Colonial differentiation between Muslims and Europeans is a precursor to race formation
Evidence
For Islam to emerge as a race in the present, the differences between Muslims and Europeans, and the purported Islamic world and Europe, had to be made meaningful and clear as a precursor. This is where the history of Europe and America’s encounter with Islam becomes important. Differentiating Muslims and Islam is one of the colonial and capitalist racial practices that has formed the substratum of modern Islamophobia and Islam-as-race. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 112
Categorization
- XREF: Causal precursor logic parallels Aziz’s historical account of Colonial-era differentiation producing the Racial Muslim; also echoes Mignolo’s colonial difference. — connects to: Colonial-era differentiation of Muslims preceded and enabled present-day racialization. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 112; The racialization of Muslims was anchored in Enlightenment-era colonial ideologies — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 185; European superiority over Muslim empires enabled racial notions of Muslim inferiority — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1826 (+12 more)
Broader Connections
- Colonial-era differentiation of Muslims preceded and enabled present-day racialization.
#expands(0.97) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 112 - European colonial racial practice of differentiating Islam preceded and enabled modern Islamophobia
#expands(0.90) - The racialization of Muslims was anchored in Enlightenment-era colonial ideologies
#corroborates(0.88) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 185 - European racial ideology predates colonial encounters and was extended to non-Europeans later
#contradicts(0.88) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 401 - Islam has shaped the race concept since its historical inception
#expands(0.87) - Colonial-era science transformed Muslims into a fixed racialized type
#exemplifies(0.86) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 180 - European superiority over Muslim empires enabled racial notions of Muslim inferiority
#expands(0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1826 - Racial capitalism and colonial discourse drive Islam’s racialization over centuries
#corroborates(0.85) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 148 - Race was co-constituted with religion in European history.
#expands(0.84) — Nasar Meer, Racialization and Religion, 31 - Race originated as a cultural-religious distinction legislated into biological heredity
#expands(0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 724 - Economic transition to capitalist imperialism produced Muslims as a racial category
#qualifies(0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 83 - Muslims were racialized through cultural signifiers rather than phenotype alone
#exemplifies(0.80) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 106 - Classic racisms located race as an external colonial invader threatening European homogeneity
#complicates(0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 359 - Racism is a structural feature of European civilization, not the exception of colonial adventurers
#corroborates(0.76) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 338 - Race is a contemporary, evolving formation rather than a premodern leftover
#qualifies(0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 346