George W. Bush’s Efforts to Dampen Anti-Muslim Anger After 9/11
When false rumors spread in the 1830s that Catholic priests had imprisoned a young woman in a Boston convent, a mob came and burned down the building. When false rumors spread during World War II that Jehovah’s Witnesses were plotting with the Nazis, Witnesses were beaten and castrated. When false rumors spread in 1838 that Mormons were plotting to take Missourians’ land, they were massacred. So when the accurate news was reported in the days and weeks after September 11,…