Why it's imperative that being critical of Islam is widely known as NOT Racist.

I was born in Egypt and my parents along with most of my family moved to The United States in Virginia when I was two years old.

My parents never forced their religion on me, but since it surrounded me I tended to follow them since thats what everyone else around me was doing. I was a Muslim in the sense that i believed in God and celebrated the holidays but it was more that I just took it as a given. When I began to question it in College I decided to become agnostic and tended to leave my beliefs behind, I told my parents about it and my parents laughed and told me they pretty much believed the same.

While my story is just me writing in the air at this point I'm trying to make a point: Being Critical of Islam and being Racist are two very different things: Racism is without question wrong because the other person has no choice in the manner and the color of their skin doesn't control their actoins. Islam on the other hand is a CHOICE and an Ideology that someone can stop believing at anytime they choose (The question of if they can express that disbelief is another question entirely). This Ideology openly endorses Homophobia, Sexism, and Violence and one that I'm glad my parents and I moved away from. I find it disgusting how people can openly be critical of religions like Scientology, Mormonism, and Jehovah Witness's but Islam gets a free pass for some reason.

Tl;DR: Racism isn't a choice and you can't do anything about it, Religion is a choice and you can change it whenever.