During the McCarthy era, many Americans under the pretence of the “Red Scare” were accused of communism, or being “communist-sympathisers” and were then thrown the (often unconstitutional) rule book in an aggressive manner, much like the authoritarian, discriminatory “investigations” into Muslim charities under the auspices of the neocon, anti-Muslim William Shawcross, the blatant attack on the Muslims of Birmingham and their local schools by the ideologically-driven, sociopathic neocon Michael Gove. Combined with the heightened sense of fear of an enemy, people were imprisoned without proper evidence.
Some 60 years later, merely decrying someone an “Islamist”, decrees that one is a threat to society, and is societally punished through the tarnishing of his reputation, loss of job and other pecuniary losses. After that, based on the flimsiest evidence, (and indeed, in some cases no evidence at all) he may be detained without trial for several days, his property confiscated, referred through the Channel programme to be “deprogrammed” of his non-conformist beliefs or sentenced to prison. Joseph McCarthy would be proud.
What follows though, would make Hitler and Bill Clinton proud.
In the US, during the Clinton years when Islamic organisations, mainly concerned with campaigning about the ordeal of the Palestinians, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 provided the basis for prosecution of Muslims in American for “expressing an ideology” and allowed the government evidence to be heard in secret detention hearings and trials. Kundnandi (2004), writes,
“It was a power used mainly against Arabs and Muslim Americans.”
CoolnessofHind 