Attributing every social characteristic to religious texts erases contextual factors

Evidence

It followed from this that Islam, as defined by its classical texts, was the key lens through which Muslim-majority societies could be understood. If women were oppressed it was because of the teachings of the Koran; if Muslims supposedly lacked an entrepreneurial spirit it was due to “Islamic tradition”; if modernization was rejected, again the Koran was to blame. In short, a whole host of characteristics associated with the West but allegedly absent from the “Muslim world” could be explained by recourse to religious texts and the mentalities they supposedly created. In this book, the term “Muslim world” has been put in quotation marks precisely to challenge the notion that Islam is the single most important factor in defining the people who live in the Middle East, North Africa, and elsewhere, or that there is a single undifferentiated entity called the “Muslim world.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 123

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Coding religion as rule-like law crushes moral freedom and spontaneity.; Religions should be judged by their best products rather than their worst; Religions must be judged by social standards based on social ethics — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1264 (+18 more)

Broader Connections

• Muslim characters can break stereotype when faith is incidental to personality #qualifies (0.60) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 537
• Cultural meanings are unstable and shift with the social field #corroborates (0.55)