One of the foundation stones of Islamophobia in conservative circles is, somewhat paradoxically, a book about Japanese-American internment in World War II, by Michelle Malkin. You can read  excerpts from her book online at Google books. Her book is rife with academic errors and selective sourcing – her entire argument was factually debunked, comprehensively and systematically by historians and law professors. The complete rebuttal runs 29 blog posts long.

So, suffice to say that Malkin’s basic historical premise is factually devoid of merit. Why did she write the book in the first place, though? The answer reveals itself in her writings – she is one of FAIR.org’s “Smearcasters” who portray Islam as a fundamental threat to Western values and civilization. She believes Islam is fundamentally hostile to American values as a matter of inherent doctrine, It’s not hard to connect the dots between her book, which lays out a case for dealing with a “fifth column” domestic threat, and her blog/writing, which describes American Islam in exactly those terms. Malkin includes a CYA statement in the introduction about the book not being a direct call to internment of Arabs or muslims, but one look at the cover, with a picture of Mohammed Atta (lead villain of the 9-11 attacks), reveals her intentions as clear as day.

In a nutshell, Malkin is creating what she hopes to be a foundation and precedent for internment of American muslims. There’s more to Islamophobia than rhetoric. There’s an instruction manual.