Who's afraid of the Big Bad Muslim?

Everyone, apparently (Happy Ramadan by the way).

No Aladdin! not you too....

From the ease with which derogatory comments are made about Muslims/Arabs/people perceived as Muslim throughout the media to the bigoted protests that have the open support of elected officials, Islamophobia is alive in well in the United States.

haters

Ten years have passed since 9/11 and things haven't really changed, in fact they may have gotten worse. There was a recent NY times article about one man's effort to bring down the threat of Shariah laws in this country ( It didn't occur to me that shariah threats were such a big issue in Islamic hotspots like Oklahoma ::heavy sarcasm::).  The scary thing is that this is not just some yahoo trying to enact meaningless policy as a fear tactic, it's that he is getting a platform to present these 'issues' to federal policy makers. THAT is the scary part. When bigotry drives policy or is able to grab the attention of our government, there is a very real cause for concern.
So what do we do? I don't hear a national outcry for the rights of brown people. Some pockets of brown people are calling for our rights, but who is listening? Maybe it's up for us to 'police' our own, because you know, Muslims are so centralized, homogeneous and united that it's easy to just have a huge meeting and tell the extremists to cut it out.

sharing is caring

No, we need raise our voices and unify our efforts. Struggling against Islamophobia is not going to work in small pockets of passionate activists and community members. There needs to be a collective push back, a push to say that this is not okay and that it is unacceptable. That as Americans, we find this unacceptable. I recently joined up with coalition of organizations called AMEMSA (Arab American Middle Eastern South Asian African), say that ten times fast (I've gotten pretty good at it myself). Its a convening of different groups from  organizations that represent communities affected by Islamophobia; from African Muslims to Sikhs, who have basically become 'default' Muslims in the eyes of hate mongers. I represented ASATA, the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, a radical group of South Asian activists in the Bay Area.
I am proud to have been affiliated with groups such as SAALT (South Asian Americans Leading Together) and all of the great work they do nationally to stand up for the civil rights of South Asians. However, AMEMSA was very special to me in that this group came together for the common purpose of standing up to xenophobia, while having such an impressively diverse membership.  When people make bigoted comments about African Americans, there is a great uproar. There are similar, if not greater outcries when anti Semitic incidents occur. Islamophobic comments bring about concerned responses from groups such as SAALT and ASATA, but what about everyone else? Where is the outcry or major media attention?
This is what we are working on. To work together to not just be the 'other'. We are American. Some like me have been born and raised here, others, like a fellow colleague I met from Cote'd Ivoire, came here as an adult and stated that "When Africans come here, in our minds we are going back. But if you look at the statistics, no one is going back."  I include that quote because some come here with dreams of a better life and a new home, while many intend to come here, get success, then leave. Regardless, we are all still here, and we are Americans, and the decisions made by those in charge in this country affects us all equally, regardless of what the pundits on Fox News would have us believe.

intersections, cross listings and lots of circles

AMEMSAA met last week at a convening of the groups, where we spent two days discussing, brainstorming and yes, even majorly disagreeing with one another. Throughout all of this, the thing that struck me the most was the passion of the members I saw within the room; the passion for changing the status quo, the passion to make sure that our civil and human rights are respected. During the meetings, I would figuratively take a step back to look around me and see people wearing turbans sharing ideas with former political refugees, to women wearing hijab bringing up points to members from Africa. It was really something to behold. I did feel grateful to be here, and yes be in this country, because this kind of space would be almost impossible to have in many parts of the world.

We have a long way to go. This may seem like the beginning because there is so much to do and such a long distance to cover, but I think that we can do it. Despite our differences, I believe that we can accomplish positive changes as a united front against intolerance and bigotry.

yay diversity!

In a perfect society, civil rights wouldn't be a term because equality would be ingrained. However in the real world, strides towards civil rights for our communities will not truly occur until we stand up for ourselves. And that is just what we are doing.

"We gotta reject the bin everyone is trying to put us in" -  AMEMSA member

We were given pipe cleaners to play with, so I made lots of colorful, unified stick people. I was in a very 'we are the world' mood