In his recent Ted Talk ‘It takes a community to eradicate hate’ (September 2020) strategist and social justice advocate, Wale Elegbede, provided a poignant message of cultivating community solidarity as a means to destroy hate directed towards Muslims and people of faith outside of the Islamic tradition. Having experienced the fear and harmful psychological effects Islamophobia has had on his community, he calls for people to reach out, across race boundaries, to unite in the campaign against hate.
It was during aftermath of the horrifying 9/11 Twin-Tower attack that Elegbede noticed attitudes towards Muslims change. He directs his anger at the terrorist perpetrators for its tragic consequences but also the defacement of Islam into a religion with a hateful and violent image – an Islam he did not recognize. The response to these attacks by the media and political spheres contributed to the negative public perception of Islam. It became widely considered to be an inherently violent religion; the uninformed and prejudiced assigned the fanatical ideology of terrorists to the views of all Muslims, with the latter increasingly becoming victims of hate crimes and Islamophobia, as a result.
The misrepresentation of Islam and Muslims did not end there. In the run up to the 2016 election, the Trump campaign fervently disseminated its ideas across America. Together with Trump’s subsequent election and presidency, it bolstered the rise of Islamophobic hate. Polls recorded this exponential increase in resentment against American Muslims during the 2016 election campaigns (Lajevardi, 2020, p.3). In fact, rates surpassed those following the 9/11 attacks in 2001 (Kishi, cit. Yukich, 2018, p.226).
For me, what is most striking, is that the monolithic categorisation of Islam threatens to undermine the values upon which America has been built, most specifically, freedom of expression, including that of a religious nature (American Civil Liberties Union, 2022). It is justified upon the basis of fighting extremism and radicalism. However, a strategy of protecting American values by the Trump constitution has in turn led to their demise. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported that hate crimes directed towards Muslims in 2016 were at the highest levels to date. Shockingly, in 2017, these increased by 91% (Lajevardi, 2020, pp.4-5). Elegbede describes the profound effects this discrimination has had on his community and his own family. He talks of the heightened sense of fear felt by his wife and the wariness of his children in Identifying as Muslim; his family were traumatized by the hostility directed towards the Muslim community.
To decrease tension and promote community cohesion, Elegbede proposes local grassroots action. He provides the example of his Interfaith group in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where bridges have been built between members of different faiths. As the group became increasingly strong and diverse in its membership, it developed into the Shoulder to Shoulder Network which holds the focused aim of tackling anti-Muslim sentiment and hatred towards any minority group through its ethos of community solidarity.
This solidarity formed the strengthening glue in a rally, organised by the network, in protest against the 2017 presidential order prohibiting the Immigration of peoples from seven Muslim-majority countries. To the surprise of Elegbede, having heard about the demonstration and the cause through social media and word of mouth, over 700 people came to the rally organised by the group. One cannot underestimate the supportive sentiment this rally created for those involved. Elegbede affirms that he felt comforted and supported by the community around him. Upon this experience, he proposes, if one is willing to connect and be vulnerable in a request, people will be willing to reach out and show their support.
Local Solidarity – Too Simple a Strategy?
I admire Elegbede’s vision of religious harmony and his proactivity in building cross-religious relationships, along with making a stand against discrimination and prejudice. However, in this talk, Elegbede has failed to acknowledge the historical and social scale of prejudice and locate the rise of Islamophobia, he has witnessed over the past twenty years, within America’s history of race and religious relations. In fact, his speech leads to impression that Islamophobia in America is largely a recent problem: he talks of the welcoming nature of people in his city of Le Crosse when he arrived in the US in 1999 and subsequently the rise of hate since. He principally directs the blame towards the contemporary political sphere and its power to divide people, especially the polemic of the Trump constitution, consequently proposing that bringing communities together is the best source of action in response to the dividing and dangerous influence of politics. However, for me, Elegbede oversimplifies the issue and in turn, I believe his proposed cause of action is unlikely to have a significant impact upon the rise of Islamophobia and hate directed towards other minority faith communities.
Islamophobia Interwoven in America’s Identity
To see substantial change, I argue that the roots of racial and religious prejudice need to be addressed. We need to consider America’s racial past. Animosity towards and suspicion of Islam and Muslims has a long history in America. These attitudes are interwoven with modernity, colonialism, and globalisation.
American Orientalism and Islamophobia can be traced back to the Holy Land myths of Christian settlers in America (Maira, 2011, pp.109-110). Upon the arrival of Christian Pilgrims and Puritans in the 17th century, Christian scriptural stories became manifest in their own experience and new home of the east coast of America, in turn, becoming idiosyncratic cultural myths. The fundamental Christian scriptural story of the Hebrew’s escape from Egypt to a promised land became attached to the experience of the Pilgrim’s and Puritan’s escape from persecution in Europe and their consequential beliefs in the eschatology of the community. However, these myths contained strong themes of exceptionalism which laid the seed of discrimination upon religious grounds (Heike, 2014, pp.137-139, pp.184-186).
As an undercurrent to the ideology of American Identity, the religious exclusivism this narrative espouses became the foundation upon which classifications of race developed and thus a foundation for prejudice to flourish (Maira, 2011, pp.110-111). Presently, these ideas present explicit and intense issues for American society due to the influence of Evangelicalism in the political sphere. Amongst contemporary Evangelicals in the US, for whom many parallels can be drawn with the early puritans, this religio-political devotion to the idea that the US is a Promised land remains somewhat hegemonic. This is significant due to the powerful force Evangelicalism has played, and continues to play, in contemporary American politics (Heike, 2014, pp.137-139, pp.184-186).
