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On March 1st, the Boisi Center hosted a webinar conversation between Abdullah bin Hamid Ali of Zaytuna College, Sahar Aziz of Rutgers University, and Omid Safi of Duke University, on the topic of 鈥淚slam in the United States: Issues of Race and Diversity鈥� and centered around Aziz鈥檚 recently published book, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom. The conversation was moderated by Ann McClenahan, a volunteer assistant to the director at the Boisi Center.

Aziz began the conversation by explaining the genesis and structure of her book. The idea of American treatment of Islam as a race was inspired by the 2011 NYPD campaign of mass surveillance against Muslims, which, it was argued, could be considered a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by targeting specific religious communities (a form of 鈥渄iscrimination鈥�) as a program that receives Federal funds. To make that case, however, Islam had to be understood and treated as a race, more than just a religion. While the exploration of this alleged violation was restricted because of the confidential nature of national security matters, at the very least, Aziz argued, the U.S. value of religious freedom seems, in light of this, to stop at the mosque鈥檚 or masjid鈥檚 door.

Ali responded to Aziz鈥檚 book, noting that the book seems truer for the pre-Trump era in America as it does not adequately address changes in racial and religious tensions in recent years. He also noted that Aziz implies that the racialization of Muslims effectively began鈥攐r at least substantially increased鈥攁fter 9/11, but there was significant historical racialization of Muslims before the 21st century. Aziz responded by suggesting the use of critical race theory as a foundation for bringing about a new perspective on the racialization of Muslims, particularly focusing in on intersectionality, but Ali found this suggestion potentially divisive and questioned if religious teachings might be a more effective framework.

Safi noted that he found the strengths of Aziz鈥檚 argument in her exploration of the legal histories as well as her focus on the experiences of the Arab Muslim community. He expressed a desire to see conceptions of the 鈥楢rab鈥� and the 鈥楳uslim鈥� disentangled in the text, since a majority of the worldwide Muslim community is not from the Middle East. And he showed a brief video of Malcolm X speaking, reminding the audience of one of the most notable鈥攁nd notably non-Arab鈥擜merican Muslims.

Aziz described the challenge of recognizing commonalities between African American Muslims and non-African American Muslims while also not ignoring the multitude of experiences that those communities do not share. She noted that African American Muslims are often racialized, or perceived, as Black instead of Muslim. Her book therefore attempts to focus on those who are perceived primarily as Muslim. And it is to this last point that Aziz also observed that she sees the turning point in which Islamophobia finally began to be considered a problem equal to racism in the Muslim travel ban under Trump.

Ali and Aziz concluded the conversation by discussing the challenges inherent in critical race theory. Safi added final thoughts on the concept of whiteness, as less of a phenotype than a problematic structure of power and the inverse of the conversation about blackness.
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