civil rights

Demonizing
the Other by arsalan iftikhar

A leading civil rights activist, Arsalan Iftikhar, argues that the rise in Islamophobia is merely the next chapter
in America’s chequered civil rights history

HISTORY OF “NATIVISM” IN AMERICA

he demonization of minority populations in the

T United States is an unfortunate, but all too frequent

chapter in the continuing narrative of American civil
rights history. Although the American Muslim community is
experiencing greater public and legal scrutiny because of
recent events, its status as a targeted group must be seen with-
in the broader context of the struggle for fair and equal treat-
ment carried out by minority communities previously under
the spotlight, including the African American, Jewish Ameri-
can, and Japanese American communities, among others.
The concept of nativism, which refers to the “sociopolitical
policy, especially in the United States in the 19th century,
favoring the interests of established inhabitants over those of
immigrants,”1 began as Irish Catholics emigrating to Man-
hattan were persecuted for their faith and immigrant status
by the Protestant and predominantly Germanic “natives.”
Many Americans were educated about nativism during its
most recent pop culture encapsulation in Martin Scorsese’s
2002 film, “Gangs of New York.”
Nativism in the 19th century evolved into a discourse of
racial marginalization in the 20th century and beyond with
© Ansel Adams / Library of Congress

arsalan iftikhar is National Legal Director for the

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest
American Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United
States. He can be contacted at arsalan@cair-net.org.

42 | islamica magazine issue 17 • 2006

DEMONIZING THE OTHER
Right: Uncle Sam
© Buyenlarge / Time Life Picture / Getty Images
Below: Dr. Seuss cartoon depicting the Japanese
© University of California San Diego Library

the advent of the American version of propaganda and its

ability to marginalize minority populations in the United
States.

WORLD WAR I: THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN PROPAGANDA

The term “propaganda” was originally coined by the Jesuits
in the 17th century as the “name of the Vatican committee
charged with propagating the faith.”2 It did not, however,
become part of everyday international vernacular until the
onset of the First World War, when Western powers began to
use new techniques of “mass advertising” and “public rela-
tions” to rouse popular support for their cause. Not to be
outdone by our European neighbors and allies, our U.S. gov-
ernment entered into the propaganda fray shortly after our
neighbors on the other side of the pond.
At the beginning of the United States’ involvement in
World War I, President Woodrow Wilson believed that he had
only two options on how to handle the publicity of the war. He
could either lean toward a policy of censorship or flood the
media with only pro-war jingoistic propaganda. Since mass
censorship clearly runs afoul of the 1st Amendment protec-
tions of free speech and association, Wilson felt it to be
politically (and legally) prudent to resort to the latter choice.
Wilson created the Committee on Public Information in
1917, better known as the “Creel Committee” (named after
its chairman and pro-war journalist George Creel), which
subjected Americans to a massive campaign of pro-war pro-
paganda and public relations blitzes. It was known to quite a
few historians as one of America’s first governmental propa-
ganda machines. The committee’s pro-war advertising cam-
paigns often depicted the German—“the Hun”—as a
“bloodthirsty savage.”3 But what is by far the most enduring
image of the committee’s work is the “I Want You” recruiting
poster with a stern, finger-pointing Uncle Sam calling on
Americans to join the U.S. Armed Forces.4
After the conclusion of WWI in 1919, there were approxi-
mately 8 million Germans living in the United States, roughly
10 percent of the entire population.5 In addition to the jingois-
tic propaganda freely flowing on the pages of American news-
papers, several legislative and judicial policies were imple-
mented after World War I that in effect discriminated against
those who protested against the war. More specifically, it dis-
criminated against protests that were racially motivated in its
attacks and vilification of innocent German Americans.
German Americans were especially affected by the work of
the Creel Committee, which encouraged dropping German
language instruction in many high schools around the coun-
try. The committee also tried to remove German words from
popular usage, renaming sauerkraut “liberty cabbage,” and

