When believers cannot be visually identified, lawmakers criminalize the religion wholesale.

Evidence

Scholar and public intellectual Moustafa Bayoumi argued that what was happening was a process of “racing religion.” He analyzed the special registration program launched in the aftermath of 9/11 to argue that the program was “not necessarily a nefarious plot to racialize Islam” but a “bureaucratic and cultural response to political turmoil.” While it may not have been a selfconscious attempt to discriminate against Muslims, in practice it was a color-blind security measure that had the effect of turning Muslims into a race. As race scholar Arun Kundnani and I have argued, surveillance is a mechanism of racialization that turns the target group into a suspicious “race.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 75 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Anti-sharia bills sought to criminalize mosque attendance by defining Islam as ideology; When Islam itself is deemed the problem, assimilation demands its excision. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 296; Post-2010 discourse racialized not only visible Muslims but Islam itself as an ideology — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 262 (+10 more)

Related

• Color-blind security measures can turn religious groups into a race (similarity 0.86)
• Anti-sharia legislation sought to criminalize all mosque attendance as terrorism (similarity 0.82)
• Anti-sharia bills sought to criminalize mosque attendance by defining Islam as ideology (similarity 0.80)
• Post-2010 discourse racialized not only visible Muslims but Islam itself as an ideology (similarity 0.80)
• Constitutional violations are deemed acceptable when targeting Islam or Muslims. (similarity 0.79)
• Courts legitimize treating an entire religious community as suspicious (similarity 0.79)
• Visible religious practice gets read as potential for radicalization (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Anti-terror material support laws criminalize religious charity and political solidarity #exemplifies (0.85)
• Courts legitimize treating an entire religious community as suspicious #expands (0.82)
• Color-blind security measures can turn religious groups into a race #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 75
• Funded think tanks drafted template anti-Sharia laws making belief a felony #exemplifies (0.78) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 622
• Symbolic religious bills are deliberate steps toward discrimination laws #exemplifies (0.75) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 626
• Laws stripping religious freedom provoke principled civil disobedience #responds-to (0.72) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 824
• Same public charitable works by religious actors are criminalized once they challenge secular authority #complicates (0.72) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 968