Dismissing the Haradrim and Calormenes as racist archetypes is lazy, though. Tolkien and Lewis went out of their way to invalidate that interpretation.
> crystallized world views that were prevalent
They were prevalent because they were correct. It has nothing to do with race. By the standards of history, nothing between two civilizations is as well documented as the protracted conflict (14 centuries) between the West and Islam [0]. You might argue that this perspective is biased, and you may be correct, but even critics of that perspective acknowledge that the long chain of historical events and accounts of historical events are undeniable, regardless of what you consider to be their cause.
[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37938325-sword-and-scimi...
If you think of the crusades they were more like Roman Catholicism against Islam (and Judaism and Eastern Christianity). For example the crusaders attacked and plundered Constantinople which was Christian at the time - just not catholic.
England have certainly been to war with France more than it has been to war with "Islam".
Remember the Ottomans took Constantinople in the 16th century (Capita of the E. Roman Empire aka Byzantium) and converted the largest Cathedral in the World into a Mosque.
The 'West' would have been referred to as 'Christendom' then, and the issue wasn't resolved until into the enlightenment, 1683, Battle of Vienna.
'Christendom v. Ottomans' is the original 'Cold War'.
One might argue that there are echoes in the Battle of Vienna in Lord of the Rings.
'Political Islam', as we've seen since the 1980's has basically nothing to do with any of that.
FYI a little known, crazy fact (which is likely but not infallibly accurate): you know your 'Croissant'? That delicacy was designed in Vienna by chefs in celebration of their victory in the battle, hence the crescent shape of the bread is literally the Islamic Crescent. [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna [2] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/23/a-short....
The "West vs Islam" is just a particular inane categorization since you are contrasting a geographic area with a religion. You could categorize the Reconquista as Christianity against Islam (and Judaism), and this is how it was framed at the time, but how can it be "the West" against Islam? It is a post-cold war construct to justify a certain ideology, not a meaningful way of understanding history.
Christianity vs islam is a long theme in our history.
You badly misread the crusades as well - the crusaders and the byzantines collaborated. In fact, the byzantines welcomed the crusaders and often helped them in military matters - the crusaders states were used as a buffer from the armies of islam.
The crusaders did attack and plunder constantinople, but this was after the first crusades ; in fact, a couple decades before the sack Latins were sold into slavery and massacred by the byzantines. Reading a single event and turning it into a pattern for latin and byzantine relations in the era is at best sophomoric and at worst dissembling.
There are many other aspects as well such as the last stand at the Battle of the Black Gate being a lot like the Battle of Marathon.
So to me the Lord of the Rings in some parts often sounds like the defense against the Persian Empire (there are various aspects that don't fit of course), so to only see it through the myopic eyes of Identity politics is I agree lazy.
The legends in the Niebelungelied is from this time.
Aravis is a Calormen, but a heroine and joins Shasta in an interracial marriage. And while it's true that Narnia is an idealized culture (like Gondor under its good kings) and therefore portrayed as superior to Calormene culture, Lewis is willing to elevate an aspect of the latter above English culture when he writes "In Calormen story-telling is a thing you're taught, just as English boys and girls are taught essay writing. The difference is that people want to hear the stories, whereas I never heard of anyone who wanted to read the essays."
I don't think Tolkien or Lewis wholly escape the charge of racism; I think few people do, in their time or ours. I think they consciously resisted the idea that the English were some kind of master race.
And Tolkien's successful campaign to put old English at the heat of English studies is well known by this point if you read any biography of Tolkien.
True Tolkien and Lewis where "of their time" but they are no Lovecraft