Religious identity historically served as a proxy for race in American immigration debates

Evidence

Contrary to popular perceptions that religion is a sacred space (both figuratively and literally), America’s checkered history of xenophobic, exclusionary immigration policies against these new European arrivals demonstrates how religious identity serves as a proxy for racial identity. Taking a closer look at how the religious identities of Jews, Catholics, and Mormons were racialized historically is instructive for the contemporary racialization of immigrant Muslims. Both in the past and present, the racialization of religion serves the political purpose of excluding, expelling, and discriminating against the targeted minority. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 249

Categorization

• SEED: A strong essay angle: tracing the ‘racialization of religion’ mechanism as a recurring American pattern, from Catholics and Jews to Muslims, showing it is political exclusion, not theology.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 249
• XREF: connects to: American religion is intrinsically bound to gender and family but not to race — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 438; American identity is defined by race and citizenship proxies for national loyalty — Sahar F. Aziz, Sticks and Stones, the Words That Hurt:…, 33; Nativists framed Catholic immigrants as a papal plot to subvert American institutions — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 39