US Muslims are voting, running for office and organising – carving out their own space – despite bigotry, activists say.
After the 9/11 attacks, Muslim Americans were stigmatised, discriminated against and perceived as enemies in their own country, community activists have said.
Over the following 20 years, despite United States government programmes targeting their communities and the rise of social and political bigotry, Muslim Americans solidified their identity and carved a space for themselves in the mainstream political structure.
They became more visible and active politically. It was a way of confronting the challenges, akin to a self-defence mechanism, experts told Al Jazeera.
Moustafa Bayoumi, an author and professor at Brooklyn College, said while there were always Muslims in the US, the Muslim-American political identity was largely formed after 9/11 in response to the “explosion of bigotry”.
“Muslims in the United States realised that no one was going to protect them, but themselves,” said Bayoumi.
He said prior to September 11, 2001, there was hardly any general recognition of Muslim Americans as a group.
“Once you see that there’s an organised social hostility, then your identity gets formed in response to that – as a way of not just protecting yourself, but claiming a space for yourself,” Bayoumi told Al Jazeera.
Increased participation
Over the past two decades, Muslims emerged as a mainstream political force – as voters, organisers and candidates. That political ascendancy has been a continuing process, with the number of Muslim-American candidates and voters growing each election cycle.
From city councils and school boards to state legislatures all the way to the halls of Congress, more Muslim Americans have been seeking and winning public office.
Petra Alsoofy, outreach and partnerships manager at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), a think-tank focused on Muslim communities, said Muslim Americans’ civic engagement has seen “huge improvement” over the past two decades.
She cited ISPU research that shows an increase in voter registration and overall political participation, including donating and volunteering for campaigns as well as the number of Muslim candidates.
According to a study by ISPU, Muslim-American voter registration went from from 60 percent in 2016 to 78 percent in 2020.
Alsoofy credited voter registration campaigns and community organisers for helping increase the number of Muslim voters. Another factor, she said, is Muslim candidates mobilising their own communities.
“They are really giving people the courage to see people who look like them and sound like them in elected offices,” Alsoofy said.
With Muslims becoming a voting bloc, politicians are acknowledging them. Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden released a platform for Muslim-American communities ahead of the elections last year.
He also addressed two Muslim groups as the Democratic nominee for president.
“As president, I’ll work with you to rip the poison of hate from our society, honour your contributions and seek your ideas,” Biden said at a virtual event for Muslim advocates last October.
“My administration will look like America, Muslim Americans serving at every level.”
Although Muslim Americans are not exactly serving at “every level” in the administration, Biden appointed the first Muslim federal judge earlier this year.
He also nominated Khizr Khan, the father of a US army captain killed in Iraq, as a member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
In February, Sameera Fazili, deputy director of the National Economic Council, made headlines when she delivered remarks on Biden’s economic policies from the White House press briefing room while wearing a hijab.
Muslims in Congress
Keith Ellison was elected as the first Muslim member of Congress in 2006. Andre Carson followed in 2008.
Ten years later, Ilhan Omar – a former refugee from Somalia who wears the hijab – succeeded Ellison who ran successfully for attorney general in Minnesota, a statewide race. In the same election cycle, Omar was joined by Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, a daughter of Palestinian immigrants.
All four ran in heavily Democratic districts. Last year, Qasim Rashid, a Muslim-American lawyer and author, sought a congressional seat in a conservative-leaning constituency.
He said the incumbent, Congressman Rob Wittman, made Rashid’s faith a “centrepiece” in the campaign.
“He resorted to attacks tying me to terrorism and radicalism and extremism – just absurd, dangerous things that led me to getting threats,” Rashid told Al Jazeera. “And so, that’s a factor that unfortunately is just a reality today in politics.”
Wittman has repeatedly denied attacking his opponent’s faith, but one of his campaign advertisements slammed previous tweets by Rashid that criticised increasing the military budget hyping up the threat of terrorism by Muslims.
“Rashid alleged America is to blame for terrorist attacks, mocked the deaths of Americans killed by extremists, raged against rebuilding our military and promised he’d be a congressman like AOC and Bernie Sanders,” the advertisement said.
Keith Ellison, now serving as Minnesota’s attorney general, was elected as the first Muslim member of Congress in 2006 When all was said and done, Wittman won decisively, but Rashid received nearly 187,000 votes – significantly more than previous Democratic challengers in the district.
Rashid said Islamophobia should not be prohibitive to Muslim Americans seeking office.
“We can overcome that – through organising, through education, through relationships, through investments in the community by being involved in the community and by earning and winning that trust, winning those hearts.”