44 | islamica magazine issue 17 • 2006


© University of California San Diego Library
German measles “Liberty measles.” As a more recent paral-
lel, in response to France’s early opposition to the war on Iraq
in 2003, there was an actual (albeit absurd) political move-
ment in America, initially led by Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), to
change french fries to “freedom fries.”
For the safety of their community in the United States,
many German Americans began “Americanizing” the spel-
lings of their last names, for example, changing “Schmidt”
into “Smith.” A Cincinnati, Ohio, city law banned German
pretzels from lunch counters. A Pittsburgh, Penn., city ordi-
nance prohibited the playing of music by German composer
Ludwig von Beethoven in public. In many situations, Ger-
man language textbooks were removed from public libraries
and burned.
WORLD WAR II: WAS DR. SEUSS RACIST?
During World War II, much of the West coast of the United
States, particularly California, had a long history of anti-
Asian sentiment, which culminated into the denial of citizen-
ship (naturalization) to Asian Americans. This was upheld by
the U.S. Supreme Court in Ozawa v. U.S. 6 and the Immi-
gration Act of 1924,7 which barred Asians from attaining
American citizenship.
It should come as no surprise, then, that many Americans
reacted with fear and anger when the Japanese military
attacked the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7,
1941. In the aftermath of that attack, misleading and false
issue 17 • 2006
DEMONIZING THE OTHER
reports of spying and sabotage by Japanese Americans in
Hawaii and on the West coast combined with existing racial
prejudices inflamed feelings of hatred against all people of
Japanese ancestry. Japan’s military victories in Asia and sub-
sequent erroneous reports of Japanese saboteurs in the news
only intensified this racial crisis in the United States.
Similar to the rounding up of American Muslim, Arab and
South Asian males after the 9/11 attacks, within 48 hours of
the attacks on Pearl Harbor, 1,291 Japanese American men
were arrested, most of whom would be incarcerated for the
entire 4-year duration of the Second World War.8
Then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover said that “the decision
to evacuate [Japanese Americans] … [was] based primarily on
public and political pressures rather than factual data.”9
In making far-reaching decisions on how to deal with
Japanese Americans, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
relied on the analysis of Gen. John Dewitt, Commander of
the Western Defense Command, whose infamous quotes in-
clude: “Once a Jap, always a Jap”10 and “the Japanese race is
an enemy race.”11
Because of Dewitt’s racially motivated recommendations,
by June 1942, more than 110,000 Japanese (more than 70 per-
cent of them American citizens)12 had been forced from their
homes to 10 internment camps scattered in the more inhos-
pitable desert regions of the West, where these hundreds of
thousands of innocent souls would be forced to live for the
complete 4-year duration of the war.
Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel is one of the best-selling
American authors. Although now a household name, most
people are unaware of Dr. Seuss’ early years as an aspiring
editorial cartoonist when he demonized Japanese Americans
for major American publications.
Dr. Richard Minear, professor of Japanese Studies at the
University of Massachusetts-Amherst and author of “Dr.
Seuss Goes to War,” says that “Dr. Seuss [drew] ‘Japan’ —
piggish nose, coke-bottle eyeglasses, slanted eyes, brush mus-
tache, lips parted (usually in a smile).
“Perhaps it is no surprise that American cartoonists during
the Pacific War painted Japan in overtly racist ways. However,
it is a surprise that a person who denounces anti-black racism
and anti-Semitism so eloquently can be oblivious of his own
racist treatment of Japanese and Japanese Americans. And to
find such cartoons—largely unreproached—in the pages of
the leading left newspaper of New York City and to realize
that the cartoonist is the same Dr. Seuss we celebrate today
for his imagination and tolerance and breadth of vision: this is
a sobering experience.”13
STEREOTYPES IN CIVIL RIGHTS AMERICA
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sat in a small jail cell in Ala-
bama in April 1963, he wrote to his supporters that, “Injus-
tice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught
in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single gar-
islamica magazine | 45
DEMONIZING THE OTHER
Top left: Racial segregation in the 1950s
© Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Top right: A Japanese family waiting to be re-located to an internment camp
© Dorothea Lange / Getty Images
Above: A segregation ad in the Arkansas Democrat newspaper
© Francis Miller / Time Life Picture / Getty Images
ment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all in-
directly.” Although America is over 40 years removed from
the life of King, his courageous legacy is still a testament for
Americans dedicated to continuing the battle for the equal
protection of civil rights of all Americans, regardless of race,
religion, sex, or socioeconomic status.
Thousands of volumes have been written on the African
American Civil Rights Movement, and a cursory examina-
tion on the demonization of African Americans in our society
would do it absolutely no justice. It is nonetheless essential to
quickly analyze some of the major demonizing trends that
served to empower and strengthen the African American civil
rights community in the United States during the last cen-
tury. There is no other minority in American history that will
ever have to endure the centuries of atrocious societal treat-
ment and demonizing depictions as the African American
community has.
One of the first silent films, “The Birth of a Nation”
(1915), has long been highly criticized for its celebration of
the Ku Klux Klan and its representation of Southern blacks
—played by white actors in “blackface”—as uncivilized
rapists.14 Originally titled “The Clansman,” many of the
movie’s posters depicted a hooded Klansman atop his mighty
horse ready to wreak havoc on his blackface victims.
46 | islamica magazine
“ For the safety of their community in the
United States, many German Americans began
“Americanizing” the spellings of their last
names, for example, changing “Schmidt”
into “Smith.” A Cincinnati, Ohio, city law
banned German pretzels from lunch counters.
A Pittsburgh, Penn., city ordinance prohibited
the playing of music by German composer
Ludwig von Beethoven in public.
”
The blackface minstrel act was a very popular form of en-
tertainment in 19th-century America and continues to have a
direct effect on the stereotypical depictions of African Ame-
ricans in American society. Needless to say, it was also a highly
racist depiction of African Americans, and unfortunately re-
mained for decades in scores of films, television shows, and
print ads depicting African Americans in a subhuman light.
From Aunt Jemima pouring maple syrup on our pancakes
to the famous radio antics of “Amos n’ Andy,” which featured
white actors impersonating blacks, aspects of American pop
culture were derived straight from the racist minstrel acts,
even though they eventually replaced Aunt Jemima’s “doo
rag” with a more modern perm in later years.
9/11 AND THE BIRTH OF ISLAMOPHOBIA
Just as the number of interfaith events and religious dialogues
has increased since the tragic attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, so too
has there been an astonishing increase in the volume of anti-
Muslim rhetoric in certain media and political circles. Again,
this is merely the next chapter of America’s civil rights his-
tory. Just as the Germans were painted as “bloodthirsty
issue 17 • 2006
 DEMONIZING THE OTHER

