Enlightenment race theory about Muslims required colonial dominance and liberal societies

Evidence

My key argument is that notions of race and of Muslims as inferior beings could come to the fore in a context where European nations were in a position to actually challenge and eventually dominate once-powerful Muslim empires. While Muslims occupied a liminal position between inferior and superior in imperial Spain in the early modern era, this would give way to outright inferiority in the nineteenth century. Thus, while protoracism existed before the nineteenth century, it is capitalist imperialism that sets the terrain on which Enlightenment notions of race were deployed. I argue that two conditions were needed for the production of Muslims as a race: colonial domination and “free” liberal societies. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 105

Categorization

• XREF: This is Kumar’s core causal thesis that Islamophobia as racialization is a product of capitalist imperialism — must be testable against Rana’s ‘Two Faces of American Freedom’ and Aziz’s claims about the liberal conditions of Muslim racialization. — connects to: Modern anti-Muslim racism required both colonial domination and liberal societies professing equality — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 96; The racialization of Muslims was anchored in Enlightenment-era colonial ideologies — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 185; Enlightenment race theories spanned racist, neutral, and anti-racist positions (+13 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that ‘free’ liberal societies are a necessary condition for racializing Muslims is counterintuitive and dense: it ties racial domination to the very ideology that claims to repudiate it, which is the book’s central paradox worth sitting with.

Broader Connections

• Modern anti-Muslim racism required both rights-based societies and imperial domination #corroborates (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 193
• Modern racism needed both colonial domination and liberal societies #corroborates (0.90)
• Enlightenment race theories spanned racist, neutral, and anti-racist positions #qualifies (0.85)
• Capitalist imperialism plus liberal societies produced Muslims as a full race #corroborates (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 117
• Capitalist imperialism’s denial of equality to colonized peoples produced Muslim racialization #corroborates (0.80)
• European superiority over Muslim empires enabled racial notions of Muslim inferiority #corroborates (0.75) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1826
• The Enlightenment laid the basis for modern ideas of race #expands (0.75)
• European racialism justified colonial expansion and rule #expands (0.72) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 513