Religious identity terms double as markers for politics and migration

Evidence

Although our key terms of Muslim and Islam are inherently religious, they could be used in a variety of difference topics other than religion, like discussions of politics, immigration, geopolitical violence, or demographics. — Emily Greene-Colozzi, Amy Adamczyk, and Senahan Kiyal Keles, Differences in Religious Framing of…, 55

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that “Muslim” and “Islam” function analytically as religion-adjacent topic markers, not purely religious categories.
• XREF: Connects to media-framing and racialization literature where religious labels stand in for ethnicity or geopolitical threat.
• SEED: Angle: how a single identity word becomes a catch-all index for unrelated news beats, and what that does to coverage.