ISLAMOPHOBIA
Although by no means a total compilation
of Islamophobic remarks made by American
political leaders since 9/11, this sampling of
statements is a revealing assessment of the
hate-filled rhetoric of individuals with significant
influence in American politics and media
PAT ROBERTSON, Televangelist of The 700 Club
• Prophet Muhammad “was an absolute wild-
eyed fanatic. He was a robber and a brigand.
And to say that these terrorists distort Islam,
they’re carrying out Islam.”
(FOX News Channel, Hannity & Colmes, Sept. 18, 2002)

outlets that helps to shape American public

perception today.
ANN COULTER, Syndicated Columnist
• “We should invade their [Muslim] countries,
kill their leaders and convert them to
Christianity.” (TownHall.com, Sept. 14, 2001)
• Coulter also suggested that there should be
a “mass deportation” of Muslims.
(TownHall.com, Oct. 4, 2001)
SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R-GA), United States
Representative (now U.S. Senator)
• “Just turn [the sheriff] loose and let
him arrest every Muslim that crosses
the state line.”
(Associated Press, Nov. 20, 2001)
THE REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM
JOHN COOKSEY (R-LA), U.S. Representative Franklin and Billy Graham
• “If I see someone come in and he’s got a
diaper on his head and a fan belt around
that diaper on his head, that guy needs to be
pulled over and checked.”
(Houston Chronicle, Sept. 20, 2001)
LT. GENERAL WILLIAM “JERRY” BOYKIN
Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence
• “We’re a Christian nation … and the enemy
is a guy named Satan…I knew that my Ann Coulter
god was a real god and [the Muslim’s]
was an idol.”
THE REV. JERRY FALWELL
• “I think [Prophet] Muhammad was
a terrorist.”
(CBS 60 Minutes, Oct. 6, 2002)

