American imperialism, Orientalism, coercive assimilation, and White supremacy jointly produce racialized Muslim categories

Evidence

Two international factors interact with two domestic factors to produce this outcome. American imperial designs and Orientalism interact with coercive assimilationism of immigrants and White Protestant supremacy. The interplay of these four factors produce five typologies of the Racial Muslim: (1) Religious Dissident, (2) Religious, (3) Secular Dissident, (4) Secular, and (5) Former Muslim. The typology partially explains the interplay between the state’s prioritization of certain Muslims in national security enforcement, on the one hand, and individual identity performances by Muslims seeking to avoid the material and dignitary harms arising from racialization, on the other. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 80

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the five-category typology of the Racial Muslim that structures the book: Religious Dissident, Religious, Secular Dissident, Secular, and Former Muslim.
• XREF: The four-factor interaction (imperialism, Orientalism, assimilation, White supremacy) echoes Frantz Fanon and postcolonial theory on how colonial categories force identity performances. — connects to: The 1924 Asiatic Barred Zone placed nearly all Muslims outside admissible whiteness; Economic transition to capitalist imperialism produced Muslims as a racial category — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 83; Pre-1970s Muslim-targeted discrimination belonged to older white-supremacy systems (+15 more)