Economic transition to capitalist imperialism produced Muslims as a racial category
Evidence
Various factors including the development of agrarian capitalism in England, colonial expansion in the New World, slavery and the plantation system, and the industrial revolution created the conditions for the rise of Britain. Britain led the way in the transition from mercantile imperialism to capitalist imperialism. This set the stage for various projects of racialization. Orientalism as a body of thought that enabled colonialism emerged in this period; France played no small role in its development. I read the scholarship critical of Orientalism within the framework of the political economy of empire to argue that Muslims were created as races as seen in the notion of Homo islamicus. This Latin term translates to “Islamic man,” a type of man who was said to possess a cultural essence that emerges from his civilization. Further, when compared to the “normal man” or the “European man” the Muslim man was found to be inferior (and it is men they were talking about; the chapter also unpacks gendered constructions and the rise of colonial or imperial feminism). — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 83
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines ‘Homo islamicus’ — a racialized construction of Muslims as bearing an inferior cultural essence.
- XREF: Echoes Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism and the political economy of racial formation; also connects to Orientalism’s Saidian critique read through materialist lens. — connects to: Capitalist imperialism plus liberal societies produced Muslims as a full race — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 117; Capitalist imperialism’s denial of equality to colonized peoples produced Muslim racialization; Racializations of South Asians, Arabs, and Muslims were intertwined from capitalism’s start (+10 more)
Broader Connections
- Capitalist imperialism plus liberal societies produced Muslims as a full race
#corroborates(0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 117 - Capitalist imperialism’s denial of equality to colonized peoples produced Muslim racialization
#expands(0.90) - American imperialism, Orientalism, coercive assimilation, and White supremacy jointly produce racialized Muslim categories
#expands(0.82) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 80 - Racializations of South Asians, Arabs, and Muslims were intertwined from capitalism’s start
#expands(0.80) - Capitalism differentiated peoples into racial categories rather than homogenizing them
#expands(0.78) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 205 - US economic imperialism generated modernization theory rooted in racist assumptions about Muslims
#expands(0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 745 - The racialization of Muslims was anchored in Enlightenment-era colonial ideologies
#expands(0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 185 - Colonial-era differentiation of Muslims preceded and enabled present-day racialization.
#expands(0.72) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 112 - Muslims are racialized as a social group rather than a religious one
#expands(0.72)