Islam is “religious racism” because Islam, as a religious identity, functions similarly to race in racist systems—namely, dividing people into higher and lower, worthy and unworthy.
Let’s analyze this carefully.
1. What “religious racism” means
The term doesn’t refer to race as a biological given, but to a racially operating mechanism within religious ideology:
One group is presented as “pure,” “divine,” “chosen.”
The other is demonized, “impure,” “apostate,” or “damned.”
Essentially, one can only become valuable by becoming part of the right group.
That is precisely how racism functions, only its foundation is now theological rather than biological.
2. Why it’s a useful term
The term religious racism helps to emphasize:
That religious hierarchies sometimes operate just as exclusively as racial ones.
That “belief” or “disbelief” are not simply beliefs, but often social identities that determine who counts and who doesn’t.
That religious systems link moral value to group membership—something that modern human rights thinking rejects.
In sociology, we already discuss:
Religious othering
Faith-based discrimination
Cultural racism (where religion replaces culture as a criterion of race)
Religious racism is therefore a logical extension: it describes a racially functioning religious logic.
3. An example from the Islamic context
When classical tafsīr says: “The unbelievers are the worst of creatures” (98:6), and Muslims “the best of creatures” (98:7),
A pattern then emerges in which one’s own group is defined as essentially superior, and the other as essentially inferior.
This is not racism in the biological sense, but religious racism in the functional sense: it creates a spiritual hierarchy that makes people unequal beings.
4. Why the term is also critical and useful:
It breaks through the usual excuse: “It’s not racism because everyone can convert.”
But this excuse ignores the fact that dignity should not be conditional.
The fact that someone must convert to become equal is precisely the racist mechanism itself—but in religious form.
| Classical racism | Religious racism |
| Basis of superiority: race / blood / ethnicity | Basis of superiority: faith / revelation / group membership |
| Type of inequality: Biological | Type of inequality: Spiritual / moral |
| Effect: dehumanization, exclusion, domination | Effect: dehumanization, exclusion, domination |
| Ethical status: Unacceptable | Ethical status: Unacceptable |
There are verses in the Quran, with their classical interpretations, that, from a modern critical perspective, we might consider religious racism, or at least a hierarchical exclusion based on faith.
Important: This doesn’t mean the Quran is literally “racist” in the modern sense (race isn’t about skin color), but its structure functions as racism: some groups are declared inherently superior or inferior.
Here are some examples:
1. Surah 98:6–7 – “Believers are the best of creation, disbelievers the worst”
“Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds are the best of creation. Indeed, those who disbelieve… they are the worst of creation.”
- Analysis: Classical interpretation: Muslims (or those who follow the right path) are morally and spiritually “superior,” disbelievers inferior.
- Modern critical perspective: This creates a hierarchy that links ethical and human worth to group membership, a form of religious racism.
- Functionally similar to racism: it makes one group “better” and another “bad” based on identity, not actions alone.
2. Surah 9:40 – “The word of the believers is the highest, that of the disbelievers the lowest”
“And He made the word of the disbelievers the lowest, while the word of Allah is the highest.”
- Analysis: Context: The Prophet and Abu Bakr fled from Mecca.
- Classical: Symbolic of the victory of Islamic faith over polytheism.
- Critical: Functions as an ideological hierarchy—believers over unbelievers, creating an essential inferiority of the “other.”
3. Surah 4:56–57 and 4:101 – “Allah will punish the unbelievers.”
“Indeed, those who reject Our signs… for them will be Hell as their abode.”
- Analysis: Critical: This establishes a permanent inequality based on faith; the unbeliever is treated as “fundamentally inferior”.
- Socio-political consequence: It legitimizes exclusion or discrimination against unbelievers.
4. Surah 9:28 – “O disbelievers, you are unclean”
“O believers! The disbelievers among the People of the Book are unclean; avoid them, that you may be successful.”
Analysis:
- Classical: Ritual and social separation of unbelievers.
- Critical: Religious identity is directly linked to impurity, which constitutes a religious-hierarchical exclusion.
- Effect: Functions like racial exclusion, but based on religion.
5. General Patterns in the Quran
- Hierarchy of groups: believers vs. unbelievers.
- Moral / superiority: Those who believe become intrinsically better.
- Essential inferiority statement: Unbelievers or apostates are “bad,” “low,” or “unclean.”
- Dynamic: Makes the group internally superior, the other structurally inferior—functionally comparable to racism.
Note: In the classical context, this often concerns the protection of the community (political/military/social context).
In modern ethics, this can be considered religious racism: inequality of human value based on religious identity.