogy.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 540