Another major contribution to the development of Islamophobia was the encounter between European colonialism and Islam which occurred when the West colonised parts of Africa; the Middle East and Asia; and the orientalist attitudes involved in this project, namely the view of Islam and Muslims as the ‘Other’. Islamophobia established itself within the European ideology surrounding race which developed throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. These colonial attitudes towards race were then transplanted to America with European Christian missionaries, who turned their attention to the indigenous populations of North America. The latter became the target of a ‘civilization’ project which forced them to align with Western cultural norms. Orientalist attitudes were solidified in America upon their establishment of trade with the Middle East and during political campaigns supporting political endeavours, for example the Balfour Declaration (1917), the creation of the state of Israel (1948), the installation of the Shah in Iran (1953), and most recently the two wars in Iraq (Maira, 2011, p.110).
Orientalist views have resulted in Muslims in America being framed as a monolithic category: little distinction has been made between Arab Muslims, South Asian Muslims and African-America Muslims etc. Not only has this generalisation occurred but Islamophobic and gendered connotations have become attached to Muslims: Muslim women have often been regarded as needing to be ‘saved’ or ‘rescued’ from an oppressive patriarchal religion; Muslim men are frequently portrayed as threatening, dangerous, or even terrorists (Durrani, 2017).
As demonstrated above, the policies of Donald Trump were not based upon new ideological concepts for America. In fact, they were a culmination of America’s history of racial and religious prejudice. The travel ban implemented by Trump’s government, is largely portrayed as if it was their work alone. However, the list of the seven countries in which the ban was applied existed before Trump’s administration (Kazi, 2017). Kazi refers to the example of the ‘draconian’ anti-immigration laws and the legalisation of racial profiling by local law enforcement in Arizona in 2010. She argues that xenophobic attitudes must have already been widespread in a community for such a law to be passed. Due to the history of racial prejudice in America, outlined above and this suggestion by Kazi (2017), I argue that the roots of the problem lie much deeper than is suggested by Elegbede. Consequently, although local initiatives may help to ease tension within communities, unfortunately I do not believe that they are alone sufficient to make a significant change in the quest for racial harmony.
The Might of the Media
Although Elegbede mentions the capabilities of social media to promote interfaith initiatives and publicize community rallies in favour of religious harmony, he fails to the mention the negative impact the wider media has had upon the treatment of Muslims in America. With the rise of media technology and increasing efficiency of national (and transnational communication), the power of media outlets cannot be underestimated.
Several studies have made strong cases for the argument that the news media is an important vehicle for conveying ideas and messages to the public, shaping attitudes and generating stereotypes (Chomsky, 1997, cit. Lajevardi, 2020, p. 88; Brummelt, cit. Lajevardi, 2020, p.88). In fact, Lajevardi (2020) argues that, much of the information the American public receives about Muslim Americans is distributed by cable news media (p.87). These functions help the political sphere in their capacity to shape support for policies that maltreat members of minority groups (Mastro & Kopacz, 2006, p.89, cit. Lajevardi, 2020, pp.88-89).
This research is significant for the Muslim community as Muslim Americans are frequently linked to violence, terrorism, and aggression by American media outlets (Lajevardi, 2020, p.89). Additionally, another danger the media presents is its frequent failure to distinguish between different groups of Muslims, even between Muslims beyond America and those living in the United States; the diverse groups and branches are placed under the same umbrella. This generalisation is dangerous, as coverage of extremism within the US and militant fighting in the Middle East becomes inseparable from Muslims outside of radical groups (ibid., p.87.).
Due to the powerful and widespread influence of the media, Elegbede’s proposed action against Islamophobia does not appear strong enough to counteract this force. Building religious harmony on a local level is likely to help community cohesion, however it does not counteract the misrepresentation of the media, which Is likely to be influencing people’s attitudes, even if this is process is occurring on a subconscious level.
The Way Forward: Education
Along with encouraging local initiatives, such as the Shoulder to Shoulder Network, which should be implemented nationally; it is important that a united front is created to stand up to religious hate. The Interfaith Alliance is the only national Interfaith organisation in the United States. They carry out Education programmes, but I believe more needs to be done to address Islamophobia and anti-religious hate on a national scale.
I believe that the most powerful way to counteract prejudiced media representation and the undercurrent of Islamophobia, which has been present in America for longer than is recognized by Elegbede, is through, not only educating people about Islam, but also about how systemic prejudice has developed in America. This would include education about the latter’s links with colonialism and religious exclusivism, along with how the media and political spheres build upon these ingrained ideas to make their arguments compelling. This understanding would help the next generation to take action to deconstruct the undercurrents which provide a foundation for discrimination to thrive.
However, the question remains as to how this education would be enforced. With the end of the Trump constitution and its dangerous anti-Muslim ideology, a widespread movement of education looks more realistic. There are signs that this movement is gaining ground: a learning resource titled ‘Islamophobia is Racism’ syllabus has been created by several university scholars. This syllabus bucks the trend of centring education around solving individual and inter-personal problems by educating people to be ‘kind’ or civil. It instead focuses on Islamophobia as connected to America’s racial history and forms of dominance, as discussed above. It also focuses on thinking how Islamophobia overlaps and intersects with the treatment of other marginalised groups and therefore a greater understanding of how communities can work together to combat racial and religious hatred (Abdul Khabeer, et al., cit. Mir & Sarroub, 2019, p.14).
To guarantee the success of this movement, I propose that a strategy needs to be created to ensure this education can reach people on a wide scale. This will be a challenge for the American constitution, but I believe that this would be America’s best hope at dismantling Islamophobic currents, along with racial and religious prejudice more widely.
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