Islam has functionally become a race in law within the last twenty years

Evidence

Can a religion, over time and through its social and legal resignification, come to be a race? This article answers in the affirmative; in the context of North America and Europe where racial hierarchies have been most pronounced, practitioners of the religion of Islam have come to be perceived as belonging to a race called “Muslim.” While there is a large literature on the racialization of Muslims and Islamophobia, scholars have nevertheless been reluctant to declare Islam or Muslims as a race. This article now makes that claim. In the last twenty years, Islam has come to function as a race socially and in the law. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 34

Categorization

• XREF: This is exactly the thesis to compare against Aziz’s Racial Muslim — the reader’s stated purpose. Choudhury goes further than Aziz in declaring Islam itself, not just Muslims, to be a race. — connects to: Islamophobia has coalesced Muslims into a distinct racial group and Islam into a race. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 61; Race analysis better captures anti-Muslim discrimination than religious-discrimination framing — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 317; Islam has become a race despite scholars’ hesitation to name it so (+11 more)
• SEED: Article angle comparing how far Choudhury extends the race claim versus Aziz’s more cautious ‘racial Muslim’ framing.
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Muslims are racialized as a social group rather than a religious one #expands (0.90)
• Islam comes to function as a race through racecraft that erases internal ethnic differences #expands (0.85) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 516
• Polygamy jurisprudence racialized Islam by treating the practice as foreign and treasonable #exemplifies (0.85)
• Muslim racialization is structural and persists with political utility #expands (0.80) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 480
• Islam-as-race emerges only after Muslims coalesce as a racial group #qualifies (0.78) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 110
• Muslims move down the racial hierarchy rather than becoming a new race #contradicts (0.75)