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Islamophobia: Have We Learned Anything From History?
An Editorial by Warren J. Blumenfeld

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. --Santayana

Two months following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing military officials to operate “military areas” as “exclusion zones,” from which “any or all persons may be excluded.” This order justified the exclusion and forced relocation of all people of Japanese ancestry from the entire Pacific coast into concentration campus in the interior U.S. Though the country was at war with Germany and Italy as well, and though no single case of suspected Japanese American espionage activity was ever proven, the government stripped an estimated 110,000 Japanese U.S.-American citizens of their constitutional protections and their property, and transported them long distances.

It was not until 1988 when Congress passed legislation apologizing and providing monetary reparations to Japanese Americans for this tragic chapter in U.S. history. The legislation confirmed that the actions taken by our government were founded on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”

Fast forward to the horrendous events of September 11, 2001. A national poll found that 31% of U.S. residents asserted that our government should incarcerate Arab Americas in concentration camps as we did with Japanese Americans during World War II.

I wonder whether we have learned anything from history? To stereotype and scapegoat all followers of Islam for the events of 9/11 is as invalid as blaming all Christians for the despicable actions perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who was a devout Christian.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released its 2006 report finding that approximately 25% of U.S.-Americans consider Islam as a religion of hatred and violence, and that those with the most biased attitudes tend to be older, less educated, politically conservative, and are more often to belong to the Republican Party.

Though a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case ruled unconstitutional any mandatory prayers or Bible readings at public schools or the promotion of religion, subsequent rulings declared the constitutionality of many forms of personal religious expression on school campuses.

The physical education teacher of a Muslim elementary school student in Iowa, however, forbad her from wearing a traditional Muslim full-body swimming garment during instruction in the school pool, but ordered her, instead, to wear a western-style bathing suit, which would force the student to act against her faith. Her mother was compelled to educate the principal on Muslim religious practices. After much discussion, the principal agreed to permit the student to wear a swimming garment of her choice, though he warned the girl’s parent that the child would most likely incur angry and mocking epithets from her classmates.

Muslim students, faculty, and staff, however, are routinely not accorded the opportunity to have a safe prayer space on campus to perform the salat (prayer), as required by the Five Pillars of Islam. A case in point involved a 17-year-old high school junior in Ohio, who was barred by school administrators from praying in an empty classroom at lunch and before and after class hours. In this case, CAIR stepped in on the student’s behalf, and convinced the school district to reverse its policy.

Today, especially since September 11, 2001, we see growing numbers of violent acts directed against Muslims. During the single year of 2005, for example, CAIR listed a total of 1,522 civil rights violations against American Muslims, 114 of which were violent hate crimes. The report included incidents of violence, as well as harassment and discriminatory treatment, including “unreasonable arrests, detentions, and searches/seizures.” For example, the CAIR report included an incident in which a Muslim woman wearing a hijab (the garment many Muslim women wear in public) took her baby for a walk in a stroller, when a man driving a truck nearly ran them over. The woman cried out that, “You almost killed my baby!,” and the man responded, “It wouldn’t have been a big loss.”

Nearly one-quarter of all reported civil rights violations against American Muslims involve unwarranted arrests and searches. Law enforcement agencies routinely “profile” Muslims of apparent Middle Eastern heritage in airports or simply while driving in their cars for interrogation and invasive and aggressive searches. In addition, governmental agencies, such as the IRS and FBI, continue to enter individuals’ private homes and mosques and make unreasonable arrests and detentions.

Individuals have targeted Sikhs and Hindus as well. Between 2002 and 2005, the Sikh Coalition organization listed 62 hate crimes directed against Sikh citizens of the United States. National attention focused on the severe beating of Rajinder Singh Shalsa in New York City, and the fatal shooting of Sikh gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi in Mesa, Arizona. It is widely assumed that Sikhs are targeted because they wear turbans, which the public imagination equates with Muslims, which equates with “terrorism.”

In June 2003, attackers targeted Saurabh Bhalerao, a 24- year-old Indian graduate student studying in Massachusetts, who robbed, burned him with cigarettes, beat, stuffed in a truck, and twice stabbed before they dumped him along the road. The attackers allegedly misidentified this Hindu student as a Muslim because during the assault, the perpetrators yelled at him, “Go back to Iraq”.

Islamic xenophobia routinely surfaced throughout the last presidential election. Members of the political right challenged and spread rumors regarding Barack Obama’s cultural, social, and religious background, political philosophies, U.S. birth status, and patriotism. Insinuations flew about his supposed Islamic background connected to his alleged Marxist and Fascist (which is a contradiction) political influences.

Opponents referred to him as Barack Hussein Obama – with emphasis on “Hussein” -- in their attempts to connect him not only to the Muslim faith, but also to the former ruler of Iraq. In actuality, his middle name is indeed “Hussein,” which in Arabic translates to “good” or “beautiful.” Furthermore, since this country is founded on the notion of freedom of religion, whichever religious or non-religious background any candidate, or any individual, follows should in no way disqualify or call into question their credentials.

Islamophobia can be defined as prejudice and discrimination toward the religion of Islam and Muslims who follow its teachings and practices. Like racism and sexism, for example, Islamophibia is much more than a fear, for it is a taught and often learned attitude and behavior, and, therefore, falls under the category of oppression.