Culture served as a racializing mode that displaced politics onto religion

Evidence

Bernard Lewis played a key role in adapting Orientalism to the United States. In an essay titled “The Roots of Muslim Rage” published in 1990, he explained anti-imperialist resistance by Muslims through the framework of the “clash of civilizations” in which political conflicts were displaced onto the realm of culture and religion. Political scientist Samuel Huntington, who has done much to popularize this notion, published an essay with this title in the journal Foreign Affairs and then the book The Clash of Civilizations. He argued that in the post–Cold War world, conflict would be driven by culture rather than politics between the seven or eight civilizations he named. He wrote, “Western ideas of individualism, liberalism, constitutionalism, human rights, equality, liberty, the rule of law, democracy, free markets, the separation of church and state, often have little resonance in Islamic societies.” Culture was both the basis of conflict and a mode of racializing Muslims. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 256

Categorization

• XREF: Directly bridges to existing vault cluster claims (Aziz on liberal Islamophobia as imperial policy, Rana on race and empire); Lewis and Huntington as archetypal culture-reifies-race instances. — connects to: Educated black leaders policed a cultural divide against folk religious practice — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 226; Race was co-constituted with religion in European history. — Nasar Meer, Racialization and Religion: Race,…, 31; Cultural and political shifts can racialize religious identity — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 150 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Cultural and political shifts can racialize religious identity #expands (0.85) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 150
• Cultural practices become racialized when they are essentialized as innate to Muslims #exemplifies (0.85) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 274
• Racializing religion serves the political purpose of excluding targeted minorities #expands (0.85)
• Religion operates as a fluid category that racializes groups #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 1067
• Religion gets racialized by ascribing inherited biological traits to a faith community #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 257
• Religious identity can become racialized by imputing biological and cultural inferiority #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 712
• Cultural and religious practices become racialized markers treated as inherent traits. #exemplifies (0.80) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 69
• When religion is racialized, cultural traits serve as surrogates for biology #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 130
• Islam is ideologically expelled from religion itself in its racialization #exemplifies (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 872
• Muslims were racialized through cultural signifiers rather than phenotype alone #exemplifies (0.80) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 106
• Cultural traits like language, clothing, and religious practice can racialize a group. #corroborates (0.75)
• Religion alone can racialize even phenotypically White groups as inferior #expands (0.75)