Modern scientific racism displaced religion, obscuring Islamophobia as racism

Evidence

In the eighteenth century and nineteenth century, the story of the race concept followed a path toward secularization through the emergence of scientific racism and, subsequently, eugenicist philosophy that was shored up in the ideology of white supremacy throughout Europe and the Americas. Racism in its modern, Enlightenment form privileged biological di√erence as natural di√erence without including religion, which was seen as a discrete form of prejudice and persecution. Hence, the modern form of racism displaced religion and, consequently, Islamophobia as racism. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 156 (#expands, via linked claim)

As highlighted in the deployment of the neologism and concept of Islamophobia, so racism can be deployed in equally inflationary ways, where little or no context or apparent grounding exists. Unlike Islamophobia though, extensive research and evidence has been produced that firstly sought to define and conceptualise racism, and secondly to provide credence and theoretical evidence for its existence. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 789 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Culturalisation therefore not only strengthens homogenous perceptions that attribute characteristics without differentiation, but the newly culturalised markers can also inappropriately essentialise Muslims where ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslims’ continue to be entities that are defined, shaped and determined by outsider perceptions of that which may be inaccurate or inappropriately understood. Solely interpreting Islamophobia in terms of cultural racism therefore could be seen to be imposing an essentialised and also be as equally inappropriate, again being reductionist about the diversity of the faith and its expressions. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 773 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Colonial-era science transformed Muslims into a fixed racialized type — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 180; Cultural racism explains Muslim violence through religion rather than lived circumstances — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 621; Social-science methods smuggled Orientalist racism past academic scrutiny — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 261 (+18 more)

Broader Connections

• Modern scientific racism displaced religion from the race concept. #expands (0.92) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 156
• Racism has empirical grounding that Islamophobia still lacks #complicates (0.80) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 789
• Interpreting Islamophobia solely as cultural racism essentialises and reduces the faith #complicates (0.78) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 773