Muslims were racialized through cultural signifiers rather than phenotype alone

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

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines dissimulation as a strategy of concealing religious difference to avoid racial interpretation.
• XREF: Connects to racial formation theory (Omi & Winant) and the specific history of African American Islam as liberatory identification. — 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 was historically perceived as a non-white and Black religion by Europeans — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 199 (+19 more)