Terrorism-baiting

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Terrorism-baiting is a neologism, coined as a parallel to Red-baiting, referring to the practice of trying to discredit critics of the United States' current Middle Eastern foreign policy by falsely asserting that the critics are in league with, duped by, or otherwise sympathetic to terrorists. As with Red-baiting, the term can be used fallaciously, particularly when used with regard to actual terrorist sympathizers such as Ward Churchill, Fahad Hashmi, or Anjem Choudary of Islam4UK.

Terrorism-baiting is largely performed by right-wing elected officials[1] and spokespeople for conservative groups, which means that the targets of it are mostly those who are disfavored by the right-wing, specifically leftists and Muslims.[note 1]

Examples of terrorism-baiting are:

  • Representative Chip Cravaack's (R-MN) denouncing the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a terrorist group during the March 2011 hearings held by known sympathizer of the terrorist Provisional Irish Republican Army, Representative Peter King (R-NY,[2] on the 'radicalization' of American Muslims.[3]
  • Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens’s May 24, 2011 accusation that the Georgia State Progressive Student Alliance was being manipulated by terrorists when it made a public records request for information about Georgia State University’s Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) program.[4][5]
  • Green-baiting can sometimes involve terrorism-baiting, as environmental advocates are often portrayed as members of ecoterrorist organizations like ALF. Fossil-fuel funded companies such as the Heartland Institute have also used this tactic.

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Especially Muslims, as Western conservatives tend to have difficulty with comprehending the fact that Muslims in general are not a tribe of bloodthirsty maniacs.[citation NOT needed] (They also tend to get "Muslim" and "Arab" mixed up.[citation NOT needed])

References[edit]