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> plenty of Germans are racist against other populations, especially Muslims I don't mean to pick on you in particular, but your comment is an example of a pat
by gwright 10y ago
> plenty of Germans are racist against other populations, especially Muslims
I don't mean to pick on you in particular, but your comment is an example of a pattern I've noticed over the last few years that results in confusion more than clarity -- using the term 'racism' outside of the context of 'race'.
In most cases, I think 'prejudiced' or 'bigoted' is probably a more accurate label when you are talking about irrationally negative attitudes towards religious, political, cultural or national groups.
Not all negative attitudes are necessarily prejudiced or bigoted. Religion and politics exist in the realm of ideas -- one person's 'bigotry' can be another person's rationality and of course reasonable people can agree to disagree without there being any prejudice or bigotry involved.
- dpark 10y agoTo be clear, I'm aware that "Muslim" is not a race. I believe it's still valid to refer to racism against Muslims in this scenario. I don't believe that the German prejudice was motivated primarily by religious differences. I don't believe that an ethnically-German Muslim would face the same prejudice as, say, an ethnically-Moroccan or Syrian immigrant. I think this comes down to racism more than anything. Xenophobia might be another accurate label. It's not just religious disagreement, though. I think most of the anti-Muslim rhetoric in the US these days fits into the same bucket. I don't believe most of it is really religious. You've got Donald Trump claiming he loves Israel and Jews and then claiming that Muslims are ruining/attacking America. That's not a case where the issue is religious disagreement or Jews would be as much a target as Muslims. Again, you could certainly call this xenophobia. I think racism is still pretty accurate, though.