The Racial Muslim is produced by White Protestant supremacy, xenophobia, Orientalism, and empire

Evidence

Second, I offer a typology of what I call the Racial Muslim that explains why some immigrant Muslims are more likely to be targeted than others by private and government Islamophobia. Four factors converge to racialize Muslims to produce the Racial Muslim: (1) White Protestant supremacy, (2) xenophobia arising from coercive assimilation into Western European cultural norms, (3) Orientalism, and (4) American empire in Muslim-majority countries. I explore how each of these factors interacts politically, socially, and discursively to define the characteristics attributed to Racial Muslims that in turn legitimize their systematic subordination. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 67

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names the book’s central concept and its four constitutive factors — the Racial Muslim typology.
• XREF: Connects to Said’s Orientalism and to Edwrad Said’s foundational framework, plus echoes the four-factor analyses of racial formation theory (Omi and Winant).