By
Nazia Kazi
15
September 2020
With Barack
Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election, many in the United States
hoped for the retreat of Bush administration policies that criminalised the
lives of Muslims. Yet Obama's two terms did little to challenge the most
devastating forms of American Islamophobia: war-making, policing and
immigration policy. On the contrary, his presidency saw an eager expansion of
Islamophobia.
President Barack Obama speaks as he hosts an Iftar dinner during the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the State Dining Room at the White House in
Washington on July 14, 2014 [File: AP/Charles Dharapak]
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Obama
renewed and expanded the US Patriot Act. He classified Muslim civilians killed
in US strikes as "enemy combatants". And his Countering Violent
Extremism initiative functioned as a form of soft-policing in the lives of
ordinary Muslims.
In his
creation of a "kill list" and a sweeping provision allowing the
worldwide indefinite military detention of US citizen terror suspects without
charge, Obama did not just inherit Bush-era Islamophobia - he proactively
expanded it.
Twelve
years later, American voters are once again asked to confront an overtly
Islamophobic Republican administration. But it bears asking: what will a
victory for Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris mean for American
Islamophobia?
FILE – In this March 10, 2020, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks to members of the press at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Biden is expected to give his first public comments on a sexual assault allegation that has roiled his presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
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War: The
foundation of American Islamophobia
Islamophobia
is often mistakenly defined as anti-Muslim bigotry. But a better definition of
Islamophobia would be systemic racism, ie, not a matter of individual
attitudes.
Thus,
harassment or negative media portrayals of Muslims are symptoms of Islamophobia
which is, at its core, rooted in practices of the state.
When
defined this way, it does not matter whether Obama hosts a Ramadan dinner or if
Hillary Clinton gives a Muslim man a prime speaking spot at the Democratic
National Convention. It does not matter if George W Bush urges Americans to
love their Muslims neighbours. In shoring up the most egregious aspects of US
empire-building, the American political elite remains undeniably Islamophobic.
When
defined this way, it is evident: both sides of the 2020 presidential ballot promise
an undeniable extension of American Islamophobia.
Anti-Muslim
sentiment in the US has meant a blank cheque for American war-making. As media
scholar Deepa Kumar has pointed out, "the fear of Islamic terrorism is
manufactured to grease the wheels of empire."
The US
seamlessly took advantage of anti-Muslim sentiment after the 9/11 terror
attacks to justify its 2003 invasion of Iraq. In painting the entire Muslim
world as guilty, it mattered little which Muslim-majority country was invaded
as retribution - not that any should have been.
So
committed was the US to linking Iraq to 9/11 that it named a detention centre
in Iraq after a fire marshal who died in the 9/11 attacks. The Department of
Defense even named a bomb, dropped on Iraqi people in 2003, after a man who
died on 9/11.
Not
surprisingly, the ploy worked: in a study of Americans born after 9/11 I did
for a forthcoming piece, one in five respondents believed the late Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein was responsible for the attacks.
The Democratic
Party establishment has been an eager participant in the devastation of Iraq.
The 2016 Democratic National Convention featured Khizr Khan, who invoked the
death of his son, a US army officer, in Iraq to both justify his support for
Hillary Clinton and take a stance against the overt Islamophobia of Donald
Trump.
To critics
of the Iraq war, invoking Muslim participation in an anti-Muslim war to
challenge Trump's Islamophobia was a perverse act of political pageantry on the
part of the Democrats. So it came as no surprise when the 2020 DNC once again
showcased supporters of the Iraq war. At their helm stood Biden, whose
disastrous involvement in Iraq stretches back to well before Bush's 2003
invasion.
Biden's VP
pick, Kamala Harris, has proven to be an eager ally of the military. She voted
against even a moderate cut in the gargantuan military budget in the middle of
the COVID-19 economic crisis. Harris's cosy relationship with the hawkish
Center for a New American Security promises a renewed sponsorship of an
American militarism whose raw material is anti-Muslim sentiment.
The
foundation of any fight against Islamophobia is anti-imperialism, for which
American electoral politics has no quarter, regardless of partisan affiliation.
The current election cycle does little to unsettle this uneasy fact.
