American religious freedom historically protected only White Protestant worship.

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

Even more than Catholicism and Judaism, Islam has historically been depicted as uncivilized, illiberal, and despotic. During the colonial era many Americans did not recognize Islam as a legitimate religion, considering it instead a false ideology followed by savages in Africa and the Orient. This theme reemerged in the post-9/11 era to justify excluding Muslims from American religious freedom norms. Despite American school lessons on the sanctity of religious freedom, deporting, prosecuting, and discriminating against Muslims is part of a long history of nativism that reserves the full exercise of religious freedom for White Christians. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 482 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: American religious freedom historically applied only to socially and legally White people. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 349; American religious freedom was historically limited to Protestant Whites; American religious freedom has historically been reserved for White Christians — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 482 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• American religious freedom was historically limited to Protestant Whites #expands (0.97)
• American religious freedom historically applied only to socially and legally White people. #expands (0.95) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 349
• American religious freedom has historically been reserved for White Christians #expands (0.93) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 482