I’VE copped Islamophobic abuse in the past.

Not nearly as much as many Muslims themselves do, but abuse nonetheless.

It’s... kind of confusing. First and foremost, because abusing strangers isn’t justified under any circumstance.

But aside from that, my only personal connection to Islam is my tendency to avoid ham, because I think it tastes kind of gross.

Evidently, however, some people see a bloke with a tan and a beard, and feel inclined to jump to conclusions about that person’s identity.

They have a clear racial idea of what a Muslim is, but then take to their keyboards and proclaim “Islam is not a race!" whenever they’re deemed racist for expressing anti-Muslim sentiment.

Spoiler alert: that line is a cop-out.

On Monday, Sonia Kruger kicked off an uproar of debate after she called for a nationwide ban on Muslims entering our country.

That night, on ABC’s Q&A program, Pauline Hanson slammed Islam as anti-democratic and anti-freedom, calling for a royal commission into the “so-called religion”.

While both figures have been accused of racism, one line appeared over and over again on social media: “Islam is not a race!”

@Chelseaseahawks @SoniaKruger UGH 1 MORE TIME FOR THE MORONS:ISLAM IS NOT A RACE ISLAM IS NOT A RACE ISLAM IS NOT A RACE ISLAM IS NOT A... — @EEL_55 (@EEL__55) July 18, 2016

@Chelseaseahawks @CarlKenner @SoniaKruger Muslim is not a race, Muslim

'm?zl?m,'a follower of the religion of Islam. You can be any race — kent walker (@kentwalker14) July 18, 2016

Ms Hanson herself made that argument a couple of years ago, while backing Jacqui Lambie’s call for a burqa ban.

She said: “Muslims are not a race so I’m sick of hearing that it’s racist.”

Now, technically that’s true. Islam is not a race. It’s a religion. No one is disputing that.

But if we’re going to “discuss these issues”, as Kruger and Hanson have urged us to do, we need to come out with something a little more considered than a technicality.

Call it racism, call it prejudice, call it bigotry — it’s still discrimination.

In a paper called “Racism and Islamophobia”, sociologist and academic Dr Salman Sayyid argues Muslims are absolutely racialised, even if Islam is not technically a “race”.

He explains how race can be cultural rather than ethnic, saying it’s “never exclusively biologically determined but rather socially and politically produced”.

He writes that, by conveniently ignoring this, people feel like they’re automatically justified in hitting out at Muslims.

He says: “Racism’s ventriloquists can get away with it not just because it is the dummy that does most of the talking but also because they are only bad-mouthing Muslims and they are not a race.”

In other words, people feel like they have a get-out-of-jail free card to spew whatever they want about Muslims, using the fact that it’s not technically an ethnic race as a cover.

It’s such a double standard. Look at the backlash against the Sikh community, which has been copping increased Islamophobic abuse in western countries since 9/11.

A couple of years ago, a Sikh temple in Perth was vandalised with anti-Islamic slurs.

The confused vandals spraypainted messages like “go home”, “Arab f*cks” and “ban Islam” on the temple’s exterior, causing an estimated $40,000 in damage. The temple’s pastor told the media he believed the vandals had confused Sikhism with Islam.

Jaideep Singh, a Sikh Sydneysider and spokesperson for the Sydney University Sikh Society, told news.com.au the turban worn by many of the religion’s adherents definitely “raises a few eyebrows” these days.

“If you drop in at a bar at night it might just be a matter of concern for some people,” he said. “It’s not that easy coming for us.

“Back in the day the turban was a symbol of equality, courage, piety and a lot more — and not what it has now become synonymous to.”

Sikh truck driver Amar Singh told Fairfax accusations of terrorism in his religious community are on the rise, saying he’s been called an “Islamic terrorist”, and even had a child point at him and say “bad man” in a supermarket.

“They confuse us with what they see on television, with the IS and the Taliban. They relate us to these terrorists, the worst of the worst.”

At the end of the day, making assumptions about a whole community, or defending those who do, is bigoted regardless.

It’s not enough to pull out a minor technicality, as if that somehow excuses unwarranted abuse. It doesn’t.

All it does is keep the conversation from moving forward.