Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with a racialized superiority complex toward Muslims.

Evidence

In the eighteenth century, an unconscious sense of Eurocentrism was present but it was guided by the universalist ideology of the Enlightenment and therefore respected non-European civilizations and peoples.” However, as the nineteenth century progressed, Enlightenment universalism was replaced, in the context of colonialism, with an emphasis on difference between people and civilizations. Europe developed what race scholar Etienne Balibar calls an “imperialist superiority complex.” It is in this context that “race” as defined by inferiority would emerge in relation to Arabs, Muslims, and Asians. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 142 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

With nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Orientalism, increasing numbers of scholars, authors, and artists were convinced that Muslims belonged to a once great but now separate and intrinsically inferior civilization, one that not only lacked complexity and diversity but also offered little to benefit Western civilization. The fact that the tendency to essentialize Muslims in this way emerged at a time of significant European colonial expansion suggests that Orientalism was neither a disinterested enterprise nor an objective quest for knowledge of non-Western cultures and religions. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 201 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The racialization of Muslims was anchored in Enlightenment-era colonial ideologies — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 185; Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with ideologies of inherent racial inferiority — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 130; Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with an imperialist superiority complex (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Colonialism replaced Enlightenment universalism with an imperialist superiority complex #corroborates (0.95)
• Nineteenth-century Orientalism essentialized Muslims as intrinsically inferior during colonial expansion. #corroborates (0.85) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 201
• Race-as-inferiority toward Arabs and Muslims emerged only with nineteenth-century colonial power #corroborates (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 142
• Enlightenment race theory about Muslims required colonial dominance and liberal societies #expands (0.82) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 105
• The belief that Muslims had different needs enabled colonial indifference. #expands (0.80)
• European superiority over Muslim empires enabled racial notions of Muslim inferiority #corroborates (0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1826
• Colonial-era science transformed Muslims into a fixed racialized type #expands (0.78) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 180
• The Western image of Muslims dehumanizes them to enable colonial rule #expands (0.78) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 44
• The racist creates the inferiority of the colonized. #exemplifies (0.75)