Is “Kafir” a Dehumanizing Term?

Some modernists: “Kafir” is a dehumanizing term, and dehumanizing people leads to unfair treatment.

Response:

Are terms like “extremist,” “racist,” “terrorist,” “criminal,” “psychotic,” etc. also “dehumanizing terms” as well or are they simply terms used to denote, no doubt in a negative sense, a certain stance one has adopted or moral state of the person? If the former, then why do we use those terms? If the latter, then why not treat the word “kafir” the same way?

Let us not be overdramatic here. Allah calls people kuffar and, at the same time, calls for us to be just to them. He would not have done so if it were not possible. We need to orient our thinking in line with Islamic standpoints.