Routledge Handbook of Islam and Race

Zain Abdullah is an independent scholar, consultant, curator and associate professor emeritus of Religion & Society and Islamic Studies at Temple University, USA. Dr. Abdullah has held national directorships and convened numerous programs. His lectures and writings cover topics on religion and society, race and Africana, and art and culture.

• Introduction: A Tribute to Dr. Akbar Muḥammad; PART 1: North America; 1. What is this "Black" in Black Muslim?: Notes on Islam and Race in Modern America; 2. From Bahia to Black Lives Matter: Black Islam in the United States, Anti-Colonialism, and a Long History of Resistance; 3. Race, Religion, Gender, and Authenticity: Mapping South Asian Muslimness in the U.S.; 4. Legally White, Socially Brown: Racialization of Middle Eastern Americans; 5. Islam, Whiteness, and American Muslims; 6. Racializing Muslim Youth and the French-Canadian Imaginary; 7. Canadian Muslim Youth, Islamophobia, and the Racialization of Identity; 8. Dreams of al-Andalus: Latinx Muslims Re-Imagining Race as Quadruple Minorities; 9. Being Muslim and Mayan in a Catholic Country: Conversion to Islam in Mexico; PART 2: Caribbean and South America; 10. Racialization and Ethnicity among Muslims in Jamaica; 11. Islam and Race in Argentina; 12. Bismillah Brazil!: Islam, Race, and Hip-Hop; PART 3: Europe; 13. "Turkifiers Are Worse Than Turks": The Racial Predicament of Bosniak Muslims; 14. Between Race and Religion: Multiculturalism and Islamophobia in Britain; 15. Islam, Race, and Public Discourse in Finland: Racialization and Religionization; 16. The Racial Realities of French Muslims: Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Issues; 17. Mapping the History of the Racialization of Islam and Muslims in Germany; 18. White Voices: Muslim Women Converts, Whiteness and the Recitation of the Quran in Berlin; 19. Chief Black Eunuchs of The Ottoman Empire: Their Roles, Accomplishments and Efforts to (Re)Create Family; 20. Islam (Muslims) and Race in Poland; 21. Racialization of Muslims in Russia and the Soviet Union; 22. Proto-Racism in Early Modern Spain: Moriscos as a Racialized Religious Minority; 23. The Racialization and Agency of Muslims in Spain; PART 4: Africa; 24. Islam and Race in Egypt; 25. Racial Transitions: Islam, Transitional Justice, and Morocco’s (Re)Africanization; 26. Swahili Arabic: Imitation, Islam, and the Semiotics of Race in Zanzibar; 27. "Unapologetically Black, Unapologetically Muslim": Islam and the Paradox of Race among South African Muslims; 28. Re-examining Timbuktu: Race, Space, and Islam in a Medieval Sahelian City; 29. Racialization and Islam in Equatorial Guinea, 1950-1979; 30. Racialized Blackness in Early Arabic Literature: Gendering, Classing, and Community Construction; 31. Virtues of the Ḥabasha: Exploring Blackness in Islamicate Texts; PART 5: Asia; 32. Piety, Morality and Ethno-Racialization: The Uyghur Quest for Modernity Under Chinese Colonialism; 33. Racialized Thinking and the Hui Minzu in China; 34. Contextualizing Islam, Slavery, and Orientalism in 19th-Century Iranian Photography; 35. The Diasporic Location of Islam, Race, and Love in Iranian Cinema: The Case of Majid Majidi’s Bārān; 36. Islam, Race, and Ethnicity in Saudi Arabia; 37. Racial Formations in Israel/Palestine: Racializing Religion, Constructing Hierarchy; 38. Sexuality, Racial Spaces, and Muslim Others in Pakistan; 39. Race and the Politics of Enumeration: British Colonial India’s Impact on Twelver Shi’i Identity; 40. Race, Ethnicity and Identity: The Moros of the Philippines; 41. Islam and Race in Afghanistan: From the “Lost Tribes” to Contemporary Imaginations; PART 6: Oceania; 42. Australian Muslims and the Question of Race; 43. The Unpredictability of Extreme Islamophobia: Muslims, Violence, and “Race” in New Zealand

"[This book] explores the historical, social, and political dimensions of how Islam is racialised, providing valuable context and analysis to comprehend better the ongoing challenges faced by Muslim communities worldwide...The handbook is an impressive resource. Its global perspective, multidisciplinary insights, and critical frameworks make it a valuable guide for anyone examining the intersection of Islam and race in today’s world."- Dr Paula M. Arana Barbier (Max Weber Institute for Sociology, Universität Heidelberg)"The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Race represents an important contribution to scholarship on racialization and Islam...The book’s chapters can offer valuable insights to a wide range of readers, but the book should not be mistaken for a basic primer on Muslims in the U.S."- Besheer Mohamed (Pew Research Centre, Washington, DC)"I have no doubt that the contributors to this volume would agree with me that this work is not a conclusion but an invitation. It marks the opening of a new era in the study of Islam and race—one that calls for greater theoretical clarity in understanding Muslim networks, history, capitalism, and digital futures."- Mbaye Lo Professor and Director (The Duke University Middle East Studies Center & The Duke Islamic Studies Center), in Research Africa Reviews Vol. 9 No. 3, December 2025