Four conceptual moves permit the de-racialization of Islamophobia

Evidence

The de-raceing of Islamophobia can be traced to four interlinked conceptual sleights of hand: first, the reduction of our understanding of what racism is to explicit and violent interpersonal expressions of hatred focused on narrow biological markers, stripping out its social, structural and historical context (Song 2014); second, the denial of ‘Muslim’ as a racial or ethnic category (unlike, for example, Sikhs or Jews) and a corollary denial of Muslims being victims of racism as Muslims; third, the placing of Islam as a category of choice, rather than ascription, and as therefore separate from the embodied being of its adherents (‘culture’ rather than ‘race’); and fourth, and relatedly, the overemphasis on ‘Islamic culture’ or ‘Muslim culture’ as a foundational explanation for the slew of assumed pathologies discussed above. — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 165

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names four specific mechanisms by which Islamophobia gets ‘de-raced’ — essential apparatus for the reader mapping which definitional camp relies on racialization.
• XREF: Directly opposes Bleich’s neutral-indiscriminate-attitudes concept and Halliday’s ‘anti-Muslimism’; the reader can use this as the definitive statement of the racialization position. — connects to: Mainstream race-equality bodies resisted framing Islamophobia as a racial issue — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 753; Islamophobic narratives shifted from vulgar cartoons to acceptable generalized suspicion — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 81; Separating Islamophobia as ideology from racism undermines anti-racist struggle — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 159 (+4 more)

Related

• Islamophobia is best understood and countered as a form of anti-Muslim racism. (similarity 0.89)
• Separating Islamophobia as ideology from racism undermines anti-racist struggle (similarity 0.88)
• Islamophobia is best understood as an ideology akin to racism (similarity 0.87)
• Interpreting Islamophobia solely as cultural racism essentialises and reduces the faith (similarity 0.86)
• Anti-Muslim racism is the operationalization of the causal factor Islamophobia (similarity 0.86)
• Islamophobia operates as a racial formation, not merely religious prejudice (similarity 0.85)
• The term Islamophobia understates the racial and political roots of anti-Muslim bias (similarity 0.85)
• Islamophobia is rarely analyzed through the lens of race and racism. (similarity 0.85)
• Islamophobia is an ideology sustaining negative meaning about Muslims. (similarity 0.85)
• Mainstream race-equality bodies resisted framing Islamophobia as a racial issue (similarity 0.85)
• The report’s racial-religious conflation undermines Islamophobia’s distinctiveness as a category (similarity 0.85)
• Islamophobia fixates a reified Muslim type despite race’s dynamic nature. (similarity 0.85)
• Islamophobia centers on recognition of Muslim-ness and its ideological meaning (similarity 0.85)
• The Runnymede report classed Islamophobia as racism without defining it as racism (similarity 0.85)
• Islamophobia operates as cultural racism rooted in religion, culture, and ethnicity rather than biology. (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Conceptualizing Islamophobia must separate its forms from the phenomenon itself #corroborates (0.85) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 653