Introduction: A Tribute to Dr. Akbar Muḥammad
Zain Abdullah
PART 1: North America
1. What Is This "Black" in Black Muslim?: Notes on Islam and Race in Modern America
Zain Abdullah
2. From Bahia to Black Lives Matter: Black Islam in the United States, Anti-Colonialism, and a Long History of Resistance
Alaina Morgan
3. Race, Religion, Gender, and Authenticity: Mapping South Asian Muslimness in the U.S.
Hinasahar Muneeruddin
4. Legally White, Socially Brown: Racialization of Middle Eastern Americans
Sahar Aziz
5. Islam, Whiteness, and American Muslims
Irteza A. Mohyuddin
6. Racializing Muslim Youth and the French-Canadian Imaginary
Naved Bakali
7. Canadian Muslim Youth, Islamophobia, and the Racialization of Identity
Doaa Shalabi
8. Dreams of al-Andalus: Latinx Muslims Re-Imagining Race as Quadruple Minorities
Ken Chitwood
9. Being Muslim and Mayan in a Catholic Country: Conversion to Islam in Mexico
Sandra Cañas Cuevas
PART 2: Caribbean and South America
10. Racialization and Ethnicity among Muslims in Jamaica
Ahmed Idrissi Alami
11. Islam and Race in Argentina
Ellen McLarney
12. Bismillah Brazil!: Islam, Race, and Hip-Hop
Luciana Garcia de Oliveira and Yasmine Yasmine
PART 3: Europe
13. "Turkifiers Are Worse Than Turks": The Racial Predicament of Bosniak Muslims
Hikmet Karčić
14. Between Race and Religion: Multiculturalism and Islamophobia in Britain
Thomas Sealy and Tariq Modood
15. Islam, Race, and Public Discourse in Finland: Racialization and Religionization
Tuomas Äystö
16. The Racial Realities of French Muslims: Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Issues
Juliette Galonnier
17. Mapping the History of the Racialization of Islam and Muslims in Germany
Luis Manuel Hernandez Aguilar and Zubair Ahmad
18. White Voices: Muslim Women Converts, Whiteness and the Recitation of the Quran in Berlin
Lisa-Maria Brusius
19. Chief Black Eunuchs of The Ottoman Empire: Their Roles, Accomplishments and Efforts to (Re)Create Family
George H. Junne, Jr.
20. Islam (Muslims) and Race in Poland
Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska and Monika Krukowska
21. Racialization of Muslims in Russia and the Soviet Union
Eileen Kane
22. Proto-Racism in Early Modern Spain: Moriscos as a Racialized Religious Minority
E. J. Hernández Peña
23. The Racialization and Agency of Muslims in Spain
Johanna M. Lems
PART 4: Africa
24. Islam and Race in Egypt
May Kosba
25. Racial Transitions: Islam, Transitional Justice, and Morocco’s (Re)Africanization
Brahim El Guabli
26. Swahili Arabic: Imitation, Islam, and the Semiotics of Race in Zanzibar
Caitlyn Bolton
27. "Unapologetically Black, Unapologetically Muslim": Islam and the Paradox of Race among South African Muslims
Tahir Fuzile Sitoto
28. Re-examining Timbuktu: Race, Space, and Islam in a Medieval Sahelian City
Michelle Moore Apotsos
29. Racialization and Islam in Equatorial Guinea, 1950-1979
Praise F. Owojuyigbe
30. Racialized Blackness in Early Arabic Literature: Gendering, Classing, and Community Construction
Rachel Schine
31. Virtues of the Ḥabasha: Exploring Blackness in Islamicate Texts
Haroon Bashir
PART 5: Asia
32. Piety, Morality and Ethno-Racialization: The Uyghur Quest for Modernity Under Chinese Colonialism
Musapir and Rune Steenberg
33. Racialized Thinking and the Hui Minzu in China
Wlodzimierz Cieciura
34. Contextualizing Islam, Slavery, and Orientalism in 19th-Century Iranian Photography
Staci Gem Scheiwiller
35. The Diasporic Location of Islam, Race, and Love in Iranian Cinema: The Case of Majid Majidi’s Bārān
Mahsa Manavi and Behrooz Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari
36. Islam, Race, and Ethnicity in Saudi Arabia
Nadav Samin
37. Racial Formations in Israel/Palestine: Racializing Religion, Constructing Hierarchy
Emily Regan Wills
38. Sexuality, Racial Spaces, and Muslim Others in Pakistan
Naveen Minai
39. Race and the Politics of Enumeration: British Colonial India’s Impact on Twelver Shi’i Identity
Yasmine Flodin-Ali
40. Race, Ethnicity and Identity: The Moros of the Philippines
Vivienne SM. Angeles
41. Islam and Race in Afghanistan: From the “Lost Tribes” to Contemporary Imaginations
William E. B. Sherman
PART 6: Oceania
42. Australian Muslims and the Question of Race
Nahid Afrose Kabir
43. The Unpredictability of Extreme Islamophobia: Muslims, Violence, and “Race” in New Zealand
Erich Kolig
Biography
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.
"[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
