On November 1, lower than a month into Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, United States President Joe Biden’s administration introduced a nationwide technique to battle Islamophobia. The transfer got here as anti-Muslim incidents have been on the rise nationwide.
On October 14, Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian American youngster, was stabbed to loss of life in Chicago whereas his mom was critically wounded in a racially motivated assault by their landlord. 5 days later, Jasmer Singh, a 66-year-old Sikh man, was overwhelmed to loss of life in New York Metropolis by a person screaming “turban man”. (Observant Sikhs are sometimes mistaken for Muslims.) On October 28, Muslim American doctor Talat Jehan Khan was stabbed to loss of life in Texas.
Biden’s initiative was mirrored by some US tutorial establishments, which adopted anti-Islamophobia measures, sometimes alongside anti-Semitism prevention insurance policies. Stanford, the College of Maryland, Columbia and Harvard are among the many instructional establishments that introduced such initiatives.
However the White Home technique to struggle Islamophobia has been met with widespread scorn and mock. X (previously Twitter) customers responded to Vice President Kamala Harris’s announcement of the initiative with criticism and pointed questions on US complicity within the atrocities going down within the Gaza Strip. On campuses, the crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism and advocacy has belied universities’ anti-Islamophobia initiatives.
These reactions replicate Muslim People’ rising rejection of the try to interchange systemic political calls for with these targeted on intolerance or exclusion. This marks a break from the previous twenty years, when a concentrate on cultural acceptance or interfaith dialogue, quite than political critique and motion, formed Muslim American advocacy and organising.
This shift was obvious within the funeral of the slain youngster Wadea, which was attended by hundreds and have become a veritable Free Palestine rally. Audio system condemned the pro-Israel slant of US media protection, the clean cheque given by the US to the Israeli occupation forces to commit atrocities and the years-long siege on Gaza that has hobbled life for its residents. Wadea’s loss of life was mourned not as a matter of anti-Muslim bigotry or hatred however a grisly home flashpoint within the US-Israel alliance.
An analogous place was taken following the capturing of three Palestinian faculty college students in November, whose keffiyeh scarves possible marked them for the assault. When requested in regards to the assault, Kinnan Abdalhamid, one of many survivors, insisted that the main focus ought to stay on requires a everlasting ceasefire in Gaza quite than on his private expertise.
Abdalhamid’s good friend Hisham Awartani, who was left paralysed from the waist down by the capturing, additionally refused to have his ordeal repackaged into an occasion of anti-Muslim intolerance. Awartani stated he was however “one casualty in a a lot wider battle. Had I been shot within the West Financial institution, the place I grew up, the medical providers which saved my life right here would have possible been withheld by the Israeli military. The soldier who shot me would go dwelling and by no means be convicted.”
In the meantime, the Muslim and Arab communities have come out en masse at demonstrations calling for an finish to US materials help to Israel and an instantaneous, everlasting ceasefire.
This mobilisation is a far cry from the dynamics of the previous twenty years, as my analysis on Muslim multiculturalism through the “conflict on terror” years illustrates.
Following 9/11, Muslim American organisations engaged in cultural and attitudinal tasks meant to fight misconceptions about their communities. Many believed that altering America’s perceptions (by instructing in regards to the significance of the Hajj or Ramadan or refuting stereotypes about hijab) would legitimise Muslim presence within the US. In my ethnographic fieldwork, I used to be informed that elevating questions of US militarism would jeopardise the delicate challenge of Muslim American legitimacy.
These years noticed a proliferation of cultural consciousness occasions. On faculty campuses, Muslim Pupil Associations held Islam Consciousness Weeks, once more motivated by the assumption that correcting misperceptions about Muslims would defeat Islamophobia. An annual Worldwide Hijab Day invited non-Muslim ladies to don a scarf in solidarity with Muslim ladies. Museum displays showcased innovations from the Muslim world.
Range initiatives, just like the one by Hole, wherein Sikh actor Waris Ahluwalia was featured in an advert marketing campaign, have been broadly counseled. After one billboard that includes the commercial was defaced with racist graffiti, Hole used it as its Twitter banner, celebrating their numerous casting and galvanizing a viral #thankYouGap marketing campaign throughout Sikh and Muslim America.
Muslim American activists additionally joined numerous interfaith initiatives, such because the Sisterhood of Salaam-Shalom, which was meant to bridge Muslim-Jewish divides by means of dialogue and friendship, and NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change, which was tasked with constructing Muslim-Jewish relationships.
Not all Muslim People embraced these initiatives. Some usually marginalised voices provided trenchant criticism, accusing such programmes of “faithwashing”, that’s utilizing interfaith dialogue to distract from the Israeli state’s colonial violence in opposition to the Palestinian folks. To those critics, bromides of tolerance and understanding turned Palestinian dispossession right into a matter of opinion and particular person variations whereas opposition to Israeli apartheid was defined away with a supposed “primordial hostility” between Jews and Muslims, which may very well be overcome by means of social alternate.
Related ruptures emerged across the annual Ramadan dinner organised by the White Home, which convenes Muslim American leaders for an iftar meal with the president. President Invoice Clinton’s administration held the primary White Home group iftar, and all presidents since then have adopted swimsuit. Even Donald Trump, who issued a “Muslim ban” throughout his presidency, hosted the occasion throughout his time period.
Whereas some noticed the White Home iftar as an opportunity for Muslims to attach with America’s powerbrokers, others condemned attendees for breaking bread with the architects of coups within the Muslim world, assassination programmes, and systematic surveillance and deportations of Muslims. Many Muslim American organisations boycotted the 2021 White Home iftar, citing Biden’s insurance policies on Israel.
At present, these fissures throughout the Muslim and Arab communities are closing. With rising fervour, Muslim America is united in demanding a shift in US Center East coverage.
Muslim and Arab refusal to help Biden, particularly in key states like Michigan, has alarmed Democratic Social gathering leaders. ”It’s my opinion,” writes Palestinian-American scholar Steven Salaita, “that liberals who anticipate Arab People to overlook about Biden’s endorsement of Zionist genocide when November comes round are profoundly mistaken.”
The rejection of faithwashing makes an attempt is now widespread. Muslim People are joined by legions of non-Muslims agitating for Palestinian liberation. Quite than wishing to see extra vibrant boardrooms or authorities liaisons on Islamophobia, they now hold a climate eye on the enduring system of apartheid and its plain challenge of ethnic cleaning and genocide.
Biden’s nationwide technique on Islamophobia has fallen flat amongst Muslim voters. Whether or not this is sufficient to push this voting bloc past two-party electoralism, opting as a substitute for third-party choices and mass-movement organising, stays to be seen. But it marks a seismic shift in Muslim American consciousness, which not accepts cultural tolerance and interfaith understanding as a treatment to the issues of empire.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
