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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging: Religion

A growing resource for Faculty and Staff at St. Luke's School

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Common Islamophobic Microaggressions

Six Categories of Common Islamomisic Microaggressions (from Subtle and Overt Forms of Islamophobia: Microaggressions toward Muslim Americans)

  1. Endorsing Religious Stereotypes: statements or behaviors that communicate false, presumptuous, or incorrect perceptions of certain religious groups (e.g., stereotyping that a Muslim person is a terrorist or that a Jewish person is cheap).

  2. Exoticization: instances where people view other religions as trendy or foreign (e.g., an individual who dresses in a certain religion’s garb or garments for fashion or pleasure).

  3. Pathology of Different Religious Groups: Statements and behaviors in which individuals equate certain religious practices or traditions as being abnormal, sinful, or deviant (e.g., telling someone that they are in the “wrong” religion).

  4. Assumption of One's Own Religious Identity as the Norm: Comments or behaviors that convey people’s presumption that their religion is the standard and behaves accordingly (e.g., greeting someone with “Merry Christmas” conveys one's perception that everyone is Christian or similarly saying “God bless you” after someone sneezes conveys one’s perception that everyone believes in God).

  5. Assumption of Religious Homogeneity: Statements in which individuals assume that every believer of a religion practices the same customs or has the same beliefs as the entire group (e.g., assuming that all Muslim people wear head coverings).

  6. Denial of Religious Prejudice: Incidents in which individuals claim that they are not religiously biased, even if their words or behaviors may indicate otherwise.

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