Religion and race: the need for an intersectional approach

Despite its omnipresence in Western history, it is only recently, that the intersection of religion and race has caught again the attention of scholarship, especially with the rise of populist debates about the place of Islam in the West. This article is the introduction of a themed section on ‘Intersections of Religion and Race’, in which we shed light on this neglected intertwinement. We propose and argue for approaching the relationship between religion and race through the lens of intersectionality. The analytical and political project of intersectionality allows us to critically centre the power relations at play as well as the resulting forms of oppression, marginalization, and discrimination at the intersection of White and (secular) Christian supremacy. Moreover, we use the concept to connect a growing body of work on the race-religion-nexus across different disciplines to core concerns of intersectional analysis.