Anti-Arab Racism in the USA : Where It Comes From and What It Means For Politics Today

Using a mixture of analysis, theory, polemics, and personal narrative, "Terrifying Patriotism" examines a variety of popular media to illustrate that anti-Arab racism is pervasive in the United States, in both neoconservative and progressive discourses.

In the book, Salaita argues that a longstanding American racism against numerous minority groups has allowed anti-Arab racism to flourish after 9/11, although it also existed quite visibly before 9/11.

Offering countless examples of anti-Arab racism it analyzes how the racism affects foreign policy, human rights, neoconservative politics, religious fundamentalism, capitalism, university instruction, patriotism, the Arab American community, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Abu Ghraib scandal, the occupation of Iraq, the presidential election, and the progressive movement.

It concludes that anti-Arab racism has been crucial to the formation of policy issues of great national import (e.g., the Patriot Act and the invasion of Iraq) and has become a subject that those interested in social justice can no longer afford to ignore.