Changing face of Islamophobia

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A US trip opens doors to questions — but not many answers — about the prevailing perception of Islam being presented, more often than not, under the negative spotlight

 

The Islamic Centre of America in Dearborn, Michigan, which stands between the St Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church and St Clement Orthodox Church.

THE flight to Atlanta was perhaps the most apprehensive of all my working travels over the years.

As I approached the airline counter at Narita International Airport in Tokyo, I took out my passport and boarding pass; at the same time, I reached down into my backpack and checked my other documents – just in case, should anyone need them for verification.

“Good morning, Mr Mohamad,” asked the security officer, at the head of a long maze, leading to the counter.

“May I know the purpose of your visit to the US?” her polite smile did nothing to abate my worries.

Masjid Muhammad in Washington DC, the first mosque built in the US by descendants of enslaved African-Americans and African-Muslims.

I read that following 9/11, many travellers, including US citizens, with names like Mohamad, Abdullah, Rashid, Ibrahim, Hassan and Hussein, did not have it easy.

A fellow journalist, who was invited to observe the 2012 US presidential elections, related to me how a cameraman, also named Mohamad, was taken aside by the airport officers during a stop in Denver, Colorado.

Only after a few minutes later was he allowed to rejoin the group.

My friend, a Malaysian-Chinese, with a western name, did not encounter any hassle.

Another friend, a newscaster, once told me how his mother, a hijab-wearing university professor, was barraged with all sorts of questions during her immigration check: “Are you Muslim? How come you speak English so well? Why are you here in the US?”

“Better be ready for that strip search at Atlanta airport,” I kept reminding myself throughout the 10-hour journey.

Fast-forward to a week later, I was fully engaged in activities slated for participants of the East-West Centre’s ‘Senior Journalists Seminar 2018’ (SJS 2018).

This, and meeting new friends from 11 other countries, made me forget about all the apprehension I felt before. And in case anyone was wondering — no, there was no strip search in Atlanta! Thinking back, it was a bit funny actually — I mean, how exactly would one ‘be ready’ for a strip search?

Unveiling the vitriol

Islamophobia, however, is no laughing matter. The issue with alert-triggering Muslim names came up again during a luncheon discussion in Detroit where we met Abdullah Hammoud, a young, driven and high-spirited politician, representing Michigan, home of the largest Muslim-American population in the US.

Hammoud (centre) stressing a point during the session with SJS 2018 participants in Detroit.

The 28-year-old state representative recounted a conversation he had with his father, Hussein, in 2016 over his intention to run for office, to which the latter replied: “You do know your name is Abdullah, don’t you?”

Amidst the chuckles triggered by this, the fact that the senior Hammoud raised the subject signified his concern, and also those of many Muslim-Americans.

“Like my dad, I’m stubborn. I just went on with it,” shrugged Hammoud, now serving his second term in the Michigan State House of Representatives, representing District 15, which covers his hometown Dearborn.

The Democrat, whose parents immigrated to Michigan from Lebanon, has been very outspoken about his fight against the Muslim Ban, endorsed by US president Donald Trump as “being justified for the sake of national security.”

However, Hammoud said what Trump did was not something new.

“He (Trump) was just unveiling what was behind the curtain all along. People are more empowered to spew the vitriol, to speak the bigotry – he opened that,” Hammoud said.

Kazerooni hosting the session with the journalists at a conference room in the Islamic Centre of America.

Sheikh Ibrahim Kazerooni, who we met in Dearborn the next day, expressed a similar view but presented it in both past and present narratives.

The Imam of Islamic Centre of America termed those oppressed by marginalisation in the US and also in the West, as “the others.”

“Who these others are – they change over time. When the Puritans came to this country, the Native Americans were ‘the others’ – they were called the ‘savages.’ After that, it was the Catholics, then the Jews and the African-Americans.

“Unfortunately, the Muslims are what I call the recent or the topical others.”

The statement by Kazerooni, 60, seemingly answered my question as to why Islamophobia had been taking centre stage among all issues related to extremism.

In this respect, Kazerooni viewed Islamophobia as an act of extremism, in that it was being interpreted outside its original theme of peace and mercy for its believers. He also regarded this as the ‘currents running under the surface.’

“Many may not discuss it per se, but whenever there are calamities and crises, they are immediately attributed to the Muslims,” the Iraqi-born imam said.

 

Facing prejudices

The remarks by Hammoud and Kazerooni seemed to validate the apprehension that I felt not only in Narita, but also during an earlier session in Washington DC – the first leg of our US programme.

“If you’re not white, not privileged and not conservative, then you’re not safe under Trump administration,” a speaker began his presentation during a breakfast discussion at a hotel in Dupont Circle.

Bear in mind that I heard this in September – about two months before the US mid-term elections, which many viewed as one that might have changed, albeit a little bit, the negative perception of Islam.

