Episode 238: The Fictional, Racist, Paranoia-Sowing "Sleeper Cell" Media Construction
"Chasing the Sleeper Cell" was the title of a multipart Frontline and New York Times series in October 2003. "Sleeper Cells Waiting To Strike?" asked a CBS News report in June 2005. And immediately following the recent Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran, we saw many of these headlines return in early March 2026: "Hezbollah, Hamas sleeper cell fears raised amid Iran strikes," alerted Fox Business. "Iran's threats on U.S. soil: sleeper cells, lone wolves, cyberattacks and eerie numbers code," warned The Los Angeles Times.
For decades, and especially since 9/11, news and pop cultural media have exposed the US–and more broadly, the “Western”--public to a torrent of alarmism over so-called “sleeper cells.” The story usually goes something like this: Terrorists, almost always “Islamic” and hellbent on destroying “the West,” could be embedding themselves in everyday society, hiding at parades, grocery stores, or shopping malls, with the intent of launching a surprise attack on unsuspecting, innocent people – people just like you.
And now, amid the US and Israel’s latest war of aggression, we’re told seemingly incessantly to be vigilant as Iran supposedly threatens the world with its own network of “sleeper cells.” But even the most superficial examination of these claims quickly shows that there’s no evidence whatsoever to support them, nor are they in any way grounded in logic or reality. Our media refuses to ask basic questions like: What, exactly, is supposed to “activate” a “sleeper agent”? What does this even mean?
Iran doesn’t do ISIS-like attacks on civilians, why would they hit military targets in the US when they can do so so close to home? With American sentiment overwhelmingly opposed to this war, why would Iran provoke the public with pointless so-called terror attacks?
Moreover, what is the point of the nonstop “sleeper cell” stories? What is the average US media consumer to do in response to these vague warnings? Interrogate their Iranian Optometrist? Follow around vaguely brown people at the county fair? And what purpose does this fearmongering over “sleeper cells” ultimately serve?
On this episode, we examine the mindless and largely fictional concept of the “sleeper cell,” analyzing how it’s a transparent propaganda trope designed to Bring The War Home for an increasingly war-weary public, promote racial profiling and distrust of Arabs and, Muslims more broadly, and give the American public the vague impression if we don’t don’t kill The Bad Guys Over There 6000 miles away, they’ll come and murder our families right here at home.
Our guest is writer and scholar Moustafa Bayoumi.
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Guest
Moustafa Bayoumi is an award-winning author, journalist, and Professor of English at Brooklyn College. Currently an opinion columnist for The Guardian, his writing and journalism has been published everywhere from The New York Times and London Review of Books to The Nation and New Republic. He is the author of the acclaimed book How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America (Penguin, 2009), which won an American Book Award and the Arab American Book Award for Non-Fiction. He is also the author of This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror (NYU Press, 2015) and editor of Midnight on the Mavi Marmara: the Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and How It Changed the Course of the Israel/Palestine Conflict (OR Books, 2010).
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Show Notes
Dangerous outsiders and exceptional citizens: being Muslim American since 9/11
Moustafa Bayoumi | September 10, 2021 | The Guardian
Islamophobia is Pervasive, Systemic, and a Threat to All
Dalia Mogahed, Meira Neggaz, and Petra Alsoofy | Institute for Social Policy and Understanding
American Muslim Poll 2025: Full Report
October 22, 2025 | Institute for Social Policy and Understanding
Trevor Aaronson and Margot Williams | June 14, 2023 | The Intercept
Erased or Extremists: The Stereotypical View of Muslims in Popular Episodic Series
Al-Baab Khan, Dr. Katherine Pieper, Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Ariana Case & Sam Wheeler | September 2022 | USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative
When the FBI entraps: the forgotten case of the Liberty City Seven
Adrian Horton | August 9, 2021 |The Guardian
Haqq and Hollywood: Illuminating 100 years of Muslim Tropes And How to Transform Them
Dr. Maytha Alhassen | 2018 | Pop Culture Collaborative
FBI Agent Goaded Garland Shooter to “Tear Up Texas,” Raising New Alarms About Bureau’s Methods
Murtaza Hussain | August 9 2016 | The Intercept
Only 1 percent of “terrorists” caught by the FBI are real
Joshua Holland | July 10, 2013 | Salon
Jospeh Massad | October 25, 2012 | Al Jazeera
CNN Pushing Alarmist Tales of Hezbollah Sleeper Agents
Peter Hart | March 26, 2012 | FAIR
'Sleeper Cell' Draws Fire for Soft Take on Terrorists
Laura Sydell | December 3, 2006 | NPR
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here. You can also find transcripts of past episodes, live shows, Beg-a-Thons, interviews, and News Briefs here.
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Credits
Senior Producer: Florence Barrau-Adams
Producer: Julianne Tveten
Production Assistant: Trendel Lightburn
Newsletter: Marco Cartolano
Music: Grandaddy
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