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I have never, never seen anti-Christianity been referred to as "racism" by anyone, not even evangelicals and fundamentalists. It would make large swaths of crit

I have never, never seen anti-Christianity been referred to as "racism" by anyone, not even evangelicals and fundamentalists. It would make large swaths of criticism of Christianity (not to mention many extreme metal bands) post-facto racist. "Othering" is far more general than racism, and relates to identity as a whole, not a specific racial identity.

Apocryphon 11y ago
Granted, there are many types of anti-Islamic thought, everything from actually studying the tenets of the religion and arguing against it from different angles, all of the way to having ignorant, inaccurate cultural stereotypes- Islamophobia. My conflating of racism with anti-Islam is with the latter. Because people in the West are usually less familiar with Islam, it's not difficult for people to assume Muslims are "those brown people over there in the Middle East", not unlike how a medieval European might have the social construct of a "Saracen." The point is, when a show depicts Islam in an inaccurate way that lumps a bunch of different peoples and cultures together as one Middle Eastern hodgepodge, it can be considered false to life, and thus, "racist." Anti-Christianity doesn't work the same way in the West, because people here are generally less ignorant of that religion, and less likely to lump in all white people together as Christians. Maybe it's different in the East (though probably not the Middle East, where there are substantial Christian populations), and there they lump in all Christians as "those white people in America and Europe." In which case they would also be having a racist assumption.
hyperpape 11y ago
I agree that's a bad definition. However, one aspect that makes a difference is many Americans' picture of a Muslim is someone with vaguely brown skin. The people who engage in anti-Muslim hate crimes sometimes end up attacking Sikhs, non-Muslim Indians, even Coptic-Christians. https://www.splcenter.org/news/2011/03/29/anti-muslim-incidents-sept-11-2001 https://www.splcenter.org/news/2011/03/29/anti-muslim-incide... In a case where a culture conceptualized all and only White people as Christians and stereotyped or attacked them, I would see no problem calling that racism.
pessimizer 11y ago
"Evangelicals and fundamentalists" are usually referring to non-existent discrimination, like not being allowed to use the state to discriminate. Ask a few Pakistani or Egyptian Christians, or Kurds. You'll notice that Christianity (like all other religions) usually follows ethnic lines in any particular place.

Apocryphon 11y ago

Granted, there are many types of anti-Islamic thought, everything from actually studying the tenets of the religion and arguing against it from different angles, all of the way to having ignorant, inaccurate cultural stereotypes- Islamophobia. My conflating of racism with anti-Islam is with the latter. Because people in the West are usually less familiar with Islam, it's not difficult for people to assume Muslims are "those brown people over there in the Middle East", not unlike how a medieval European might have the social construct of a "Saracen." The point is, when a show depicts Islam in an inaccurate way that lumps a bunch of different peoples and cultures together as one Middle Eastern hodgepodge, it can be considered false to life, and thus, "racist." Anti-Christianity doesn't work the same way in the West, because people here are generally less ignorant of that religion, and less likely to lump in all white people together as Christians. Maybe it's different in the East (though probably not the Middle East, where there are substantial Christian populations), and there they lump in all Christians as "those white people in America and Europe." In which case they would also be having a racist assumption.

hyperpape 11y ago

I agree that's a bad definition. However, one aspect that makes a difference is many Americans' picture of a Muslim is someone with vaguely brown skin. The people who engage in anti-Muslim hate crimes sometimes end up attacking Sikhs, non-Muslim Indians, even Coptic-Christians. https://www.splcenter.org/news/2011/03/29/anti-muslim-incidents-sept-11-2001 https://www.splcenter.org/news/2011/03/29/anti-muslim-incide... In a case where a culture conceptualized all and only White people as Christians and stereotyped or attacked them, I would see no problem calling that racism.

pessimizer 11y ago

"Evangelicals and fundamentalists" are usually referring to non-existent discrimination, like not being allowed to use the state to discriminate. Ask a few Pakistani or Egyptian Christians, or Kurds. You'll notice that Christianity (like all other religions) usually follows ethnic lines in any particular place.