Even early European colonizers ranked Muslim Africans above pagan ones

Evidence

Recent scholarship has unearthed the previously unknown or under researched history of Muslims in the United States. These works have gone back to the archives and demonstrated that among the Africans brought to these shores were a significant number of Muslims. As Kambiz GhaneaBassiri’s research shows, Muslims were not wholly unfamiliar to Europeans, who had first encountered them in the Crusades and then been in contact with Ottomans and North Africans in their attempts to dominate the Atlantic trade routes. Even if their knowledge was superficial and biased, Europeans were aware that Muslims followed a religion that was not entirely alien to Christianity. While Islam was already considered a false religion, some Europeans saw it as a civilizing force among Africans. Muslims themselves were then regarded as a semicivilized group that could aid in “civilizing” other pagan Africans. The goal, however, was to Christianize all Africans regardless of their original creed. Islam was merely a waystation on the journey. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 130

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows how Islam functioned as a proto-racial hierarchical marker before the modern race project.
• XREF: Relevant to her racecraft-vs-Aziz argument: this is the pre-history of Islam as a civilizational/racial category. — connects to: Europeans first encountered Africans chiefly as Muslim soldiers, fusing racial and religious identity; For early modern Europeans Islam functioned as a civilizing intermediary toward Christianizing Africans — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 130; Europe’s first racialized view of Africans came through Islam’s armies — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 462 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• For early modern Europeans Islam functioned as a civilizing intermediary toward Christianizing Africans #expands (0.92) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 130
• Europeans saw enslaved African Muslims as semicivilized aids for Christianizing other Africans #expands (0.90)
• Europeans first encountered Africans chiefly as Muslim soldiers, fusing racial and religious identity #corroborates (0.88)
• Religion served as a status axis in the racial hierarchy among enslaved Africans #expands (0.86) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 193
• Europe’s first racialized view of Africans came through Islam’s armies #corroborates (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 462
• Early colonial rule instrumentally praised Islam rather than demonizing it #corroborates (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 157
• Early modern Christians ranked Muslims inferior by faith, not by race #qualifies (0.78) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 153
• Religion served as the primary vehicle for racial difference in early modern Europe #expands (0.78) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 187
• Eighteenth-century Europeans ranked Islam as a civilization on par with Christendom #corroborates (0.76)
• Iberians ranked Indians above Africans in the great chain of being #expands (0.75)
• European superiority over Muslim empires enabled racial notions of Muslim inferiority #complicates (0.74) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1826
• Europeans’ sense of superiority over Muslims shifted from religious to cultural grounds across centuries #qualifies (0.72) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 56