HON 206 - “Islamophobia: Comparative Muslim Experiences in the U.S. and Europe”
Jenny Withrow, Fall 2013
The Green Scare: A Historical Comparison of the Red Scare and 21st Century
Islamophobia
The increase in Islamophobia in the United States and the passage of legislation that
limits the rights of immigrants and citizens, especially Muslim or Arab-looking immigrants and
citizens, has been likened to the policies adopted by the United States during the Red Scare. The
United States’s “War on Terror” bears many historical similarities to the Cold War, and the rise
of Islam as a threat to the United States has prompted the use of new terms: “Green Scare” or
“Green Peril,” as green is the color of Islam. Islam and Communism, both seen as threats against
democracy and the West, have taken on the role of the enemy of the United States, perpetuating
the dichotomy of ‘us-versus-them.’ Though many similarities exist between the two periods of
history, an important level of analysis is often overlooked when the current Islamophobic
atmosphere of the United States is likened to that of the two periods of anti-Communist and antiimmigrant policies of the U.S. government during the early to mid-1900s. The racialization of
Muslims, and the subsequent racial profiling aspect to discriminatory laws passed to fight the
‘War on Terror’ is essential to compare to the racial profiling of the Red Scare. This paper aims
to analyze the similarities and essential differences between the Red Scare and the “Green Scare”
or “Green Peril” of today.
Deepa Kumar in her book Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire (2012) draws her own
comparison between the current period and the Red Scare. She states, “By the end of the decade,
the turn inward was complete, with the birth of a new ‘green scare’ akin to the red scare of the
Cold War (p. 160).” Kumar details how America’s inward fight against ‘homegrown terrorists’
has created a culture and policy structure of racism and discrimination. While Kumar explains
the current Islamophobic media and policy in the United States, she fails to draw a meaningful
comparison to the Red Scare of the past. Leon T. Hadar in his oft-cited work “What Green
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Peril?” published in 1993, stated: “Like the Red Menace of the Cold War era, the Green Peril green being the color of Islam - is described as a cancer spreading around the globe, undermining
the legitimacy of Western values and threatening the national security of the United States.
Tehran is the center of the ideological subversion, the world’s new Comintern (p. 29).” Written
before 9/11, Hadar’s piece draws on, at the time, a new shift in western attitudes toward the
Middle East and Asia. The Orientalist images of an exotic ‘East’ of the past are being replaced
by the association between acts of terror and Muslims. Today, ‘terrorist’ is almost synonymous
with ‘Muslim’ (Love 2009). During the Red Scare one sees the similarities. The Communist and
Soviet threat to America resulted in many innocent people being labeled as an actual threat
because of their political beliefs or country of origin.
The Red Scare
The Red Scare had two phases: the first was between 1919 and 1921, following the
Russian Revolution and the rise of the socialist worker movement and political radicalism. The
second phase encompassed the period between 1947 and 1954 and occurred after World War II.
The second phase is often referred to as McCarthyism, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy
who lead the crusade against suspected communist spies in the United States. The two periods
were defined by tension and political and social revolutions. The rise of communism and the fear
of its spread (known as Domino Theory) led to the desire by the United States government, and
support augmented by the fear of a large part of the population, to protect America and
democracy from a ‘communist menace.’
The Espionage Act passed 1917, just after the United States’ entrance into World War I,
was an important policy against the threat of communism and enemies of the United States. Its
purpose was to censor anyone from revealing information or creating false statements or reports
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with the intent to interfere with the operation or success of the United State’s armed forces or
promote the success of its enemies.1 The Sedition Act, passed one year later, built upon the
Espionage Act. It made it a crime to "willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal,
profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of the Government of the United States"
or to "willfully urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of the production" of the things
"necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war."2 The same year also saw the passage of the
Immigration Act of 1917. The Act set up three key provisions: first, it excluded illiterate adults.
Second, it created the ‘Asiatic Barred Zone’ which included all people of Asiatic countries
except China and Japan. Third, it excluded members of revolutionary organizations and deported
immigrants who spoke outwardly in favor of revolution or sabotage (Higham, 1956). In 1919,
two anarchists were denied entry, 37 were deported, and 55 were awaiting deportation ("Alien
anarchists," 1919).
