Framing Islam as American Religion Despite White Supremacy

American Religion 2, no. 1 (Fall 2020), pp. 14–17 Copyright © 2020, The Trustees of Indiana University • doi: 10.2979/amerreli.2.1.04 Framing Islam as American Religion Despite White Supremacy Shreena Niketa Gandhi Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA Why is American Islam is so rarely framed as an “American religion” in the field of religious studies? White supremacy. Can Islam be “American religion”? Yes. What does/would it mean to say so and work in light of this understanding for religious studies scholars? What gets in the way of truly accepting Islam as an American religion are several myths that hold up the fallacy of white supremacy, the idea that white people are superior to all others and in particular are defined as the opposite of Black people. The pillars of capitalism, colonialism, and war prop up and sustain white supremacy, but the myths of white supremacy imbue American culture, religious studies, and thus the subfield of American religious history in deep and ingrained ways, effecting generational and cyclical impact upon research and pedagogy. Past calls to diversify and current calls for decolonization were and are meaningless unless we change the very frame of how we teach religion in America, and if we do not start with white supremacy culture (and finish with #BlackLivesMatter, #NoDAPL, and the current rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia) when teaching American religious history, we are doing it incorrectly and irresponsibly. Two myths in particular shape the field of American religious history: religious freedom and religious diversity. These myths are central to how US Americans understand themselves and they are reified through our K-12 education, through Shreena Niketa Gandhi 15 our celebration of national holidays, and in American religious history classrooms . Countless edited volumes and textbooks allow us to celebrate that persecuted Protestants who were able to make their escape from the ignorance of Europe and practice in the colonies how they saw fit. Even more edited volumes display American religious diversity, with at least one essay about two to three non-Christian religious communities or non-white Christian communities. These teaching aides perpetuate the myth of American religious freedom while showcasing American religious diversity; more insidiously, they obscure the fact that religious freedom has never been for all and religious diversity is only valued when convenient. These celebrated values of freedom and diversity clash with the realities of free labor (capitalism and enslavement of West Africans and subsequent generations of Black Americans) and land seizure (colonialism and genocide of countless Indigenous tribes). And while European Christians were able to “escape” Europe and be free here to practice their religion at will, doing so meant becoming white and then asserting dominance over Black and Indigenous people by denying them their basic and religious freedoms, and then justifying it via theologies of Manifest Destiny and white racial superiority. Another pillar of white supremacy is war, which is a tool of asserting dominance and justifying this particular violence through orientalism. By this logic, Islam is cast as foreign and inferior to Christianity and cannot coexist with “western ” (really white) values such as democracy, tolerance, and freedom. Defining Islam as an American religion proves inconvenient for assumptions about America as a “secular” democracy—how can Islam be American when Muslims are terrorists who don’t believe in democracy, tolerance, or freedom? Conservative and liberal white Americans alike espouse this rhetoric: Islamophobia is entrenched in American culture because white supremacy culture is the foundation of America. What is even more inconvenient is that Muslims have inhabited the Americas and the British colonies for just as long as Christians, albeit in a different capacity. While European Christians came for religious freedom and willingly came to the Americas, African Muslims were enslaved and forcibly brought to the Americas. Black and enslaved Muslims are just as much a part of US American history as white and colonizer Christians, but telling this narrative requires explaining white supremacy, even going a step further and intentionally including the narratives of Black Muslims in our lectures and assigned readings/ podcasts/documentaries. This takes intention and work, but I contend it is our responsibility as American religious historians—particularly those of us who do

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