Washington (AP) On Thursday, the White House unveiled what it described as the first-ever national strategy to combat Islamophobia, including over 100 actions federal officials can take to stop prejudice, violence, and discrimination against Arab Americans and Muslims.
The proposal comes after President Joe Biden released a similar national antisemitism strategy in May 2023, as concerns about growing antisemitism and discrimination among American Jews grew.
Since the anti-Islamophobia strategy was released five weeks before Biden’s departure, it will mostly be implemented by President-elect Donald Trump, should his administration decide to do so. Officials spent months developing the plan.
“This initiative has become even more important over the past year as threats against American Muslim and Arab communities have spiked,” the Biden administration noted in a statement outlining the approach. It stated that this includes the stabbing death of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, an American Muslim youngster of Palestinian heritage, in Illinois in October 2023.
In addition to over 100 other calls to action from all facets of society, the plan outlines steps the Executive Branch can take.
The strategy’s four main goals are to: raise awareness of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiment while also acknowledging the heritage of these communities; improve their safety and security generally; accommodate Muslim and Arab religious practices by reducing discrimination against them; and promote intercommunal solidarity to combat hate.
Many of those governmental objectives are comparable to those outlined by the Biden administration in its antisemitism reduction plan, including the focus on enhancing safety and security and fostering intercommunal solidarity.
It is important to understand that Arabs are regularly targeted just for being who they are, even though individuals have occasionally been targeted because they are believed to be Muslim. The strategy’s announcement notes that Muslims and Arab Americans have contributed to the development of the country since its inception. It claims that fresh initiatives in data gathering and education are raising awareness of these hate crimes as well as the rich histories of Arab Americans and Muslims.
According to the strategy, federal agencies are now making it clearer that discrimination against Muslim and Arab Americans in federally supported activities is prohibited, and it asks for a wider dissemination of effective strategies for encouraging these groups to report hate crimes.
By acknowledging our shared humanity, reaffirming our shared history and values, and embracing equal justice, liberty, and security for all, the White House’s plan also calls on state, local, and international counterparts as well as the nongovernmental sector to undertake initiatives of a similar nature that aim to foster greater unity.
Following Biden’s withdrawal from his reelection campaign in July, pro-Palestinian organizations that denounced his administration’s fervent backing of Israel in its conflict with Gaza regularly interrupted Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign events.
Trump, who during his first term banned travel from a number of Muslim-majority nations, won last month’s elections in the largest majority-Muslim US metropolis. However, some Arab Americans who supported Trump have started to voice their disapproval of some of his Cabinet selections and other appointments for his new administration.
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