Modern-day McCarthyism

Certain national and international events concerning Muslims have raised the question of McCarthyism. As I discussed in Chapter 2, some groups were considered as the ‘Other’ when they posed a racial or security threat. Under that ‘Othering’ practice sometimes mainstream Americans also came under government scrutiny. In the 1950s Senator Joseph McCarthy employed Senate-sanctioned hounding of Americans suspected of communism or socialism. ¹ McCarthy’s suspects included mainstream Americans who were viewed as communists, ex-communists and communist sympathisers. About one-third of the witnesses were ‘grilled in closed-door hearings’. ² The accused people were mostly celebrities. They tried to avoid public sessions. However, McCarthy humiliated them by stepping into the hallway after the witness left from the closed session, and giving his version of what had happened in the executive session. Critics said that this was McCarthy’s way of controlling public perceptions. Critics considered that McCarthy’s closed-door hearings were clearly un-American acts. ³ In this chapter, I discuss the continuation of the practice of McCarthyism by different actors (politicians and other people with vested interests) and agencies (political parties, think tanks, law enforcement and national security agencies and the media) over American Muslims. This study considers the word ‘un-American’ with its ‘historical link with the McCarthy-era political witch-hunt for domestic enemies’. ⁴ I examine a series of national and international incidents generally involving Muslims in America and in some cases Muslim countries where the words American, un-American and McCarthyism have been implied. I first discuss the views of some participants of this study on what it means to be American or un-American. Second, I examine some politicians’ rhetoric that targeted American Muslims. Third, I discuss the surveillance of American Muslims by US law enforcement agencies. Finally, I examine participants’ perception of the Bush and Obama administrations within the framework of the American and un-American debate and evaluate the prevalence of modern-day McCarthyism.