The Islamophobic Attempt to Marginalize American Muslim Civic Participation

by Sheila Musaji

The Islamophobia echo chamber seems to have reached some sort of critical mass.  The attempt to marginalize American Muslims and to characterize them as “the other” has become relentless.

ANTI-MOSQUE incidents have become commonplace, including incidents of arson, shootings, firebombing, driving trucks into mosque buildings, etc. and bigoted objections to local mosques being built or expanded. 

An ANTI-SHARIA MANIA is sweeping states across the country, instigated primarily by David Yerushalmi, Frank Gaffney, and other members of the Islamophobia industry, and promoted by elected members of Congress and the Senate who rely on the Islamophobes as “experts”.  These Islamophobes produce ridiculous reports like the Mapping Sharia projects Sharia a threat to America report and Shari’a and Violence in American Mosques report that somehow are taken seriously.  The GOP included an anti-Sharia plank in their platform adopted at the 2012 convention.  The anti-Sharia movement may have unintended consequences for other minority communities.

These same Islamophobes have been behind anti-Muslim COUNTER-TERRORISM TRAINING PROGRAMS for law enforcement, and for the U.S. Military. 

There was the series of RADICALIZATION HEARINGS by Rep. Peter King.  Our article Answers to Peter King’s Claims About the American Muslim Community responds to the claims made, and refers to a series of articles about these hearings.  

There was the NYPD/CIA domestic surveillance of Muslims and Arabs scandal. 

There was the SMEAR CAMPAIGN instigated by Michele Bachmann, Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Thomas Rooney and Lynn Westmoreland, who sent letters to the inspectors general of five government agencies responsible for national security to demand they investigate infiltration by the Muslim Brotherhood into the highest reaches of the federal government.  We discuss their charges, the Islamophobic source of their information, and the implications of such smear campaigns in the article Michele Bachmann Ups the Ante in the GOP War on American Muslims.  In that article, I said

It really does seem as if the GOP has declared war on American Muslims, and that even those in the GOP who are not actively participating in Islamophobia have been silent.  The list of elected representatives who have questioned Islamophobia includes almost no one from the GOP.  Gov. Christie and Susan Collins, (R-Maine), and now Sen. John McCain are notable exceptions.

Elected representatives and military and government officials have openly called for acts like:  purging Muslims from the military or requiring Muslim soldiers to be openly identified as Muslims, considering excluding Muslims from the protection of the First Amendment of the Constitution, requiring a special “loyalty test” for Muslims to serve in government, excluding Muslims from entering some States of the U.S., declaring war on the religion of Islam?  Can you imagine making such statements involving any other minority?

This process of making hatred towards Islam and Muslims acceptable has been aided, sadly, by the fact that such statements have even been made by Jewish and Christian clergy people.  Islamophobic statements are also becoming the norm in the political arena, in political campaigns, and even among our elected government representatives, and military leaders.  The 2008 Presidential campaign was rife with Islamophobia.

This is possible because the American Muslim community has been so successfully demonized by the anti-Muslim/anti-Arab Islamophobia Industry that the attitudes of Americans towards Muslims and Arabs have shown a steady negative trend.  Because elected representatives, government officials and even clergy have also gone unchallenged when making anti-Muslim statements, Islamophobia itself seems “reasonable” and has become mainstream.  Many polls and reports document this increase in negative attitudes.  James Zogby of the AAI in the article US hate campaigns against Muslims and Arabs show results discusses at length, the results of the most recent poll.  Here is the introduction to that article:

It is one thing for US voters to be deeply divided on issues such as health care, taxes and the role of government. These are matters of political philosophy that can and should be debated. But the depth of the partisan, generational and racial divide on attitudes towards Arabs and Muslims is frightening because the values Americans claim are central to their definition as a society are at stake.

A new JZ Analytics poll reveals that Arabs, Muslims, Arab Americans and American Muslims have the highest overall unfavourable ratings of all the ethnic and religious groups covered in the survey. The poll, conducted for the Arab American Institute, found that while more than seven in 10 US voters had favourable attitudes toward the main Protestant denominations, Catholics and Jews, less than five in 10 were positively inclined towards Arabs, Muslims, Arab Americans and American Muslims. In fact, Muslims were the only religious group to receive a net unfavourable rating, with a score of 40 per cent favourable to 41 per cent unfavourable.

