Arab Muslims claim authenticity from Quranic Arabic and dismiss African American religious authority

Evidence

As immigrant Muslims work more with African American Muslims, they are forced to confront anti-Black racism within their communities. Immigrant Muslims are affected by the anti-Black racism that is prevalent in their Middle Eastern and South Asian countries of origin, which causes some to distance themselves socially from African American Muslims. Moreover, Arab Muslims view themselves as more authentically Muslim because the Quran is in Arabic and was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, African American Muslim leaders are not seen as credible sources of religious authority. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1034

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on racial hierarchy and religious authority claims, and to intra-minority racism dynamics covered in other chapters of this book (religion as a marker of authenticity).
• QUESTION: Worth investigating: how does language-based authenticity claims parallel similar dynamics in other religions with sacred languages (e.g., Hebrew, Sanskrit)?