Diverse communities
Rashid stressed that while Muslims are perceived as more visible on the national stage today, they are as old as the country itself – with a large portion of enslaved people brought to the US from Africa believed to be Muslim.
More recently, Muslim sports icons like basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and boxer Muhammad Ali have dominated their respective fields. Malcolm X was a major figure in the struggle for African-American rights until his assassination in 1965.
“There was no America – ever – without Muslims,” Rashid said. “The foundation of America’s infrastructure and its roads and bridges were built by African Muslims.”
Activists have been pushing to disrupt the stereotypical image of Muslims as Arab or South Asian immigrants emphasising that African Americans constitute a large part of the Muslim-American population.
Muslim-American communities are indeed pluralistic – immigrants, native-born, Black, white, Latino, working class and white-collar professionals encompassing a range of nationalities, sects and ideologies.
“As a result of the post-9/11 policies, there has been a racialisation of Muslim as brown, foreign, other, immigrant, refugee,” said Darakshan Raja, co-director and founder of the Justice for Muslims Collective, an advocacy group.
Raja spoke of a shift in political perceptions and activism among Muslim Americans.
She said a new generation of organisers is moving away from being defensive and trying to prove that Muslims belong to a more confrontational approach of demanding universal justice.
“We have a youth generation now that is far more radical and progressive in what they are demanding,” Raja told Al Jazeera. “So there’s no more of a dominant way of engagement with the government that is appeasement or that is apologetic or that is begging to be treated as human beings.”
What’s next?
As Muslim Americans move forward and continue to push away from the scope of the national security lens placed over them, advocates say their communities are looking beyond the post-9/11 era.
Bayoumi, the professor, said Muslim Americans will be tackling challenges common to other communities in the country – access to healthcare and economic issues.
“At the same time, I think there’s going to be a lot of questions regarding immigration and refugee issues,” he added, referring to the current pushback from right-wing politicians about the resettlement of Afghans and the Syrian refugee crisis a few years ago.
Bayoumi added that he hopes that Muslim Americans will play a part in the rethinking of US foreign policy and military engagements in Muslim-majority countries.
“We have to move towards the United States having a lighter military footprint in parts of the Muslim world where they currently are,” he said. “And I think it would be certainly a strength if the Muslim-American community were able to be to be part of a successful advocacy movement towards ending the war on terror.
Raja said Muslim communities face an internal challenge centring on their own diversity.
“We still have work to do about how we really honour the fact that we are a multi-racial, multi-class, community, an incredibly diverse one,” she said.
Alsoofy, of ISPU, echoed Raja’s comment. “Internally within the American Muslim community – just like it’s happening in the rest of the country – [we] need a conversation around making sure that we’re inclusive of every voice,” she said.
She added that another continuing effort is shaping the perception of Muslim Americans – shifting from responding to stereotypes and condemning terrorism to representing their own stories and struggles as part of society.
“We’re able to share more about who we are as people beyond just the headlines … We’re able to see American Muslim doctors talk about a pandemic; we’re able to talk about poverty within the American Muslim community in a normal way without having to hear that we’re showing a negative story about ourselves,” she said.
Dozens of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes in central and south Gaza as Red Sea tensions rise.
Here’s how things stand on Monday, January 15, 2024:
Latest updates and human impact
- Israeli attacks continue unabated overnight killing and wounding dozens of civilians in central and southern Gaza. At least 22 people were killed and a large number injured as a result of Israeli forces targeting al-Thalatheni Street in the central Gaza Strip.
- Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired an antiship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea, which was shot down by a US fighter jet, announced US Central Command (CENTCOM) on X.
- This was the first US-acknowledged Houthi attack since the US strikes on Yemen on Friday.
- Hamas released a 37-second video showing three Israeli captives held in Gaza on Sunday, saying they would reveal the fate of the captives on Monday and urging the Israeli government to stop the offensive.
- The Israeli military says it has shifted to a new phase of the war focused on the southern end of Gaza, where almost 2 million internally displaced Palestinians are running out of safe spaces to shelter.
- The Gaza Ministry of Health has said almost 24,000 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive. More than 60,000 people have been wounded in 100 days of war.
Diplomacy
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country will pursue its war against Hamas until victory and will not be stopped by anyone, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
- The White House said on Sunday that “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
- Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said in a statement on Sunday that one of the biggest obstacles to the timely delivery of sufficient aid to Gaza was Israeli inspection of the aid. The statement came after Israel blamed Cairo for the delay in aid delivery to Gaza during its defence at the ICJ.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted on X on Monday, calling for the release of the remaining captives held in Gaza on the 100th day since they were taken by Hamas. He did not mention the Palestinian casualties.
- Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who described herself as a “friend of Israel” to the press, will travel to Jordan, Israel, the occupied Palestinian Territories and the United Arab Emirates this week, her office said on Monday.
West Bank raids and violence
- Israeli forces arrested 25 students staging a sit-in in protest against high tuition fees at An-Najah University in Nablus. Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reported that the protesting students received a text message from Israeli forces telling them to “surrender now”.
- Israeli forces have reportedly raided the family home of Nael al-Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, in the village of Kobar, in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
- The Israeli army said on Friday that it killed three Palestinian men who infiltrated a West Bank settlement and fired upon soldiers.
- The Israeli military killed two Palestinians after accusing them of ramming their car through a checkpoint near Hebron.
- Local sources reported that Israeli forces bulldozed two Palestinian-owned houses during a Sunday midnight raid in the city of Qalqilya, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
- Armed Israeli settlers broke into the village of Burin, south of Nablus, and attacked Palestinian residents’ houses and properties after midnight on Sunday, Wafa reported.
- “Violent raids and arrests have become part of the fabric of daily life in the occupied West Bank,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said. At least 347 Palestinians have been killed and thousands have been arrested since October 7.
Flames and smoke billow during Israeli attacks against Gaza on October 9, 2023
Human Rights Watch terms Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s call for a ‘complete siege’ on Gaza a ‘war crime’.
The Hamas movement has threatened to kill an Israeli hostage every time Israel bombs a Palestinian home without warning as Israel mobilised some 300,000 reservists and imposed a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, denying the enclave’s millions of residents access to food, water and fuel.
The warning from Hamas came on Monday as the death toll from the armed group’s surprise weekend attack climbed to 900 in Israel and revenge attacks by Israeli forces on the besieged Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people and left some 3,700 others wounded.
Residential apartment blocks, hospitals, schools and a mosque have been among the sites attacked by Israeli fighter jets, artillery and drones, according to media reports and witnesses.
Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida issued the threat to kill Israelis from the dozens held captive by the armed group. He said an Israeli hostage would be killed for every Israeli bombing of a civilian house without warning.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said more than 100 people were taken captive by Hamas during the deadly cross-border incursion over the weekend.
As Israeli forces conducted intense retaliatory attacks on Gaza on Monday, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant drew international condemnation by announcing a total blockade of the densely populated and besieged enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people.
Gallant said Israel would impose a “complete siege” on Gaza. “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” by the siege announcement and warned that Gaza’s already dire humanitarian situation will now “only deteriorate exponentially”.
Guterres also said some 137,000 people were taking shelter with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) at schools across Gaza.
UNRWA said on Tuesday that almost 190,000 people have been displaced in Gaza amid the Israeli attacks and the figure is expected to grow further as the violence intensifies.
Nearly half a million people have also not received food rations this week in Gaza as UN food distribution centres have been forced to remain closed amid the Israeli onslaught, UNRWA said.
Human Rights Watch said Israel’s total blockade on the necessities of life for everyday people in Gaza was a war crime.
“Defense Minister Gallant’s statements are abhorrent,” Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“Depriving the population in an occupied territory of food and electricity is collective punishment, which is a war crime, as is using starvation as a weapon of war. The International Criminal Court should take note of this call to commit a war crime,” he said.
Abhorrent. This is a call to commit a war crime by @yoavgallant. The @IntlCrimCourt should take note.
Quote by @OmarSShakir ⤵️ https://t.co/kKVo6YtpI1 pic.twitter.com/neHQMwnXVn
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) October 9, 2023
Shakir also condemned the threat by Hamas to kill hostages, warning that such action was also a war crime.
“All hostages should be safely released to their families,” he said.
Grotesque. These threatened acts would amount to flagrant war crimes by Hamas’ armed wing. The @IntlCrimCourt will be watching.
Quote from @OmarSShakir ⤵️ https://t.co/FuNtvHe0YG pic.twitter.com/6cnHODLWyZ
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) October 9, 2023
On the diplomatic front, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Hamas and Israel to immediately end violence and protect civilians, the Egyptian presidency said.
Erdogan urged Israel against “indiscriminately” attacking civilians and delivered measured criticism of Hamas, urging both sides to respect the “ethics” of war.
The United Kingdom, French, German, Italian and US governments issued a joint statement on Monday recognising the “legitimate aspirations” of the Palestinian people and supporting equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
But the prospect that fighting could spread also alarmed the region and the world.