• Rev. Graham called Islam, “wicked, violent, Photo credits (from top)
© David Hume Kennerley / Getty Images
and not of the same god.” © Neville Elder / Corbis / Grapheast Jordan
(NBC Nightly News, Nov. 16, 2001) © Alex Wong / Getty Images

Jerry Falwell
box 1
Huns” and Japanese Americans as “the enemy race” after landing on top of a fountain inside the unoccupied
World War I and II, there is a vocal minority in the media and mosque.15 Richley was subsequently sentenced to five
political elite today that has used the aftermath of 9/11 to years in prison for the mosque attack.
smear, caricaturize, and misrepresent Islam and Muslims in • On March 17, 2004 Abbas Salmi and his family filed a
order to advance the “clash of civilizations” theory first lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against Eric K.
coined by the orientalist scholar Bernard Lewis and later pop- Nix for bombing the family’s van in Burbank, Ill.
ularized by Harvard professor Samuel Huntington. According to the lawsuit, Nix threw a large,
Notwithstanding the fact that the list of Islamophobic rhe- mortar-type firework into the Salmi family’s van
toric (see box 1 above) could seemingly go on forever, it is while it was parked in front of their home. The
important to highlight how this discourse is shaping public bomb exploded, causing irreparable damage to the
perception about Islam and Muslims at the grassroots level vehicle and terrifying family members who were at
in the United States. Although these polemicists may see their home, including Salmi, his wife, two small children,
rhetoric as being nothing more than mere political expres- and his parents.
sion, the unfortunate reality is that Islamophobia is increa- In September 2003, Nix pleaded guilty to arson and
singly manfested as anti-Muslim hate crimes and discrimi- hate crime. The 26-year-old was also convicted of
nation. A sampling of the more troubling hate crimes since criminal damage to property in 2001 for vandalizing an
9/11 include: Arab-owned furniture store two days after the 9/11
• On Sept. 17, 2001, a 29-year-old man smashed his attacks.
car through the entrance of the largest mosque in
• On Aug. 5, 2005, Max L. Oakley, 50, of Toledo, Ill., was
Ohio. Police said Eric Richley of Middleburg Heights,
arrested for making bomb threats on the national
Ohio, hurtled his white Ford Mustang at 80 mph
headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic
through the front of the center shortly after midnight,
Relations (CAIR) in Washington D.C. According to

