I get it though, take a powerful word with negative connotations and use it to put your target on the defensive, no matter how tangential the connection. Kind of like being called a "commie" in the 20th century.
Bigotry against a cultural identity really isn't all that substantially different when the basis of the cultural identity is "race" or "religion", and bigotry against a race or ethnicity can often manifest in bigotry against other cultural identities that are correlated with that race or ethnicity, such as religion.
So, bigotry against a particular can both be a manifestation of racism, as well as being a thing substantially similar to racism independently of whether it is a manifestation of racism.
here's the first definition google gave me ( http://storage8.static.itmages.com/i/15/1015/h_1444933364_24... )
"a group of people sharing the same culture, history, language, etc.; an ethnic group."
During the McCarthy era individuals got persecuted by the state for their beliefs. That's not at all comparable to people voicing an opinion that you may not agree with.
Excellent, this graffiti taught people that one can indeed by racist against muslims, because race is a pseudoscientific social construct used to attack people!
"Othering" is far more general than racism, and relates to identity as a whole, not a specific racial identity.
Anti-Christianity doesn't work the same way in the West, because people here are generally less ignorant of that religion, and less likely to lump in all white people together as Christians. Maybe it's different in the East (though probably not the Middle East, where there are substantial Christian populations), and there they lump in all Christians as "those white people in America and Europe." In which case they would also be having a racist assumption.
However, one aspect that makes a difference is many Americans' picture of a Muslim is someone with vaguely brown skin. The people who engage in anti-Muslim hate crimes sometimes end up attacking Sikhs, non-Muslim Indians, even Coptic-Christians. https://www.splcenter.org/news/2011/03/29/anti-muslim-incide...
In a case where a culture conceptualized all and only White people as Christians and stereotyped or attacked them, I would see no problem calling that racism.
In the absence of specific definitions in the law to the contrary that seems a fairly reasonable interpretation of the meaning most likely intended by Congress.
This also shows in how Israel regulates its immigration: both people with ethnically Jewish roots (at least one of your grandparents) and people of Jewish belief where ethnic roots hadn't been established at that time (biggest example: Ethiopian Jews) are accepted and granted citizenship.
Conversion of people to Judaism are relatively rare, and are really a more recent phenomenon. Jews don't proselytize and often discourage conversion. Samaritans, the "sister" religion of Judaism (both derive from the Israelites from before the destruction of the first temple), are similar but even more extreme in that. How more tribalistic than that can you get?
Jewish culture as such is certainly interwoven with Judaism, but becoming increasingly syncretic. Look at the large number of hilonim in Israel.
Unsure of this myself, I have googled and found that some writers with prominent search ranks say that Jews were always considered to be a race until after the holocaust. I still don't think it's remotely correct to say "synonymous" even here.
My agenda is to understand and promote objective truth. The agenda of those who level charges of racism or sexism or other isms is generally to drive the debate down predetermined emotional channels as a shortcut to an actual discussion.