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in response to at least three of its members being killed in Israeli shelling of Lebanon.
Israel said one of its deputy commanders was also killed in an earlier cross-border raid from Lebanon.
US President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, the US, September 20, 2023
Social media users, including journalists and observers, are calling out what they call a ‘double standard’.
After Saturday’s surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to the social media platform X to offer “condolences go out to everyone who lost relatives or close ones in the terrorist attack”.
He also stated, “Israel’s right to self-defence is unquestionable.”
Many world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, shared similar sentiments.
The world is seeing appalling images.
Thousands of rockets raining down on Israeli cities. Hamas terrorists killing not only Israeli soldiers, but civilians on the streets and in their homes.
It’s unconscionable. Israel has a right to defend itself – full stop.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 7, 2023
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated, “Israel has the right to defend itself – today and in the days to come. The European Union stands with Israel.”
Accusations of Western ‘double standards’
Some social media users have criticised these statements, saying they highlight a double standard.
The world is seeing appalling images.
Thousands of rockets raining down on Israeli cities. Hamas terrorists killing not only Israeli soldiers, but civilians on the streets and in their homes.
It’s unconscionable. Israel has a right to defend itself – full stop.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 7, 2023
Ukraine’s right to defend itself is praised by most international leaders while Russia’s invasion is condemned, but commentators said the same cannot be said about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Aaron Bastani, a leftist British journalist, said on X that there’s a “clear double standard in endorsing terrorism against civilian targets in Ukraine … and condemning it by Palestinians”.
Many users said Western diplomats and media support the Ukrainians who defend their land, but label the Palestinians fighting against Israel as “terrorists”.
https://twitter.com/KhaledBeydoun/status/1710787817415082349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710787817415082349%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
An illustration of a woman’s face, in which one eye is closed beside a Palestinian flag, and one eye open beside a Ukrainian flag, has been regularly shared as a symbol of the West’s alleged double standards in how the two conflicts are viewed.
https://twitter.com/OnlinePalEng/status/1710994682883273172?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710994682883273172%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
Clips also emerged on social media from a CNN interview with Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, in which he posed the rhetorical question, “Why does the United States support Ukraine in fighting occupation – while here they support the occupier, who continues to occupy us?”
The hypocrisy and double standards of western governments and media platforms dealing with situations in Ukraine-Russia and Palestine-Israel blow the mind. Absolute disgrace.
— Said Yacoubi (@AlyacoubiSaid) October 8, 2023
It is not the first time Western nations have been accused of double standards in their stance on the Ukraine war.
Earlier in the year, Amnesty International published a report highlighting the West’s “double standards” on global human rights.
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, told Al Jazeera at the time that the occupation of Palestinian territory was a “particularly important one”.
“Without making any comparison between Russia’s aggression and Israel … it is clear the Palestinian people are under a regime of oppression – a regime of occupation and a regime of apartheid,” Callamard told Al Jazeera.
Over the last three days, X users recirculated earlier statements calling out what they called Western hypocrisy, sharing video by the Irish lawmaker Richard Boyd Barrett from March 2022 in which he berated the Irish government’s double standards regarding Ukraine and Palestine:
“You’re happy to use the most strong and robust language to describe the crimes against humanity of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, but you will not use the same strength of language when it comes to describing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.”
Barrett on Sunday again called out what he described as “shocking double standards of Western leaders supporting Ukraine resistance but condemning Palestinian[s].”
Meanwhile, others warned against comparing conflicts.
https://twitter.com/denfordauthor/status/1710993737738768607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710993737738768607%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
And some cautioned that Hamas and the Palestinians should not be seen as one and the same.
Just to clarify:
Palestine did not mount an attack on Israel. An Iranian proxy militia did. Palestinians are by and large huddled in their homes praying that an Israeli airstrike won't kill them or theirs. Hamas is the culprit here. This isn't a decentralized grassroots thing.
— Romeo Kokriatski (@VagrantJourno) October 9, 2023
Ukrainian footballer Oleksandr Zinchenko, who plays for Arsenal, posted on Instagram, stating he “stands with Israel”.
Zinchenko has been a vocal supporter of his home country in its ongoing defence against Russia, and he participated in a Game4Ukraine charity match in London earlier this year to raise money for Ukraine.
After online backlash, with some questioning an alleged double standard in his support of Israel, the footballer removed the post and switched his social media account to private.
Several people claimed that Zinchenko’s football club, in not responding to his comments, was guilty of hypocrisy after they had distanced themselves from former player Mesut Ozil’s comments in 2019 over alleged human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in China.
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