White House Unveils First National Strategy to Combat Islamophobia

White House, MINA – On Thursday, the White House unveiled a national strategy to combat Islamophobia, outlining more than 100 actions federal officials are taking to address hate, violence and discrimination against Muslim and Arab American communities, Anadolu Agency reports.

The initiative, the first by a U.S. government, was released weeks before President Joe Biden leaves office, following a similar strategy launched in 2023 to combat antisemitism.

The White House emphasized the importance of the plan given the growing threat, pointing to the October 2023 killing of Wadee Alfayoumi, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy in Illinois.

“Over the past year, this initiative has become even more important as threats against Muslim and Arab American communities have increased,” the White House said in a statement.

The strategy’s four top priorities include raising awareness about hate targeting Muslims and Arabs, improving their safety and security, addressing systemic discrimination, and building solidarity across communities to combat hate.

“Muslim and Arab Americans have helped build our country since its founding, but they also routinely experience hate, discrimination, and bias based on unfounded stereotypes, fears, and prejudices,” the statement noted.

The administration detailed several steps such as investing in strengthening security nonprofits, increasing efforts to ensure easier access to funds; correcting discriminatory travel restrictions, and increasing access to resources for reporting hate crimes.

“A threat to one community must be treated as a threat to all. Increasing cross-community collaboration continues to be a critical part of the Administration’s efforts to protect the safety of all Americans, including through new partnerships that build solidarity across communities of diverse faiths and beliefs,” the White House said.

The nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), criticized the plan, saying: “While we and many Muslim Americans generally welcome a national strategy to combat Islamophobia, the White House’s long-overdue strategy is too little and too late.”

“The 67-page document makes some positive recommendations on anti-Muslim bigotry, but it comes at a time when it is unlikely to deliver, fails to promise any changes to federal programs that perpetuate anti-Muslim discrimination on a massive scale, such as the Orwellian federal watchlist, and fails to promise an end to the most significant driver of anti-Muslim bigotry today: the U.S.-sponsored genocide in Gaza,” it said.

It said Biden could not “credibly claim” to care about Muslims or be Islamophobic while supporting the Israeli government’s destruction of mosques, desecration of the Quran, and enabling Israeli war crimes in Gaza. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)