Biden Administration Unveils Strategy to Combat Islamophobia

(RNS) — With one month left in office, the Biden administration has released a 67-page strategy to fight Islamophobia and counter discrimination against Muslims and Arabs.

The policy, released on Thursday (Dec. 12), is modeled on a similar strategy to counter antisemitism that was released in May 2023. But unlike that strategy, it comes amid heightened tensions with the Muslim American community over the administration’s steadfast support for Israel in its war in Gaza.

The first-of-its kind strategy includes four area priorities: increasing awareness of hatred against Muslims and Arabs, improving safety and security, tackling discrimination and building cross-community solidarity. Among its recommendations are tools to combat “doxing,” or sharing people’s home addresses online; “swatting,” or reporting a false incident to send emergency personnel to a home; and other hoax threats against Muslims and Arabs.

The strategy also seeks increased training on nondiscrimination and religious freedom at all levels of government.

It opens by invoking the death of a 6-year-old Chicago-area boy who was stabbed to death one year ago, allegedly because his mother is Palestinian. The death of Wadee Alfayoumi, on the heels of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, made combating violence against Arabs a national priority.

The document also cites the shooting of three students of Palestinian descent in Burlington, Vermont, and the stabbing of a young woman near a college campus in Texas.

Recognizing that the strategy may not be implemented fully, Biden wrote: “And although we may not immediately achieve all the change we seek, this Strategy is a critical step in identifying the challenges we face and identifying solutions that civil society and state, local, and national governments can implement over time.”

The Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, which has included $22 billion in military aid to date, has soured his relations with many Muslims and with Palestinians living in the U.S. Many have expressed despair at the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 44,000 of its residents, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and said that Biden could have done more to rein in the violence. They were also disappointed in Kamala Harris  after no Palestinian was allowed to address the Democratic National Convention in August, a sentiment reflected in mass defections from the Democratic Party in November’s election.

“Although American Muslims, from an Islamophobia perspective, welcomed this,” said Haris Tarin, vice president of policy and programming at the Muslim Public Affairs Council, “there was definitely a hesitation from the American Muslim community to work on the strategy very closely.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a press release Thursday saying the strategy was “too little, too late.”

“ … if President Biden truly cared about the safety of Muslims or reducing the threat of Islamophobia, he would make major changes to federal programs that perpetuate anti-Muslim discrimination, like the federal watchlist, and immediately stopping enabling the biggest driver of Islamophobia: the US-enabled Israeli genocide in Gaza,” the CAIR statement said.

Work on the strategy began with a White House interagency policy committee created in December 2022 that focused on countering antisemitism, Islamophobia and related types of discrimination.

Tarin, who worked for the Department of Homeland Security before joining the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said he was consulted about the strategy there.

He said it was particularly important to tackle Islamophobia within the various departments and agencies of the U.S. government.

“Since 9/11, the government has actually been complicit in advancing Islamophobic policies, especially in the national security sector,” Tarin said. So while he thought the strategy was imperfect, he said it was a welcome first step and one that he hoped departments such as Homeland Security, Justice and the Treasury would take seriously.

“We will be calling on the Trump administration to adopt the strategy,” Tarin said.

The strategy notes that the majority of Arab Americans are not Muslim, and the vast majority of Muslim Americans are not Arab. The strategy contains more than 100 executive branch actions and more than 100 calls to action.