Islamic-majority nations are excluded from Europe regardless of democratic reforms

Evidence

The reproductive logic of Euro-racism ensures that those “racially non- European” are never nor can ever be European, or at least European enough. The recent language requirements notwithstanding, the turn away from Turkish membership in the European Union and the persistent publication, first in a Danish newspaper and then reiterated in the name of free speech throughout Western Europe, of humorless cartoons demeaning Muslims in 2005–6 are the latest cases in point. No matter how seemingly reformed and romancing democracy, a nation or people identified as overwhelmingly Islamic will conjure anxieties for those taking their values, their invented continental civilization and civilities to be at root Christian. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 934

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that ‘racially non-European’ people can never be ‘European enough’ — a structural impossibility clause in Euro-identity — is a subtle, paradigm-level point about assimilation’s limits.
• XREF: The Muhammad cartoons episode connects to the article on moral panics and to general literature on free speech as cover for racism (e.g., recent Charlie Hebdo debates).