American religious freedom historically applied only to socially and legally White people.

Evidence

By exploring how religion racialized Jews, Catholics, Mormons, and Asians as socially non-White, this chapter argues that America’s commitment to religious freedom historically is restricted to those categorized as socially and legally White. This American tradition of racializing religion is grounded in an American national identity shaped by Protestant settler colonialism, xenophobia, and anti-Black racism. The Americanization movement arising from fears of espionage during World War I pressured Southern and European immigrants to abandon their cultures and languages to comport with Protestant Anglo-Saxon norms. Foreignness and non-Protestant religious identity signified a threat to national security. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 349

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The central thesis — that religious liberty, the flagship American value, has always been conditional on racial Whiteness — reframes how to read every religious-freedom claim in US history.
• XREF: Connects with the fall 2023 US debate over antisemitism definitions and ‘Christian nationalism’ — the claim that Protestantism anchored national identity echoes current arguments that America was founded as a Christian nation.