And, here is the conclusion to that article:

It is striking to compare this year’s poll results with those of earlier years. Since most Americans still do not know the difference between an “Arab” and a “Muslim”, the favourable / unfavourable ratings given to both communities continue to closely track one another. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the September 11 attacks are not the cause of these negative attitudes.

Attitudes toward both communities were actually better in 2003 and they held steady until 2010 when the organised campaign of incitement against Muslims reached a climax with the anti-Park 51 campaign. That year was the turning point in which we recorded the lowest favourable attitudes toward both communities. Ratings have moved slightly upwards since then, but are still below what they were in 2003.

The lesson is as clear as it is dangerous. Left unchecked, those who prey on ignorance and fear to spread hatred, and those who sow the seeds of division and intolerance, threaten to tear apart the fabric of the nation and compromise the values of openness and inclusion that have made America united and strong.

Purveyors of intolerance also put at risk the rights of Americans as full and equal citizens without fear of discrimination.

Any Muslim or Arab who is foolish enough to want to actually participate as equal citizens in active community service, or any non-Muslim who treats Muslims or Arabs as equal citizens is certain to come under attack.  It doesn’t matter that there are very few Muslims who hold influential positions, as far as the Islamophobes are concerned, the sum total of Muslims who should be allowed to participate in society should be firmly kept to ZERO.  Any number higher than that is a danger to the country.  The members of the Islamophobia Industry, joined by far too many of our elected representatives are vigilant and notice any instance of Muslims forgetting that they are expected to be second-class citizens.

Consider the following examples of this demonization which seems to represent a clear pattern of open and even institutionalized Islamophobia that goes for the most part unchallenged. 

If a Muslim or Arab runs for political office, or even wants to get involved in their local community, or establish any sort of institution, they are demonized.  Outrageous charges of “creeping Sharia prononent”,  “stealth jihadist”, “Muslim Brotherhood plant”, etc. are made by Islamophobes. 

Here are just a few examples of such attacks:

— Huma Abedin has been facing bigoted accusations for at least the past year.  — Sh. Muhammad Nur Abdullah was listed as a “stealth jihadist” on the Discover the Networks site for nothing more than being President of ISNA and a member of the FCNA.  — Imam Johari Abdul-Malik was attacked when he was asked to lead the prayer in the Virginia Legislature.— Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was attacked for wanting to built a Muslim community center in Manhattan — Ambassador Akbar Ahmed was attacked for the statement that “America’s Founding Fathers admired Islam”, this was called “an attempt to “Islamize” Americans’ “knowledge” of the origin of their nation.” — Parvez Ahmed’s appointment to the Jacksonville, Florida Human Rights Commission was strongly opposed. — Frank Gaffney’s CSP is pressuring the Gov. of Tennessee to fire Samar Ali from the position of Director of the Economic and Community Development Dept.   — Wajahat Ali was attacked because he was in the MSA in college — Arif Alikhan, the deputy mayor of Los Angeles, was attacked when he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Policy Development at the Department of Homeland Security because he had spoken at an MPAC convention. —  Salam al-Marayati was listed as a “stealth jihadist” on the Discover the Networks site for being President of MPAC.— Debbie Almontaser was attacked when she attempted to establish an Arabic language school in NYC.  — Mazen Asbahi was forced to resign as Obama’s Muslim Outreach Coordinator to avoid further disruption to the office.  — Reza Aslan was attacked by Robert Spencer for speaking out against Islamophobia.  — Laleh Bakhtiar was accused of “lying” in her Qur’an translation — Rep. Andre Carson was recently embroiled in a manufactured controversy.   — Halim Dhanidina, who spent 14 years as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, was appointed to a California Superior Court judgeship by Gov. Jerry Brown, he was attacked for having been in the MSA as a student.  — Mohamed Elibiary, a member of DHS’s Combatting Violent Extremism Working Group (CVE). — Khaled Abou El Fadl was attacked by Daniel Pipes as a “stealth Islamist” —