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 had 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, usually alongside anti-Semitism prevention insurance policies. Stanford, the College of Maryland, Columbia and Harvard are among the many academic establishments that introduced such initiatives.
However the White Home technique to battle 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 exchange systemic political calls for with these centered on intolerance or exclusion. This marks a break from the previous twenty years, when a give attention to cultural acceptance or interfaith dialogue, relatively 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 1000’s 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 school college students in November, whose keffiyeh scarves probably marked them for the assault. When requested concerning the assault, Kinnan Abdalhamid, one of many survivors, insisted that the main target ought to stay on requires a everlasting ceasefire in Gaza relatively 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 companies which saved my life right here would have probably been withheld by the Israeli military. The soldier who shot me would go house 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 a right away, everlasting ceasefire.
This mobilisation is a far cry from the dynamics of the previous twenty years, as my analysis on Muslim multiculturalism throughout the “battle on terror” years illustrates.
Following 9/11, Muslim American organisations engaged in cultural and attitudinal initiatives meant to fight misconceptions about their communities. Many believed that altering America’s perceptions (by instructing concerning 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 advised that elevating questions of US militarism would jeopardise the delicate mission of Muslim American legitimacy.
These years noticed a proliferation of cultural consciousness occasions. On school 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 headband in solidarity with Muslim ladies. Museum reveals showcased innovations from the Muslim world.
Variety initiatives, just like the one by Hole, by which Sikh actor Waris Ahluwalia was featured in an advert marketing campaign, had 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 provoking a viral #thankYouGap marketing campaign throughout Sikh and Muslim America.
Muslim American activists additionally joined varied 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 could possibly be overcome by means of social alternate.
Comparable 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 neighborhood 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.
Right now, these fissures throughout the Muslim and Arab communities are closing. With growing 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 Occasion leaders. ”It’s my opinion,” writes Palestinian-American scholar Steven Salaita, “that liberals who anticipate Arab People to neglect 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. Slightly than wishing to see extra vibrant boardrooms or authorities liaisons on Islamophobia, they now maintain a climate eye on the enduring system of apartheid and its plain mission 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 now 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.
