Whether religion-based hatred counts as racism hinges on whether faith can be embodied

Evidence

As is evident in the word itself, ”Islamophobia” refers to a fear or hatred of Islam and Muslims. In the argument over whether Islamophobia counts as racism, the first question that arises is whether religious hatred is necessarily racial.∞≠ That is, if religion is not innate, can it be socially constructed as embodied in phenotypic or biological expression? Many European scholars define discrimination in terms of xenophobia and prejudice, whereas scholars in the U.S. have long argued for the importance of talking about race and racism as valid concepts of systematic oppression.∞∞ Similarly, many scholars disarticulate ”Islamophobia” from the concepts of race and racism, instead referring to it as a form of cultural prejudice and religiously based discrimination.∞≤ In many ways, the debate over Islamophobia as racism mirrors the discussions of the utility of the race concept in the historical, conceptual shift from biological racism to cultural racism. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 112

Categorization

• QUESTION: The central puzzle — can religion be socially constructed as phenotypic/biological? — deserves pursuit; the secular logic assumption noted here is worth unpacking further.