civil rights Archives

Keynote on Race and Religion at the Intersection [Drexel Law]

Professor Sahar Aziz delivered the Center for Law, Policy and Social Action (CLPSA) keynote at Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law. Professor Aziz examined the intersectional relationship between race and religion, namely as it pertains to Muslim identity and experiences of racialized religious discrimination and infringement upon religious freedom in the United States. Her highly acclaimed book featured in Time Magazine, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom, informed the public lecture on October 23, 2023.… Continue reading

NJ Muslim Mayor Who Was Denied White House Entry [Gothamist]

A Muslim mayor in New Jersey is calling for an end to the U.S. government’s terror watch lists after he was barred from a celebration at the White House. Mohamed Khairullah — in his fifth term as Prospect Park’s mayor, and first elected to the borough’s council in 2001 — was on his way to an Eid al-Fitr celebration at the White House on Monday when he was told the Secret Service would not allow him to attend. Khairullah, a well-known Muslim leader in New Jersey, said at a Tuesday… Continue reading

Fireside Chat on The Racial Muslim with Deb Amos [Rutgers]

Internationally renowned journalist and NPR correspondent Deb Amos joined Professor Sahar Aziz at Rutgers University-Newark for a fireside chat about immigration, race, Islamophobia, and religious pluralism. Watch their conversation here and below. For a more in-depth analysis, read The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom.… Continue reading

Why the 2022 Election was Historic for Muslim Women’s Representation [The 19th]

A record number of Muslim women ran for office in 2022 — and they won. The election cycle made history with 153 Muslim candidates on the general ballot, per a report released by Jetpac Resource Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Sixty-one percent of Muslim women candidates won, compared with 56 percent of Muslim men. Mauree Turner, the only nonbinary Muslim in the midterm elections, won a second term in the Oklahoma legislature. It’s a notable shift in a country with a deep history of Islamophobia. Sahar Aziz, professor… Continue reading

The Curious Case of the Racial Muslim [EU Scream]

Legal scholar Sahar Aziz says people who identify as Muslim are often perceived in racial terms, like Black and Brown people, in White-dominated societies. That makes Muslims on both sides of the Atlantic the subject of similar forms of racism. She also says protecting observant Muslims in Europe may be more difficult than in the United States, where religious observance is more commonplace. In this episode: Sahar Aziz in conversation with the journalist and think tanker Shada Islam. Listen to the podcast here. Purchase your copy of the… Continue reading

Princeton School of Public and International Affairs features The Racial Muslim [Endnotes]

Freedom of religion is a constitutionally protected right in the religion clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. By definition, this should reflect America’s diversity and cover all people equally — whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, agnostic, or atheist. In practice, however, Americans sometimes support policies that seemingly violate the civil rights of Muslims. Although the U.S. Census identifies Muslim immigrants of the Middle East and North Africa as white, they face discrimination and prejudices of being terrorists, suspicious, and violent. This paradox is the heart of “The … Continue reading

The Dichotomy Between the First Amendment and How Muslims are Treated [The Jabot]

In this episode of the Jabot podcast, Kathryn speaks with Sahar Aziz, author, and Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School. Sahar shares how she first became interested in her book, The Racial Muslim. She details some historical examples of how the book’s hypothesis is supported and discusses how far back the ideas go. Professor Aziz also talks about the dichotomy between belief in the First Amendment and how that squares away in modern political discourse with the reality of how Muslims are treated. — To listen to the… Continue reading

Dickinson College to Host Talk on Race and Religious Freedom

Middle East and legal studies scholar Sahar Aziz will deliver the annual Wesley Lecture at Dickinson. The talk, “The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashed Religious Freedom,” will take place Thursday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter (ATS) Auditorium. It is free and open to the public. Well-fitting masks are required, and N95 or KN95 masks are strongly recommended. The lecture will also be available on a YouTube livestream. Aziz is a professor of law, chancellor’s social justice scholar and Middle East and legal… Continue reading

The U.S. census sees Middle Eastern and North African people as white. Many don’t [NPR]

The complicated relationship many people with MENA origins have with whiteness is entangled with a naturalization system in the U.S. that, until 1952, imposed racial restrictions on which immigrants could become citizens. First arriving in large numbers in the late 1800s, the earliest generations of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa saw whiteness as the path towards claiming full rights in their new country. There were several court cases where Syrian immigrants emphasized their Christianity because it was considered a European religion and, therefore, a marker of whiteness,… Continue reading

The Racial Muslim with Sahar Aziz [American Muslim Project]

Season 2 of American Muslim Project kicks off with Sahar Aziz, Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar at Rutgers University Law School. She is also the founding director of the interdisciplinary Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights. She joins AMP to talk about her new book, “The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom.”… Continue reading

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