Muslims can evade racialization by concealing religious difference

Evidence

The racialized Muslim developed as a geographically external other that was demonized not only through notions of the body, but also through the superimposition of cultural features onto Muslim and non–Muslim groups. Because this process was not based exclusively on phenotypic or physical di√erence (although this was often imputed), some have been able to use a strategy of dissimulation—that is, disguising or concealing religious di√erence—to keep themselves from being interpreted in racial terms. In the American context of racial formation, for instance, Islam represented a liberatory identification for African Americans; however, this presented a threat to white Christian supremacy that was then used to further racialize immigrant and black Muslims. Thus, the figure of the Muslim became racialized through social and cultural signifiers across national, racial, and ethnic boundaries. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 106 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Because there are very few countering representations of Muslims as normal, law-abiding, patriotic American citizens, the dominant narrative of Muslims as terrorists, misogynists, and sexual predators who are antifeminist and anti-American is definitive. These cultural practices are seen as essentialized, inherent characteristics of Muslim bodies. For many Muslims, these labels are applied when they are identified as Muslim through visual clues like skin tone and clothing or nonvisual clues like having a Muslim name. Religious clothing that has acquired racial meaning racializes bodies in a similar way to skin tone. The hijab signifies foreignness and provokes the assumption that those who wear these symbols are “others” who are not American and not white. The hijab symbolizes a threat to Western feminist ideals and is associated with the forced submission of Muslim women to Muslim men (Razack 2008). But for Muslim men and women who do not wear religious signifiers, their Muslim names also racialize them even if they are phenotypically white. Therefore, it is important to examine all the ways that racialization occurs, particular those that are not inspired by phenotypes. Furthermore, we must begin to examine gendered forms of racialization rather than relying on the notion that every body is racialized equally and uniformly. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 70 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Muslims get racialized via projected religious ancestry regardless of self-understanding — Mareike Riedel, Islamophobia, Racial Discrimination…, 64; The 1924 Asiatic Barred Zone placed nearly all Muslims outside admissible whiteness; Islam comes to function as a race through racecraft that erases internal ethnic differences — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 516 (+18 more)

Broader Connections

• Muslim men can be racialized by ethnicity alone, not only by disclosed religion #complicates (0.88)
• Muslims were racialized through cultural signifiers rather than phenotype alone #complicates (0.85) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 106
• Muslim identity gets racialized through names and clothing, not only skin tone #complicates (0.83) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 70
• Muslims are racialized as a social group rather than a religious one #complicates (0.82)
• African American Muslims are racialized as Black before being seen as Muslim #complicates (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 116