Islamophobia operates through imputed inferior traits rooted in religious identity

Evidence

My concern here is not so much whether to use Islamophobia or anti-Muslim racism as it is to adopt a theoretical framing that explains the material consequences of the systematic racialization of Muslims. I take the position that engaging in Islamophobia that restricts Muslims’ religious freedom and other civil rights is a product of systemic racism. My working definition of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism, thus, is an exaggerated fear of, hatred of, and hostility to Islam and Muslims by the state and the public as a result of imputed inferior biological and cultural traits based on religious identity that produce systemic bias, discrimination, marginalization, and exclusion of Muslims from social, political, and civic life. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 135

Categorization

• DEFINE: Provides the author’s working definition of Islamophobia as systemic racism built on imputed inferior biological and cultural traits.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 135
• XREF: connects to: Muslims were constituted as an inferior race via the figure of Homo islamicus.; Being negative toward either Islam or Muslims counts under family resemblance. — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 83; the MOC “The Enemy-Making Machine: How Ourselves, the True, and Every Other Are Built from War”