President Biden unveils plan to address Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias in US
The Biden administration on Wednesday unveiled the first-ever US National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate, a comprehensive initiative aimed at addressing bias, discrimination, and threats faced by Muslim and Arab Americans.
The strategy, developed through collaboration across federal agencies and with civil society partners, outlines over 100 executive actions and calls to action for various sectors of society to combat hate and ensure the rights and safety of these communities.
The initiative comes at a critical time, with rising threats against Muslim and Arab Americans over the past year.
In October 2023, six-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, an American Muslim boy of Palestinian descent, was fatally stabbed in Illinois in an attack authorities have described as a hate crime. This and other incidents underscore the urgency of the administration’s efforts, officials said.
The strategy builds on groundwork laid in December 2022 when President Biden formed an interagency group to counter antisemitism, Islamophobia, and related biases.
Earlier in 2023, the administration released the first National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism and simultaneously began work on this new initiative.
The plan emphasizes four priorities:
- Increasing Awareness: Promoting understanding of the contributions and heritage of Muslim and Arab Americans while addressing bias and discrimination.
- Enhancing Safety and Security: Developing measures to protect Muslim and Arab Americans from hate crimes and threats.
- Ensuring Accommodation: Addressing religious discrimination and ensuring Muslim and Arab Americans can practice their faith without barriers.
- Fostering Cross-Community Solidarity: Encouraging partnerships across communities to counter hate and promote unity.
The administration’s strategy also focuses on new data collection and educational campaigns to increase public awareness of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate.
It includes efforts to disseminate best practices for reporting hate crimes and clarifies that discrimination against Muslim and Arab Americans in federally funded activities is illegal.
The White House is urging state, local, and international governments, as well as private and non-governmental organizations, to adopt similar measures. “Recognizing our common humanity, affirming shared values, and embracing justice and liberty for all” are key principles of the strategy, according to a statement from the administration.
The initiative comes amid political tensions. Pro-Palestinian groups have criticised the administration’s support for Israel's war on Gaza, disrupting campaign events for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, who enacted a controversial travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries during his term, gained support from the largest majority-Muslim US city in the 2023 elections, though some Arab American supporters have voiced concerns about his cabinet appointments.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights group, welcomed aspects of the strategy but criticised its timing and scope. In a statement, CAIR called the document “too little, too late” and noted that it fails to address federal programs that it claims perpetuate anti-Muslim discrimination, such as alleged watchlists targeting Arab Americans as potential terrorists.
“The White House strategy lays out some positive recommendations related to anti-Muslim bigotry,” CAIR stated, “but it has been released too late to make an impact and fails to promise any changes to federal programs that perpetuate anti-Muslim discrimination on a massive scale.”