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False positive Muslims and subtle Islamophobia: ‘He looks like a Muslim. He MUST be a Muslim’

Posted on: 13 November 2020

Hello, my name is Kamran.

The word ‘absurd’ would be a bit harsh here but that is how I feel when someone assumes that I belong to a certain faith based on their own imagination. I have been greeted on Eid day at my workplace by my colleagues; I have been asked ‘not even water?’ during the Muslim fasting month, most of them not being aware that I would be taking a lunch break with them few hours later. I have also been questioned about my religion by patients who would ask and answer the question at the same time – cataloguing me as a Muslim. I don’t carry traditional attire and my beard style exemplifies nothing but just the trend out there... but then again, a beard is not specified to Muslims alone. Then what makes me get the tag of nothing else but a Muslim?

Is it because I have black hair on my head and face?

Or because my eyes are not blue or green? Or because I am brown, which in all its generalisation, is an umbrella term for every South Asian who is wrongly perceived to belong to an Islamic faith? Or perhaps because I have a different way of speaking English? Whichever is an accurate reason.

I will always be stereotyped as a Muslim based on the above features. None of the western clothes, fake accent or White friends circle can hide the melanin of my skin and eumelanin of my hair, which seem to be the identity of my faith. The bottom-line is that no matter what I try to look like, I will always look like a typecast Muslim to the people around me.

You may think I am a Muslim but how far have you seen me beyond my exterior? I may not have visited the Mosque in years. I may not have fasted for even a single day during the month of Ramadhan over the last decade. I may not be taking a break from work during Friday afternoon to offer weekly congregational prayer. I may belong to some other religion. I may not even belong to any religion. I may be Gnostic. I may be Agnostic. I may be an Atheist. I may be on a spiritual journey of my own. I may have only started my quest for rationality. I may not want to associate with any religion including the religion of the house I was born in. I may see God differently, I may have a different image of God in my head, I may call him by a different name, I may not even call him. I may want to keep my belief as a private affair. I may want to be identified by my personality, my character, my nature, and not by which faith I belong to, or which book I follow. My ideas may have evolved over time and I may not be a follower of any particular school of thought, but because my physical features or genetic make-up cannot be altered, will I still have to live with a certain tag attached to my identity based on the outlook? In our world today, the answer is probably yes.

In this day and age when ideas such as gender fluidity are finally getting their due recognition and acceptance, why can we not coin a term on the similar notion when it comes to someone’s faith – something beyond religious stereotypes – perhaps a concept of religious fluidity. A person born with a certain phenotype in a certain geographical location that grows up in a certain religious cult or tradition does not necessarily remain in that confinement forever. You cannot assign faith at birth. Self-realization and exploration must be encouraged in individuals when it comes to faith rather than embedding a certain school of thought in a young mind.

My physical features should not and must not define my beliefs. I may look like a Muslim, Christian, Jew, Sikh, Buddhist or Hindu but you cannot classify me to any religious group based on my biological appearance unless explicitly indicated on my part.

When I am at work the only faith I belong to is my job. I should be faithful to my job and that is it. No other faith matters at that time. When I am outside work, my faith is my personal matter. No one knows what those personal beliefs are and hence should not stereotype based on what they see. My view is that a practicing Muslim is as likely to be at target of Islamophobia as the one who just ‘looks like a Muslim’ – a false positive in this case.

Thank you for reading,
Kamran

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