The speaker’s opening remark, as grim as it was, got to me because of the reference to Trump, the proponent of the Muslim Ban.

On Jan 27, 2017, Trump issued an executive order  for a 90-day ban on the citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It also indefinitely halted the entry of refugees from Syria into the US.

A few weeks later on March 6, the travel ban excluded Iraq from its list of Muslim-majority countries whose citizens were temporarily blocked from entering the US. The enforcement, however, still applies to Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – preventing these nationals from entering the United States for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days.

This order was received with immediate protests which Trump dismissed, insisting it was meant to protect the US from terrorists.

“This is not about religion – this is about terror and keeping our country safe,” the president wrote in a statement.


Doug Chin, the current Lieutenant-Governor of Hawaii. Previously, he was the State’s attorney-general.

Hawaii Lieutenant-Governor Doug Chin saw Trump’s statements, made when he was a candidate and now, as a president, as continuing to display a ‘religious animus.’

“His description was that people from ‘certain countries’ are more favourable than those from ‘other countries.’ Also, he blamed those from these ‘other countries’ as the cause of many problems faced by Americans – which is so wrong,” said Chin, 52, a son of Chinese immigrants.

The former Hawaii attorney general was instrumental in filing a series of legal challenges by the State of Hawaii against Trump’s many policies, including the Muslim ban, in 2017.

Chin said although the ban was primarily targeted at the Muslims, it affected him as well.

“My work in the travel ban case actually forced me, as a Chinese-American, to face and address my own internal prejudices. It was something I didn’t recognise before,” he said at a session during our last US leg of SJS 2018.

Chin added that for him to bring the case forward, he had to meet the Muslims who lived in Hawaii, convince just a few of them to be willing to come forward and put their names to an affidavit.

“Many didn’t want to come forward because they were afraid of reprisals. The more I got to know them, the more I started to realise ‘Gosh, I had a lot of my own prejudices about what it meant to be Muslims after 9/11. I got the chance to examine that.”

The 9/11 factor

Undeniably, the connotation of Islamophobia could not be disassociated with 9/11, even more so for Muslim-Americans, as it was a tragic attack against their fellow Americans, at the same time, tarnishing the image of Islam to an unspeakable degree.

Imam Dr Talib M Shareef, president of The Nation’s Mosque – Masjid Muhammad in Washington DC – said the most outrageous question he had ever received about Islam was: “Are all Muslims really undercover terrorists?”

Established in the mid-1930s, Masjid Muhammad houses the oldest established Muslim community in the nation’s capital. It is also the first mosque in DC built from the ground by its citizens, and the first in the US by descendants of enslaved African-Americans and African-Muslims.

Throughout the years, this community had seen and experienced a lot, Shareef noted.

“Prior to the US mid-terms, we had two Muslim men in Congress. Still, there was a spike in hate crimes and assaults. So with the election of two (Muslim) women, I don’t see it changing immediately,” said the imam in his response to questions, emailed to him after a SJS 2018 session in DC.

Shareef, who is also the chairman of Inter-Faith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, was referring to Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib and Somali-American Ilhan Omar, the first Muslim women elected to US Congress.

The election of these women – both Democrats – had come amidst widespread negative sentiments against the American-Muslims by their fellow US citizens.

Nevertheless, Shareef was not downright pessimistic in saying he ‘did not see things changing immediately.’

“I do think the assaults (against American Muslims) will decrease because we now have a more representative body of America in Congress, one that will do more than the previous body which didn’t show leadership and address the assaults and bigotry against fellow citizens in the interest of a United America.”

Hope and optimism

In writing these last few paragraphs, it got me thinking about my experience in the US and of all the things that happened so differently than I had imagined.

Barring the ‘if-you’re-not-white-not-privileged-not-conservative-then-you’re-not-safe’ remark, I see that the US is not entirely confined to this – the Islamic Centre of America in Dearborn, being located next to two Orthodox Christian churches, just like Masjid An-Naim and The Good Shepherd Church in Lutong, Miri; the congregation of Masjid Muhammad in Washington DC, being open to Muslims and non-Muslims alike and a Chinese-American in Hawaii strongly fighting for the rights of his fellow citizens of the world, regardless of their beliefs.

That said, I would never assume that my experience should be taken as the benchmark of how Americans – or people from other parts of the world, for that matter – should treat, react to and regard Muslims and Islam.

I agree with Shareef that Islamophobia ‘is still there.’

“It’s still the same one, just starting to end a life cycle and revert more to (being) covert, due to societal education and support for Muslims,” he opined.

On the other hand, Chin said from his perspective as a non-Muslim, he actually learned a lot from his experience with the Muslims.

“From what I see, for people in the next generation, there have been a lot of civic engagements and also the willingness to be inclusive and embrace the diversity that we have. I just have to be hopeful, I have to be optimistic.”

In view of the present-day scenario in my country, I guess that my fellow countrymen and I would have to be ‘hopeful and optimistic’ as well.