For all of the Islamophobia industry's recent successes, none can compare to Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election. "He has welcomed known members of organized anti-Muslim movement into his administration in a way that is unprecedented," said Lindsay Schubiner, advocacy director for the Chicago-based watchdog group Center for New Community. Referring to the long list of Trump's cabinet, staff, and unofficial advisors that harbor anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim sentiments, Schubiner says Trump "is incorporating their policy ideas, wholesale, into his platform, as we've seen with his attempts at making the Muslim ban a policy reality."
Encouraged by President Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric, on June 11, far-right activists held anti-Muslim demonstrations in least 28 cities across the United States. The demonstrators, spurred by the ACT for America - one of the largest grass-roots anti-Muslim group - were met in many cases by larger crowds of counter protesters. Clashes reportedly broke out between anti-fascists - known colloquially as Antifa - and march participants in a handful of cities, including Seattle, Washington.
Buoyant by the June 11 demonstrations, the ACT for America, announced to hold anti-Muslim and pro-Trump rallies at around 37 locations across the country on Sept. 9 to mark the 16th anniversary of 9/11. However, the group cancelled the planned rallies apparently because of poor response from the public. The ACT for America has been labeled an extremist anti-Muslim group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks hate groups.
Anti-Sharia Law Bills in the United States
Playing fear-mongering, hate groups and the American Laws for American Courts ( ALAC) have campaigned to demonize Islam across the nation through legislation and rhetoric.
One hundred twenty anti-Sharia law bills have been introduced in 42 states since 2010. This year alone, 13 states have introduced an anti-Sharia law bill, with Texas and Arkansas enacting the legislation.
One
of the most successful far-right conspiracies to achieve mainstream viability,
the mass hysteria surrounding a so-called threat of Sharia law in the United
States is largely the work of anti-Muslim groups such as the American Freedom
Law Center and ACT for America (ACT), an SPLC-designated hate group. In June,
so-called anti-Sharia rallies organized by ACT were held across the country and
attracted white nationalists, armed right-wing militias and even neo-Nazis.
David Yerushalmi, the father of the anti-Sharia movement, serves as co-founder
of the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) and General Counsel of the Center for
Security Policy. AFLC has pushed its initiative, American Laws for American
Courts (ALAC), principally authored by Yerushalmi, since 2010. Politicians in
just eight states have not joined this concerted project of stoking fear of
Islam. Guy Rogers, the former executive director of ACT for America, the
largest grassroots anti-Muslim group in the country, concedes that there is no
real influence of Islam in courts but says, "Before the train gets too far down
the tracks it's time to put up the block."
The rise in legislation and anti-Muslim rhetoric within state legislatures is
not without consequence for Muslim communities. In fact, hate crimes against
Muslims increased
by 67% according to FBI statistics released in 2015. In March, three Muslim
students attempted to visit Rep. John Bennett in the State Capitol in Oklahoma
City. Before meeting with them, Bennett insisted they fill out a questionnaire about Islam which included
questions like, "The Koran, the sunna of Mohammed and Sharia Law of all schools
say that the husband can beat his wife. Do you agree with him?"
Experts
including professors, attorneys, politicians, and the American Bar Association
(ABA) have been quick to denounce anti-Sharia law bills. In response to an
uptick in anti-Sharia law bills introduced in 2010 and 2011, the ABA published a formal
letter of dissent, saying
in part:
"The American Bar
Association opposes federal or state laws that impose blanket prohibitions on
consideration or use by courts or arbitral tribunals of the entire body of law
or doctrine of a particular religion," adding, -- American courts will not apply
Sharia or other rules (real or perceived) that are contrary to our public
policy, including, for instance, rules that are incompatible with our notions
of gender equality."
The
ABA further discussed the concerns of highly publicizing this type of
legislation. The mass hysteria created by these organizations and further
perpetuated by politicians at state and federal levels, is alarming. The
misconstrued understanding of both Sharia and the United States constitution by
these groups has sought to create an actionable goal of exterminating Islam.
Some states, including v have explicitly named 'Sharia organizations' and
Muslims, the enemy.
It may be recalled that pro-Israeli, Hasidic Jew Islamophobist, David
Yerushalmi, in 2006 established an anti-Islam group known with the acronym SANE: the Society of
Americans for National Existence. The sole objective of the group is banishing
Islam from the US by making "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20
years in prison.
In
February 2007, SANE released a policy paper that in part stated: "Whereas,
adherence to Islam as a Muslim is prima facie evidence of an act in support of
the overthrow of the US. Government through the abrogation, destruction, or
violation of the US Constitution and the imposition of Shari'a on the American
People. . .It shall be a felony punishable by 20 years in prison to knowingly
act in furtherance of, or to support the, adherence to Islam."
Echoing Yerushalmi's anti-Islam
legislations in several states to ban the non-existent Sharia law, an anti-Islam question was
included in the Republican Party survey titled as "Listening to America." The
question No. 27 of the 32 question survey asks: "Are you concerned by the
potential spread of Sharia Law?"
Hate Crimes
The
divisive rhetoric of US President Donald Trump has fomented hate crimes against
the Muslims. According to a quarterly civil rights report released in October
by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest civil
rights and advocacy group, 354 incidents of anti-Islam religious bias were
reported during the third quarter of 2017. Hate crimes were the most frequently
documented type of bias incident, with 61 cases in the third quarter of 2017.
Bias incidents rose 9 percent in the first nine months of 2017 as compared to
the same period in 2016.
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