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No one believes Islam is a race. It is a religion.However, in recent years following the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, a debate on the description of Islam as a race has raged almost constantly. Most of it is centered around the description of Islamophobia, or the hatred or disgust against the religion of Islam, as a form of racism by anti-Islamophobic advocacy groups. This line of logic is merely strengthened by fact that, in Europe, the United States, and Australasia (all of which contain nominally majority-Christian, European-descended populations), the Muslim religious minorities in these countries usually hail, by way of ancestry, from other countries, most being in the Middle East, North Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the East Indies.This position of those who assume that Muslims are a race or an ethnic group is not new in any way. The correlation of ethnicity with religion is also present in Judaism, where being Jewish is, very often, both an ethnic and a religious identification, although conversions from another religion to Judaism (even if one is not of "Jewish ancestry") are possible and many Jews do not practice the religion on an active basis (in fact, many are atheist or, to a lesser extent, members of another religion who simply have Jewish ancestry). This was reinforced by ill feelings, violence and segregatory actions against Jews - both practicing and non-practicing - by the non-Jewish majorities in countries like Russia, France and Germany; this resulted in voluntary segregation of Jewish populations in towns and cities so that the more religious Jewish residents could enjoy their institutions in a fragile peace while those who desired secular lifestyles would find employment outside the Jewish enclaves in clerical and business positions. This, of course, was shattered by the Holocaust and other mass pogroms against Jewish populations which led to their migrations to other countries, including Israel, the United States and Australasia.

A key note to take into account is the emphasis in both religions against intermarriage with non-Muslims or non-Jews. This has played a huge role in the conceptualization of the "Muslim" or the "Jew" as an ethnic distinction, despite the more-or-less wide ethnic gulfs between the ethnic origins of particular Jewish communities (compare the Ashkenazi Jews to the Mizrahi Jews) or particular Muslim communities (compare Saudi Arabs to Iranians). As a result, this self-seclusion of Muslims from intermarriage with others of another faith (which, in places where the Muslim minority may also be an ethnic minority like the Pakistani-British or Turkish-German communities, may also mean abstention from intermarriage outside the ethnicity) equates with a genealogical monolithicness that distinguishes the Muslims from other religious and ethnic groups.

This classification of Muslims as an ethnic group has also been present previous to the events of 9/11/01: "Muslim" was a term given to the Bosniak ethnic group, which was one of the main groups involved in the Bosnian war of the early-to-mid-1990's, by the media of the English-speaking world.So Islam, while not a race or an ethnicity per se, does possess an ethnic element with the emphasis upon marriage within the Ummah, or worldwide Muslim community. It also possesses an ethnocultural aspect in the emphasis upon the usage of Arabic as the liturgical language in the most serious ceremonies. Finally, an ethnonational and ethnopolitical aspect is seen in the creation of political divisions and subdivisions to cater to the above conditions: the creation of Pakistan in 1947, for example, resulted out of the desire for a home for Indian Muslims who felt left out of the political process of an independent, predominately-Hindu India, even though Pakistan, while being predominately Muslim, is very ethnically diverse.To describe "Muslim" as an ethnic term is mostly a result of the realities of religious segregation and all the subsidiary distinctions that result; thus, it may be appropriate to describe someone, based upon ancestry from a practicing Muslim ancestor, as a Muslim-American even though he or she may not be a practicing Muslim. However, just like how Judaism and Catholicism are religions, not ethnic groups, Islam is also not an ethnic group, but a religion that one can subscribe to and withdraw from.

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11y ago
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By definition, a Muslim is one who follows the religion of Islam. Literal meaning of Muslim is the person who submits himself/herself to God. Any human being could be Muslim irrespective of his/her race. In Islam there is no discrimination on the basis of race.

There are many governments, especially in Eastern Europe, who regard people identifying themselves as Muslims, to be an ethnicity due to their ancestors converting to Islam. Some of them are not practicing Islam but still call themselves Muslim.

But definitely Islam is the religion of all mankind not of a specific race.

No any human can not be called a Muslim, but anyone can follow Islam. Muslim were of those of Afrocentric Areas and now many have converted to Islam but they are not Muslims. I am 52 years old and on my Birth certificate where it ask for race; mine says Muslim. I have been told my my grand parents that we are Muslims not Americans, not Black but Muslims.

Islam is religion. It is the God religion since start of universe creation. Refer to question below.

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