The United State’s entrance into World War I in 1917 coincided with a turbulent time of
labor reform and radical ideology. The rise of the popularity of anarchism and communism set
many on edge as anarchist and communist groups began committing acts of terrorism. The most
infamous attempted terrorist attack at the time was the April 1919 discovery of a plot by radical
leftists, including anarchists, to mail 36 bombs to prominent business men and members of the
government, including JP Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes, and Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer. Palmer, furious, ordered the United
States Justice Department to conduct searches and arrest during what would become known as
the Palmer Raids. The Palmer Raids, though supported by the press at their outset, soon lost the
credibility after 12 prominent lawyers came out in protest, calling them unconstitutional (Leiser,
1
2
U.S. Const., amend XVIII18 § 794
U.S. Const., ch. 30, tit. I § 3, 40 Stat. 217, 219
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2007). Palmer lost further credibility when he predicted a government-deposing left-wing
revolution for May 1, 1920 (also International Worker’s Day) that never happened.
Terrorist attacks continued to occur, including a September 1, 1920 bombing of Wall
Street in which 38 died and 141 were injured. Criminal syndicalism laws continued to be passed,
outlawing the advocacy of violence to affect social change and included limitations on free
speech, aggressive police investigations of accused and suspected persons, and their jailing and
deportation (Higham 1956). The interwar period saw the growth of what was known then as
“100-per-cent Americanism” that demanded complete American solidarity in order to preserve
American values (Higham 1956). Created by war, this impulse was fostered by the public’s
belief that there needed to be stricter immigration standards, and eventually helped to create
public sympathy for Japanese internment (Higham 1956). By limiting the number of foreigners
entering the country, many hoped these new laws would stem the flow of potential anarchists and
communists entering the United States.
The Second Red Scare occurred after WWII and is loosely considered finished by 1954.
The Berlin Blockade, the Chinese Civil War, the Korean War, confessions of spying for the
Soviet Union by several high-ranking government officials, and the highly publicized trial of
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg created a culture of fear ripe for exploitation. The most famous figure
during these years was Senator Joseph McCarthy. As the head of the House of Un-American
Activities Committee, he lead hearings of accused spies for the Soviet Union. While he gained
popularity at the beginning for his hard-line approach and highly suspicious attitude, after the
airing of a 1954 hearing of key members of the United States army he lost most of his credibility.
Similar to the Espionage and Immigration Acts of 20 years earlier, The Alien
Registration Act, also known as the Smith Act, of 1940 made it illegal to ‘teach or advocate the
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violent overthrow of the U.S. government.’ Every alien resident over the age of 14 had to
register with the U.S. government detailing their occupational status as well as a record of their
political beliefs. The Act would be used against the American Communist Party following World
War II, basically dissolving it.
Today, the laws and policies of the Red Scare are echoed in the Uniting and
Strengthening America byProviding Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct
Terrorism Act of 2001. The USA Patriot Act follows many of the footsteps laid by the
Espionage, Sedition, and Immigration Acts of the first Red Scare, as well as the Alien
Registration Act (Smith Act) of 1940. The law increased surveillance, legalized the deportation
of non-citizens for their political affiliations and criticism of the government, denied entry into
the United States supporters of terrorism or terrorist activities, and detained non-citizens
indefinitely under suspicion of terrorism (Selod 2013). Much like the laws passed during the Red
Scare, the USA Patriot Act severely limited the rights and freedoms of immigrants and cast a
heavy cloud of suspicion over those who criticized government actions.
