The War on Terror birthed new wars and resurrected old ones, emboldening governments to scapegoat their Muslim populations for any political or economic woe, real or fabricated, that troubled their regimes. The Islamophobia reared by the War on Terror blazed a new path for populist movements and the demagogues who led them. They led anti-Muslim campaigns and planted the flag of a “clash of civilizations” atop their nation’s political terrain to stir hysteria, turned their ire and guns on Muslims, and then seized power.

XREF: Relates to the broader discourse on how post-9/11 security policies reshaped domestic politics and minority relations worldwide.

Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamopho…, loc. 292