I block out a lot memory wise due to pain but I experienced Islamophobia within my own household and mother's family - the effects of which I can't fully perceive.

The main argument Rana makes in his first chapter is about the use of the term Muslim as an umbrella term that regroups both religious, cultural, and racial stereotypes. In turn, this has led to the collective vulnerability of all those perceived as Muslims. It has also made Islamophobia a type of racism because its manifestations cannot seem to be separated from physical attributes.

I thought your comment was very interesting because I interpreted the “disregard the concept of biological race” as a strive to seem as “white” as possible. In other words, the seeking of privilege. Rana describes this in two ways. A Syrian man wishing to be viewed as white rather than Arab. This is the status Jewish people were “awarded” at the time. However the Syrian nationality and the Arab world was seen as a direct opposition to the West therefore could not be seen as belonging to the white nationality.
The second example, which is the one you discuss, is that of the black person wanting to be seen as Arab and therefore associating with the Moore and Muslim identity. The reasons they want to be seen as white or not black it to access more privilege in America.

The Second example felt odd to me because of the representation of Islam in the media. My initial thought process was if one is already being persecuted for being black, why would they also want to be persecuted for their religion. It felt like using religion as a means to move up the “race” ladder. This is why I really enjoyed your last point about allowing them to assert their identity in their own terms. The nuance of the black man’s identity reaching religions other than Christianity, in theory, halts the binary of race in America. I say in theory because sadly, and ultimately, the identity of a minority remains controlled by the collective white mind.

The problem of distinguishing when physical differences are no longer enough is an important point to have brought out of Rana's Terrifying Muslims. I hope @elyes_bouhouche will get a chance to reiterate this in class today.

This isn’t necessarily a reply to the first post here but I could not figure out how to make this post stand on its own so I’m putting it as a quick reply.

Though Husain begins his review with an example of the effects of 9/11 on Islamophobia, he does not limit himself to the time period that begins in 2001 and continues to today. It is a socio-historical study of Islamophobia through a long History that can help us characterize why Islamophobia shares many similarities to any other form or racism, despite being by definition, and by definition only, not associated to the concept of race. To understand why, we need to look first at the terrible practical aspect of this association that Junaid Raina puts forth. Rana writes “notions of racialized Muslims were placed on African slaves as enslavement was justified through a process of benevolent domination”. Through this, there is a clear association between race and Islam that is created in the process of the establishment of a rapport of strength. If we can understand this attempt at creating a superiority through this association, we can easily comprehend why Islamophobia has become another form of racism. A generalization of a whole population, which regroups Berbers of Morocco, Arabs of the Golf, or Pakistanis and Indians, under the banner of Islam, wether the individuals or even societies of this group are Muslim or not, has facilitated the development of a racial domination for whites. This includes on a national scale such as racial disparities in the United States, or on a more global scale in the establishment of North-South schism. As Husain explains through the anecdote of the Arab Slayer after 9/11, this creates a widespread stigma on this entire population group despite having no true association. To summarize, Islamophobia has grown to become more than a distrust, hatred or discrimation against a certain religion, but rather has become so entangled with the notion of race that it is as much a form of racism as anti-African or anti-Asian racism.