Anti-Muslim racism targets Muslims as a people, not their religion

Evidence

It also misses the point about what it is that is being attacked: ‘Islam’ as a religion was the enemy in the past: in the crusades or the reconquista . It is not the enemy now: Islam is not threatening to win large segments of western European society to its faith, as Communism did, nor is the polemic, in press, media or political statement, against the Islamic faith. There are no books coming out questioning the claims of Muhammad or the Koran. The attack now is against not Islam as a faith but Muslims as a people, the latter grouping together all, especially immigrants, who might be covered by the term. Equally, the ‘Islamophobic’ attack is against states which may be among the most secular in the world, as Saddam Hussein’s is. If we take the study as one of negative stereotyping, of what in German is called the Feindbild, the enemy image, then the enemy is not a faith or a culture, but a people. Hence the more accurate term is not ‘Islamophobia’ but ‘anti-Muslimism’. — Fred Halliday, ‘Islamophobia’ Reconsidered, 48 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Muslim American organizations attempt to refute the claim that Islam is incompatible with American values, thereby accepting Islamophobia’s racialized frame. Instead of confronting the racial-religious hierarchy that imposes on Muslims the burden of proving that their religion is not violent, antidemocratic, or illiberal, these mainstream Muslim organizations accommodate it. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1049 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Anti-Muslim oppression constitutes structural racism, not mere religious intolerance — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 91; Anti-Muslim racism denies individuality by marking all Muslims as a blameworthy collective; Elite power over anti-Muslim racism is real but not absolute or predetermined (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Hostility today targets Muslims as a people, not Islam as a faith. #corroborates (0.98) — Fred Halliday, ‘Islamophobia’ Reconsidered, 48
• Muslims are racialized as a social group rather than a religious one #corroborates (0.92)
• Defensive Muslim groups accommodate rather than confront the racist frame imposed on them #complicates (0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1049