The White House is working on a strategy to combat Islamophobia. Many Muslim Americans are skeptical
Hamas apologist Talib must be placated
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration is developing a national strategy to combat Islamophobia as the White House faces skepticism from many Muslim Americans for its staunch support of Israel’s military assault on Hamas in Gaza.
The White House originally was expected to announce its plans to develop the strategy last week when Biden met with Muslim leaders, but that was delayed, according to three people familiar with the matter. Two said the delay was due partly to concerns from Muslim Americans that the administration lacked credibility on the issue given its robust backing of Israel’s military, whose strikes against Hamas militants have killed thousands of civilians in Gaza. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the White House plans.
The launch of the anti-Islamophobia effort has been anticipated for months after the administration in May released a national strategy to combat antisemitism that made passing reference to countering hatred against Muslims.
The new initiative is expected to take months to formalize, following a similar process to the plan to counter antisemitism that involved various government agencies. White House spokeswoman Emilie Simons said Wednesday that the interagency group’s “next step is to release a strategy on Islamophobia.” She did not offer details on a timeline for the effort.
Incidences of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate have skyrocketed in the United States and abroad since the surprise Oct. 7 attack by Hamas against Israel that killed more than 1,400 people and saw hundreds taken hostage, and Israel’s response in Gaza, where it has pledged to use force to “destroy” Hamas. One of the most prominent attacks in the U.S. was the killing of 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume and the wounding of his mother in an attack in Illinois that prosecutors allege was driven by Islamophobia.
“This horrific act of hate has no place in America and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are,” Biden said afterward.
There had been widespread agreement among Muslim Americans on the need for a national strategy to counter Islamophobia, according to a fourth person familiar with the matter, who added that the Israel-Hamas war has made the timing of the White House announcement more complicated. The person, who was also not authorized to speak publicly about the internal deliberations, said the administration wants to keep the two issues separate, while some prominent Muslim American groups see them as interrelated.
Administration officials, during the meeting with a small group of faith leaders last week, indicated things were “in the works” for an anti-Islamophobia strategy, said Rami Nashashibi, the founder of the Inner City Muslim Action Network in Chicago and a participant in that session.
Nashashibi said he believed such an effort would be “dead on arrival” with the Muslim community until the president and administration officials forcefully condemn members of the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who have openly called for the eradication of Palestinians from Gaza and until the administration more aggressively calls out hate crimes targeting Muslims and Arab Americans.
He and other leaders also want Biden to apologize, or at least publicly clarify, his recent comments in which he said he had “no confidence” in the Palestinian death count from Israel’s retaliatory strikes, because the data comes from the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
The United Nations and other international institutions and experts, as well as Palestinian authorities in the West Bank — rivals of Hamas — say the Gaza ministry has long made a good-faith effort to account for the dead under the most difficult conditions. In previous wars, the ministry’s counts have held up to U.N. scrutiny, independent investigations and even Israel’s tallies.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that the administration is “not taking the Ministry of Health at face value” but he acknowledged there have been “many thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza” in the conflict.
Nashashibi also said the White House strategy could land flat at a moment when many Muslim Americans feel that advocacy stands for Palestinian self-determination is being unfairly lumped in with those espousing antisemitism and backing of extremists.
“That conflating is in great part contributing to an atmosphere where we could see even more deadly results and more targeting,” he said. Nashashibi added, “The White House does not have the credibility to roll out an Islamophobia strategy at this moment without publicly addressing the points we explicitly raised with the president during our meeting.”
Asked if the White House had a credibility issue, Simons, the spokeswoman, said the administration would continue its outreach efforts.
“We know that communities are feeling the pain of what’s going on overseas and in a deeply personal way,” Simons said. “And so we’re going to continue to speak to these different communities underscore the work we’re doing to get aid into Gaza and the conditions we’re trying to set up to support a humanitarian pause.”
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Daily reports of hate crimes against Jews and the Biden admin pivots to "Islamaphobia"
Reminds me of the Norm McDonald joke. "What terrifies me is if ISIS were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50 million Americans. Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims?"
The editor of the Harvard Law Review is caught leading a mob harassing a Jewish student, and Harris is trotted out to stir fears of islamaphobia. Much like KJP denying there was any evidence of increased anti-semitism last week.
I wonder if any efforts to decrease Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Asian hate, etc can have much of an impact?
Some of us remember the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970s
Probably not. But I doubt if this particular "effort" is anything other than an attempt to distract from the rampant anti-semitism we've seen on display the last few weeks and placate the bloc of Democrats (Universities, BLM, House Democrats) , who are very anti-Israel. So they have to pretend they are equal. Just incredibly disingenuous to make this the focus a week after Jews had to be hid in campus library to protect them from a mob.
It seems that Muslims, in general, are doing a bang-up job of stoking the fires of Islamophobia themselves.
That includes Muslim-Americans.
I believe that placating non-Muslim Americans who have been watching the Muslims cheering for Hamas is most likely going to be a hard sell. And I don't give a fuck about what any half-brained asshole here says about what I believe about this or anything else.
Don't you know that there are some folks that know more about what you think and feel than you do?
That specific phrase was aimed at one particular asshole who knows damn well I mean him. And of course, my brother may be MENSA but I know I'm not. However, I wish to thank you, and those who voted you up, for having such faith in my intelligence.
Oh, I forgot. I promised to add a "s/" (or is it "/s") when that's what I intended, so please add it to my last sentence, meant for those who did and those who are continuing to vote up Right Down the Center's question.
So, Kamala Harris is embarking on a nationwide guilt trip. Be ashamed, be very ashamed.
Heck, half of what she says is unintelligible goobledy-gook, so who will understand her?
The other half of the wits?
Shouldn't that be the other half of half-wits?
Does that make it a quarter wit?