Authors Meet Critics: Secularism, Race, and the Politics of Islamophobia

Within the field of Islamophobia, dominant scholarship and social movement in North America and Europe identifies Islamophobia as a form of racism, where race and religion have become conflated in the racialization process of Islamophobia. However, the latest edited volume Secularism, Race, and the Politics of Islamophobia offers a new contribution to the field, arguing that current scholarship on Islamophobia does not account for the relationship between secularism and race in social systems. Advocating for a decolonial approach to better theorize the phenomenon, the contributing authors call attention to the ways secularism is embedded in and drives the disciplinary institutions of the State, such as law, political groups, government entities, and bureaucracies, to authorize racism and the racialization of Muslims and Islam. This authors-meet-critics roundtable brings five contributors to share and reflect on their research/chapter and engage in dialogue with scholars to discuss the key arguments and how this volume advances conversations and theorization of racialization of Muslim and Islam and the scholarly studies of Islamophobia.