From the publisher: “Why does a country with religious liberty enmeshed in its legal and social structures produce such overt prejudice and discrimination against Muslims? Sahar Aziz’s groundbreaking book demonstrates how race and religion intersect to create what she calls the Racial Muslim. Comparing discrimination against immigrant Muslims with the prejudicial treatment of Jews, Catholics, Mormons, and African American Muslims during the twentieth century, Aziz explores the gap between America’s aspiration for and fulfillment of religious freedom. With America’s demographics rapidly changing from a majority white Protestant nation to a multiracial, multireligious society, this book is an in dispensable read for understanding how our past continues to shape our present—to the detriment of our nation’s future.”
Sahar Aziz is professor of law and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar at Rutgers Law School and the founding director of the Center for Security, Race and Rights. Aziz’s scholarship examines how race and religion intersect with national security law to disproportionately impact minorities in domestic and international counterterrorism. She is a Soros Equality Fellow, recipient of the Derrick Bell Award from the American Association of Law Schools, and author of “The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom.”
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi is professor and chair of Near Eastern Studies and director of Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of three books on different aspects and historical context of the Iranian revolution of 1979 and its aftermath: “Islam and Dissent in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” “Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment” and “Remembering Akbar: Inside the Iranian Revolution.” He has written extensively on the topics of social theory and Islamist political thought in different journals and book chapters.
This program is made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This event was recorded on April 28, 2022.