The Green Scare
In the United States, both periods seriously hindered the rights of immigrants and
silenced free speech. The prevalence of fear created an atmosphere supportive of discriminatory
law and practices. Today’s Green Scare perpetuates the us-vs-them structure of the Cold War
(Semati 2010). Terrorism is the new communism, and as the anxieties of a communist takeover
had a great political significance in the first half of the 1900s, today anxieties of terrorism especially homegrown terrorism - are resonating politically (Semati 2010; Kahn 2013). This
mentality is echoed in not just the Patriot Act, but also individual states as they attempt to ban
the practice of Sharia law. The reaction of politicians as they moved to push anti-Sharia through
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state courts used the kind of rhetoric found in Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations. By
grouping separate Islamic-majority nations into one monolithic culture of “Islam,” news outlets
were perpetuating an ‘us-versus-them’ mentality that directly excluded American Muslims from
the ‘us’ (Huntington 1993). Yaser Ali (2012) of the University of California at Berkeley stated in
his article “Shariah and Citizenship” that Islamophobia, especially fear of Sharia law, has had
detrimental effects of American Muslims’ participation in politics and identity as they are
constantly presented as the opposition to American values (pp. 1031, 1057, 1066) Much like the
communist, socialist, and anarchist movement of the first half of the 19th century, Islam is seen
as a direct threat to the American way of life. A direct infringement on the first amendment
rights of Muslims to freely practice religion, anti-Sharia bills would also be passed through a ban
on ‘foreign’ laws from being upheld in U.S. court systems (Uddin et.al. 2012).
The prominence of Anti-Sharia Laws, while limiting the first amendment rights of
Muslims, also served as litmus tests for emerging politicians. Kahn (2013) states: “An easy target
given its size and relative lack of political and social capital and capitalizing on a national fervor
described as Islamophobia: the banning of Sharia law has been an effective issue that is
convenient to garner support for political campaigns and elections (p. 136).” As the career of
Senator Joseph McCarthy was made (and eventually ended) by his role in the Red Scare and the
House of Un-American Activities Committee, right-wing politicians capitalized on the national
media frenzy surrounding anti-Sharia laws to gain support. Especially during the presidential
campaign leading up to 2012, many Republican candidates took hard-line stances on the AntiSharia laws. Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, and even Mitt Romney all made statements against
the implementation of Sharia law (Vischer 2012).
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Jenny Withrow, Fall 2013
The Racialization of Muslims
Beyond policy similarities, which many scholars of Islamophobia cite, there was and is a
highly racialized aspect to both the Red and the Green Scares. During the Red Scare,
discrimination was based heavily on country of origin and ideological affiliations. It is easy to
look at race, especially in the United States, as a purely black-and-white dichotomy. Instead, we
even see racism against other ‘white’ people. Stanley Coben (1964) in his study on nativism and
the Red Scare, quotes a 1918 American patriot on his views of German-Americans: “They used
America, they never loved her. They clung to their old language, their old customs, and cared
nothing for ours... As a class they were clannish beyond all other races coming here (p. 60).” The
use of the word ‘race’ in this quote is one based on country of origin and ideological affiliation,
even though a German citizen might be considered ‘white.’ The idea of the racialization of white
ethnics is not new. In Noel Ignatiev’s 1995 work “How the Irish Became White,” he discusses
how Irish-Americans , during their first wave of immigration, had to themselves become ‘white’
in order to accepted in mainstream American society. In the early nineteenth century as the Irish
began emigrating to the United States in larger numbers, they faced a strong backlash of
Nativism of Protestant Anglo-Saxons who wished to limit immigration. They settled in poorer
neighborhoods and lived a similar life as many free blacks at the time (Ignatiev, 1995). His thesis
is that it was only by becoming part of the oppressing class (the whites) by not directly
supporting abolition and distancing themselves from African Americans that the Irish-Americans
became ‘white.’ Irish immigrants had to prove their ‘whiteness’ in order to prove themselves
American (Kolchin, 2002). German and Italians immigrants to the United States during the mid
twentieth century experience this same racialization.
Gerald Horn, a historian who looked at racism during the Red Scare, drew much of his
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research from the blacklisting of many Hollywood directors, many of them Jewish-Americans,
during the second part of the Red Scare. He stated: “They [film industrialists] came under
enormous pressure. They were accused of sheltering communists...This was said to be due to
ethno-religious ties and connections (p. 60).” Racism such as this is not as clear cut as what
many are used to seeing given the long history of racism in black/white relations in the United
States. On the opposite side, other Hollywood directors capitalized on the fears of the Red Scare
to portray caricatures of perceived communists. Robert MacDougall (1999) examined the way
stereotypes of the Japanese during World War II and the Germans were combined to create an
enemy bloc that included both fascists and Soviets: “Red Fascism, as the Soviet system was
often described, appeared to combine the worst features of both the Brown and Yellow Perils.
