The government’s fear of Islamic political movements after World War II shows the ways in which state power was inscribed and enforced in this period. Islamophobia became a form of government discipline that utilized propaganda, violence, and fear. There was irony in the fact that the government frequently accused Muslims, especially the NOI, of fomenting a race war, when it was the government that actively fashioned Islam as a threat to US domestic peace, international relations, and civil rights. Though government interference in the practice of Islamic religion was limited by US law during World War II, new legal and extralegal techniques were used to discredit the practice of Islam among black Americans after World War II. Restricting the religious freedoms of Muslims, manipulating mainstream media, stoking violent conflict among African American organizations, and even trying to break up marriages, the Department of Justice and the FBI reached into the heart of US society to create hatred of and between Muslim Americans.

XREF: Connects to surveillance-and-dissent historiography, from COINTELPRO tactics to Red Scare-era disciplining of activist groups. QUESTION: What specific legal and extralegal techniques did the FBI and DOJ deploy, and how did courts receive challenges to them?

Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ Th…, loc. 399