A 1913 case involving an immigrant petitioner from modern-day Lebanon, Ex parte Shahid, illustrates how Muslim identity was acutely racialized and deeply institutionalized during this time. Following George Shishim's lead, Faras Shahid, a Maronite Christian, asserted his Christian faith to rebut the presumption that he was a Muslim. Judge Henry Smith engaged in his own brand of in-court eugenics, describing Shahid to be "about [the color] of a walnut, or somewhat darker than is the usual mulatto of one-half mixed blood between the white and the negro races."

QUESTION: Shahid was a Maronite Christian who still had to prove he wasn't Muslim. Worth investigating how far this racial presumption extended and when it broke down. XREF: Connects to the George Shishim case mentioned here, suggesting a pattern of Lebanese Christians contesting Muslim racialization in naturalization proceedings.

Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Unde…, loc. 186