Radicals

Abstract

Chapter 5 is a critical appraisal of media practices that assume conflict rather than peaceful coexistence. It engages the “clash of civilizations” thesis articulated by both Samuel Huntington and the Mujahedeen Team, a Latino Muslim hip-hop group. The assumed media war contributes to both the reduction of Latino Muslims into simplistic binaries, between so-called good and bad Muslims, and also links a so-called Latino nature to radical religiosity. News coverage of Antonio Martinez’s arrest on charges of terrorism placed this problematic practice on full display. Responses by Latino Muslim leaders and organizations, however, often assumed a media war themselves. The chapter recommends that a better approach to “clashes of civilizations” or “cosmic wars” is to deny their very existence or overshadow their discursive relevance with much more complex, diverse, and fluid visions of American diversity.