The bestial savagery and mindless obedience that had been associated with the Japanese, and the
mad ambition and diabolical cunning assigned to the Nazis, were now united in America's
nightmare image of Soviet Communism (MacDougall 1999).” Today the examples of
Orientalism and the association of a ‘terrorist’ with a Muslim are very apparent in the blanketed
way in which people from the Middle East or of Eastern origin, especially if they are Muslim,
are imagined as the enemies of America. Comparing the Red Scare to the Green Scare raises
many important questions regarding how to look at the racialization of Muslims versus the
racialization of communists. Race as a social construct rather than a biological fact leaves room
for analysis in the ways in which certain groups are discriminated against.
Love (2009) explains how Islamophobia is highly racialized: “Islamophobia does not
always target Islam and Muslims per se, but instead takes on the familiar pattern of racial
scapegoating: fear and hatred, prejudice and discrimination toward groups crudely demarcated
primarily by physical appearance (p. 404).” While Love states that Islamophobia also has the
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immigration, political affiliation, and country-of-origin aspects we commonly saw during the
Red Scare, the association of a terrorist with the racial and physical identifiers of Islam or
perceived-to-be-Muslim (such as Sheiks) sets it apart from the Red Scare. This can also be seen
in the media’s obsession concerning whether President Obama is a Muslim or even American at
all (Kahn 2013). Obama’s middle name, color of his skin, and nationality of his father
immediately set him up for challenges to his religion and country of origin. This racialization
falls back on notions of Orientalism and the development of the association between the word
‘terrorist’ and ‘Muslim,’ and goes beyond the political and immigrant status used to identify
threats during the Red Scare.
Perhaps a better period of comparison other than the Red Scare would be the Japanese
internment during World War II, something that other scholars of racism during the Red Scare
have touched upon in greater depth. The combination of media backlash against those of
Japanese descent, including derogatory and inflammatory cartoons, and the political
discrimination and internment provides a better example of the us-vs-them mentality with an
emphasis on racialization and racial phobia. Congress and President Ronald Reagan passed and
signed an apology for the internment, stating that the internment “was caused by racial prejudice,
war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership...” Much like the fear following the 9/11
attacks, Japanese internment played on deep-seated racial stereotypes and targeted Japanese
based on race rather than any ties to political supporters of the nation of Japan during the second
world war.
Conclusion
Though not exactly the same, much about American policy during times of war or
international tension can be learned from looking at the Red Scare in comparison to
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Islamophobia, especially after 9/11. The prevalence of the us-versus-them attitude and the
demonizing as well as collectivizing of the enemy makes it easier for the government to
implement policies that disproportionally limit the rights of immigrants. While different
stereotypes are divined as different groups are targeted, it is clear that the racism involved does
not lie on a clear black/white divide, but rather groups considered enemies of mainstream
America are racialized themselves. As international politics continue to change and immigrants
from around the world continue to migrate to the United States, it is likely that this type of
racialization will shift to include groups currently left out as enemies of the United States are
redefined.
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Works Cited
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Coben, Stanley. 1964. “A Study in Nativism: The American Red Scare of 1919-20.” Political
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Horne, G. (2006). The final victim of the blacklist. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
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Higham, J. (1956). American Immigration Policy in Historical Perspective. Law and
Contemporary Problems, 21(2), 213-235.
Ignatiev, N. (2008). How the Irish became white. Routledge.
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American History, 89(1), 154-173.
Leiser, A. (2007, Oct). A Mitchell Palmer: Red scare infamy. Retrieved from
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Jenny Withrow, Fall 2013
Love, E. (2009). Confronting Islamophobia in the United States: framing civil rights activism
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Semati, M. (2010) Islamophobia, Culture and Race in the Age of Empire. Cultural Studies 24(2),
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Uddin, A.T. et.al. (2012). The First Amendment Analysis of Anti-Sharia Initiatives. Institute for
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Vischer, R. K. (2012). The Dangers of Anti-Sharia Laws. First Things: A Monthly Journal Of
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