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The repetitive violence put much of the nation on a discriminatory footing against Muslims. Across the country, they were shunned and treated with suspicion, at best. Others were attacked, some viciously. Mosques and Muslim centers were torched. Muslim-owned businesses were vandalized and the targets of arsonists. Many Muslims lived in fear, and those that didn’t harbored uncertainty and anxiety they had never experienced before.
Never mind that the huge majority of Muslims strongly condemned the brutality practiced by al-Qaeda, let alone the barbaric practices of ISIS. Or that the huge majority were loyal American citizens or aspired to be citizens. Too often, the ideals of usually tolerant non-Muslim Americans collapsed under the weight of suspicion or fear or panic or a thirst for revenge. Picking up momentum was the view that Islam was not a religion but a political movement using religious teachings as a front. Embracing that canard made it easy to then ignore constitutional and legal safeguards against religious discrimination.
Fueling intolerance were demagogic rants of unscrupulous politicians and others of influence who crassly manipulated public insecurity to advance their twisted agendas. President Tower issued calls for restraint and calm, while promising to relentlessly track down perpetrators of mass violence. He poured voluminous resources into bringing to justice anyone known to foster violence or to have ties to foreign terrorist groups. To those ends he cast the widest possible net, particularly in cities targeted by an attack. In theory, those efforts should have targeted homegrown terrorism equally, from those of the alt-right to militant survivalists to radical jihadists. But that was not the case.
Dormant campaign promises to crack down on Muslims and those from predominantly Muslim countries came to life. The Immigration and Naturalization Service was issued orders that effectively banned Muslim immigrants, including students, visitors and those with work visas. Federal agencies created joint task forces to round up and expel Muslims for the flimsiest of reasons, relying on sympathetic judges who found their dockets overflowing. Executive action was supplemented by harsh legislative remedies handed down by a Congress where nativist conservatives ruled.
Other immigrants, particularly Hispanics, also came under increased scrutiny. Only because illegal Hispanics numbered in the millions, and were so important to the economy, did they have a limited buffer against the harshest enforcement efforts of the vast federal bureaucracy.
The country was rapidly moving toward isolationism and, at the same time, federal policing that clearly skirted – or violated – the Constitution. Those priorities, though bearing pregnant seeds of repression, had disturbingly wide support. Polls showed a majority of people ready to take restrictive measures against Muslims, be they American citizens or in the immigration pipeline. There were calls for a constitutional amendment to permanently ban Muslims from immigrating. Calls, too, for wholesale deportation of illegal immigrants, whole families, men, women and children, Muslims as well as others. Monitoring or scrutinizing activities of mosques in clear violation of Constitutional religious rights had alarming support. With public anxiety at a fever pitch, the potential for political gain was too appetizing for demagogues to resist. Not since Senator Joe McCarthy, with his witch hunt for communists in the 1950s, and Alabama Governor George Wallace, playing the race card in the 1960s, had the country seen such shameless efforts to inflame the public’s ugliest passions.
Outnumbered voices waved red flags against policies condemning an entire religion. They warned that fear-mongering and incendiary political rhetoric would spark formation of hate groups targeting Muslims and other minorities. Indeed, during the just-past presidential campaign, the number of fascist and similar groups had nearly tripled. Outnumbered voices warned against the U.S. failing its constitutional and legal responsibilities to minorities. They pointed out that minorities were on an unstoppable demographic path to the majority, and that trying to recapture a monolithic culture was a futile dream. They warned against casually throwing away a proud heritage – regardless of its admittedly ignoble stains – that had long survived as a beacon to oppressed people in all corners of the world.
Those voices argued that the world was complex, not easily or skillfully or humanely negotiated with sloganeering and simplistic solutions. Most specifically, they predicted that a global backlash would be unleased if Muslim extremists could point to the U.S. blatantly practicing discrimination and prejudice. Recruiting for radical jihad would be the clear beneficiary, both at home and abroad. All those warnings, and more, were made, loud and clear, and too many Americans chose to ignore them.
Both sides all too often took to the streets with competing demonstrations that further incited and divided a frightened public. Happy to participate, on both sides, were anarchists and other activists who found benefit in violence. In that climate, police too often lost control. Abuses were inevitable, often against blacks, and riots broke out in several cities.
Even when terrorist attacks – and demonstrations and demagogic rhetoric – lessened, anxiety remained high, the potential for fresh outbreaks of violence just beneath a simmering surface.
Most Muslims held to their faith and their love of country. There were those, however, whose views hardened against the United States. They took many paths, from harboring or supplying extremists to actively joining their ranks. Those who chose violence found it becoming easier and easier to coordinate with the international movement.