Religious identity racialized Irish Catholics as a separate inferior race

Evidence

This transformation of Muslim identity into a racial identity has led to myriad assaults on Muslims’ religious freedoms. Similar to the racialization of Jews, Catholics, and Mormons a century ago, adherence to Islam imputes inferior biological and cultural traits to its followers. That is, to be Muslim is to be presumed to possess a pathology of violence, fanaticism, and despotism antithetical to (Christian) religious norms. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 712 (#expands, via linked claim)

The twentieth century began with nativist fervor. Religion was at the forefront of debates on whether the millions of new European immigrants were “fit for self-governance”—a euphemism for race. Large numbers of Irish Catholics prompted fears of popery, as Protestants claimed the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church with an infallible pope at the top contradicted American principles of liberty and freethinking. Likewise, mass migration of Eastern European Jews triggered nativist anxiety of the so-called Hebrew race corrupting American society. And, Mormons’ polygamous marriages caused the White Protestant majority to disparage them as “American Mohammedans.” — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 248 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Racial categorization first targeted Ireland through internal colonialism — , Stephanie B. Martens - Civilization and…, 26; Racial nativism supplanted anti-Catholicism because it fit the new immigrant threat — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 567; Anti-Catholic and anti-radical nativism defined enemies first while racial nativism defined the in-group first — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 55 (+23 more)

Broader Connections

• Religious identity can become racialized by imputing biological and cultural inferiority #expands (0.93) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 712
• Early twentieth-century US nativism racialized Irish Catholics, Eastern European Jews, and Mormons #exemplifies (0.92) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 248