Huff Post: One of the most prevalent talking points in the 2016 election cycle is the role of religion, and the in-grouping and outgrouping that political figures are using to describe America.

While Donald Trump’s comments about banning Muslims from entering the country have drawn the most criticism, the racializing of Islam has been in full effect for well over a decade. This racialization has also dovetailed with American ideological polarization, making Islam — and the role of Muslim-Americans — a combustible topic of discussion.

What activists now call Islamophobia reflects a trend of outgrouping and Othering religions and cultures that are deemed incompatible with amorphously defined American values. As noted scholar Khyati Joshi has written about extensively, racializing religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism has also created an environment where Christian privilege is frequently assumed and subsequently imposed upon the public sphere.

But the racialization of minority religions began long before Islamophobia. In fact, prior to the 1980s (which saw the Iran-Iraq war, the U.S. backed-mujahadeen in Afghanistan, the first Palestinian intifada, and Islamic clerics’ death threats against author Salman Rushdie over the Satanic Verses), Islam was relatively benign within the scale of America’s religious and social discourse.

Compared to the pervasive anti-Semitism in American social discourse throughout the 20th century, Islam wasn’t vilified as much as it was marginalized and exoticized — primarily in the minds of Hollywood producers who viewed Muslims as harem-holding turbaned sheikhs or belly dancers. Ironically, Islam was seen as a positive force against the “darkness” of the Axis powers, highlighted by Frank Capra’s reference to the Quran in the famous World War II propaganda film, Why We Fight.

More: