The dangers of mischaracterizing Islamophobia (or antisemitism) as forms of racism

Politicizing definitions of hate doesn't help anyone

The UN has a working definition of Islamophobia:

Islamophobia is a fear, prejudice and hatred of Muslims that leads to provocation, hostility and intolerance by means of threatening, harassment, abuse, incitement and intimidation of Muslims and non-Muslims, both in the online and offline world. Motivated by institutional, ideological, political and religious hostility that transcends into structural and cultural racism, it targets the symbols and markers of being a Muslim.

This definition emphasises the link between institutional levels of Islamophobia and manifestations of such attitudes, triggered by the visibility of the victim’s perceived Muslim identity. This approach also interprets Islamophobia as a form of racism, whereby Islamic religion, tradition and culture are seen as a ‘threat’ to the Western values.

This is not the only definition of Islamophobia that leans on it as a form of racism. The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims says:

Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.

This has been a trend in recent years. I cannot find anyone saying anti-Muslim hatred is a type of racism before maybe 10 years ago. but that idea has gained currency.

I dislike the term "race" altogether since there is no scientific basis for saying that people with different skin color have any real differences in their DNA. But saying that Islamophobia is a kind of racism seems especially strange, since there are Muslims of every racial type.

And if you claim that the definition of racism should be extended to include religions, how come no serious definition of antisemitism says that it is a form of racism? Worse, if “race” is redefined to mean any group identity that can be essentialized or stereotyped, then it loses the specificity that made racism a uniquely pernicious form of hatred.

My guess is that this new restatement of hating Muslims as racism is a result of Edward Said's work that said that the West treated Islam as a monolith and therefore, later scholars would say, anti-Islam positions were akin to racism - a postion that has now morphed into calling that actual racism. He might have had a point about Western attitudes towards Islam, but again, why has that logic not been applied to antisemitism?

Calling it similar to racism is defensible. Defining it as racism is not. It seems to me that these definitions are not meant to illuminate but to demonize any criticism of Islam or Muslims as being exactly as reprehensible as racism is. Given that skin color is innate but belief is a choice, the terminology appears to be designed to hinder rather than encourage serious discussion about the (very real) discrimination faced by Muslims.

After all, once Islamophobia is defined as racism, that means that existing international law and conventions that are designed to combat racism (like the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination [ICERD]) automatically apply to anti-Muslim discrimination. But if, for example, some versions of Islam teach that their highest aspirations are martyrdom for jihad, shouldn't that affect how non-Muslims approach the Muslims that hold those views? Is it racist to denounce those who support murdering Jews in Israel as Islamically mandated? Is denouncing Al Qaeda or ISIS members and ideology, all rooted in seemingly valid if not mainstream interpretations of Islam, a violation of ICERD?

Critics of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism claim (falsely) that it chills legitimate criticism of Israel. But characterizing Islamophobia as literal racism does exactly that to legitimate criticism of Islam or of terror groups groups that claim to be acting according to the Quran.

Some recent discussions of antisemitism also center it as being close to, if not a form of, racism. But the impression I get is that is not meant as a defense of Jews but as an attack on political opponents using Jews as pawns. Antisemitism can manifest as hatred of Jews as a people, as a nation (Israel) or as a religious group. The people who are pushing to inaccurately frame antisemitism as racism are directing their attacks specifically towards racialized antisemitism - i.e., neo-Nazi and far right antisemitism - and ignoring the many other kinds, the types of antisemitism that they themselves might be excusing.

If anything, antisemitism is more akin to racism than Islamophobia since the vast majority of Jews come from common ancestors. Unlike anti-Muslim sentiment, antisemitism has a real history of being based on the idea of Jews as an inferior race. But even so, calling it racism ignores the many other kinds of antisemitic hate and can tacitly excuse them.

Positioning antisemitism as racism ignores many types of antisemitism, and positioning Islamophobia as racism trivializes real racism and does no favors to Muslims, either: successfully fighting a prejudice requires properly understanding the prejudice.

Racism is reprehensible, but words matter. Politicizing it does not help anyone and it can only end up watering it down, which does not help anyone, whether they are people of color, Jewish or Muslim.