issue 17 • 2006 islamica magazine | 47

DEMONIZING THE OTHER
“ Just as the number of interfaith events
and religious dialogues has increased since
the tragic attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, so too
has there been an astonishing increase in
the volume of anti-Muslim rhetoric in cer-
tain media and political circles.
”
the Religion News Service, Oakley was “accused of
sending multiple email threats to CAIR’s headquarters
in Washington during the early morning hours of July
29. Officers of Washington’s Metropolitan Police
Department’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit
searched CAIR’s headquarters with bomb-sniffing dogs
but discovered no explosives.”16
• On Nov. 9, 2005, 53-year-old Robert Blackburn
allegedly fired more than 50 shots at two cars parked
at a Philadelphia-area mosque.17 When the police caught
up with him, he was dressed in his hunting gear with a
.22-caliber rifle in his car along with several rounds of
ammunition.
“We’re very glad that the ethnic intimidation
charge was held. That’s the main charge that we
were most concerned about,” said Montgomery
County Assistant District Attorney Carolyn
Flannery. “These people were being targeted
because of their religion and that’s something we
just cannot stand for.”18
• In December 2005, CAIR-Cincinnati and other
American Muslims in Ohio called on law enforcement
agencies to investigate as a hate crime the double pipe-
bombing of a Cincinnati area mosque.
“This community must come together. This kind of
criminal activity cannot be tolerated in this community.
That must be made clear,” Cincinatti Mayor Mark
Mallory said during the news conference. 19
CONCLUSION
From the Crusades to the Holocaust, the demonization of the
“Other” continues to play a central role in many global con-
flicts. It is an unfortunate reality that society tends to isolate
ethnic or religious groups that are perceived as foreign or
different, instead of finding common ground with those of
other beliefs, backgrounds, and cultures. In many cases these
groups become the scapegoat for larger problems in society,
and more often than not, this process of vilification and demo-
nization leads to violence.
Almost 1,400 years ago, near the summit over Mount
Arafat in Mecca, the Prophet Muhammad—peace be upon
him—reminded in his final sermon to humanity that, “All
mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority
48 | islamica magazine
over a non-Arab nor does a non-Arab have any superiority
over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor
does a black have any superiority over white except by piety
and good action.”
Lest we forget this message of human equality and plural-
ism rooted in the teachings of Islam, I fear that our global
community will continue down a path characterized by ex-
tremism on all sides. It is time to regain our moral compass
and recalibrate our orientation away from extremism and
polemics. If we fail to succeed in this endeavor and repeat the
historic and monumental mistakes of our past, then only God
can help us. 
references
1 American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition,
2
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=nativism
See www-csli.stanford.edu/~nunberg/propaganda.html
3 “Rallying the Public: A look back at government efforts to ‘spin’ a war,”
by John Hanc. Newsday, Dec. 5, 2001. www.prfirms.org/resources/
news/rally120501.asp
4 Ibid.
5 “Three Centuries of Germans in America,” Dr. Frederick Luebke,
American Studies Newsletter, No. 1. September 1983.
http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/ga-asn0983Luebke.htm
6 260 U.S. 178 (1922)
7 Immigration Act of 1924, 68th Congress. Session I. Ch. 185, 190. 1924
www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/curaaw/aawdoc02.html
8 The Japanese American Legacy Project. www.densho.org/resources/
default.asp
9 Memo from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to Attorney General Francis
Biddle, Feb. 2, 1942. www.densho.org/causes/default.asp
10 Hannah Miller, “Anniversary prompts bleak memories,” UCLA Daily
Bruin, Feb. 19, 1997 www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/DB/issues/
97/02.19/news.internees.html.
11 Final Recommendation of the Commanding General, Western Defense
Command and Fourth Army, to the Secretary of War (Feb. 14, 1942)
(quoted in, Hohri v. United States, 782 F.2d 227, 231 (D.C. Cir. 1986),
vacated, 482 U.S. 64 (1987))
12 www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/ harmony/Exhibit/intro.html
13 Richard Minear, “Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial
Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel,” The New Press, New York, 1999.
14 National Public Radio (NPR), “Revisiting ‘Birth of a Nation’ in Today’s
America,” May 2, 2006. www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?
storyId=5377305
15 See Manuel Gallegas, “Hate Crimes on the Rise” CBS News, Sept. 20,
2001. www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/12/national/main310989.
shtml
16 Religion News Service (RNS) Daily Digest, “CAIR Thankful for Arrest
of Man Who Threatened Bombing,” Aug. 8, 2005.
17 Lesley Van Arsdall, “Montgomery County Man Charged In Mosque
Shooting,” KYW-3 TV, Nov. 29, 2005. http://cbs3.com/topstories/
local_story_333161940.html
18 Ibid.
19 Jenell Walton, “News Conference Held About Bombs At Mosque,”
WCPO-TV, Dec. 21, 2005. www.wcpo.com/news/2005/local/12/
21/mosque.html
This article is based on excerpts of the author’s speech entitled “Media Madness and
Minority Stereotypes” delivered at Harvard University on March 4, 2005.
issue 17 • 2006
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