Israel
and American Islamophobia
The US's
unwavering, bipartisan support for Israel remains an enduring symbol of
American Islamophobia. To be clear, the Israeli system of settler colonialism
cannot be reduced to Muslim-Jewish animosity or anti-Muslim violence. Yet one
of the key weapons in Israel's arsenal, alongside the literal arsenal of
US-funded weaponry, is Islamophobia.
Consider,
for instance, the 2012 advertisements that appeared across American cities,
urging people to support "civilised" Israel over "savage"
jihadis. Or the fact that America's most blatant Islamophobes are often also
the most vocal supporters of Israeli militarism.
In 2014,
with US support, Israel launched an assault on Gaza called Operation Protective
Edge. After greenlighting the attack, Obama hosted a Ramadan dinner for Muslim
American leaders. Countless Muslim and Arab advocacy groups urged a boycott of
the event, condemning it as a ploy to distract from US state support for the
violence perpetrated against Palestinians.
Under
Trump, American support for Israel has continued unchecked. His first term
alone has seen unwavering support for Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing
government and its moves to annex the West Bank. Earlier, Trump's recognition
of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel enshrined the long-held US disregard for
Palestinian existence.
The 2020
Democratic ticket offers little in the way of opposition to this legacy. Harris
has said emphatically that her support for Israel would be unconditional.
Biden's political record suggests the same. If this were not enough evidence of
the enduring anti-Palestinian sentiment of the 2020 Democratic ticket, last
month's DNC saw an unequivocal rebuke for the BDS movement.
Presidential
elections consistently force voters to ratify US support for Israel.
"Every time, every single time, it's some aspect of Palestinian freedom
that must be compromised. Never the candidate's position. Never the system's
inherent conservatism. Never the ongoing march of settler colonization. We're
volunteering to be captured by the settler's notion of common sense,"
writes Palestinian American scholar Steven Salaita
Hindutva
And The US-India Alliance
Trump's
alliance with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls for obvious parallels
between the two, particularly around their overt policies of Islamophobia. This
was most apparent during Trump's February visit to India, during which
sectarian violence in the streets of New Delhi revealed the ugly reality of
Hindu supremacy in India. A Trump victory is sure to see the right-wing
alliance between the two nations flourish.
With
biracial Harris as running mate, Biden has invited identity-minded South Asians
in the diaspora to sign on to his ticket. Shortly after her nomination was
announced, Muslim American writer Wajahat Ali tweeted, "we're going to
have someone who knows her Mirch and Masala in the White House" and
comedian Hari Kondabolu followed suit, saying "the fact there is a
Democratic VP candidate who is a Black & Indian woman whose parents are
both immigrants is a sign of progress. This does not mean she was my preferred
VP candidate or someone whose actions as prosecutor I endorse. This is to
recognize and appreciate that this is an important moment for a lot of
people."
Yet there
is little to suggest that Harris's biracial identity would be a sign of
progress. In fact, a Biden presidency will likely mean a continuation of
Trump-era support for Modi's ethnonationalist project of Hindutva, an ideology
that has been calamitous for Muslims and caste-oppressed Indians.
This became
clear when Biden's primary campaign selected Amit Jani, a vocal supporter of
the right-wing ethnonationalist Indian government, as Asian American Pacific
Islander Outreach Coordinator. In a particularly cruel twist, Jani's position
included Muslim Outreach. Recently, a ranking member of Modi's far-right BJP
party said, "We are naturally happy that someone with Indian ancestry is
contesting the second topmost post in the USA."
Many worry
that Harris's South Asian identity is being instrumentalised by the Democratic
Party as a gloss for their tacit support for Modi's Hindutva ideology.
Very
Little to Vote For
It Seems
Inevitable: Muslim
Americans will come out in droves to support a Biden/Harris presidency. The
same anti-Trump sentiment that filled airports with protesters in 2017 after
the "Muslim ban" was issued will animate these voters. Yet they will
not be voting for a rollback of Islamophobia, but a cosmetic change to it.
Regardless
of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, Islamophobia will remain the
law of the land.
Every
election cycle, Americans are encouraged to see binaries rather than
continuities, to fixate on petty clashes between two large parties rather than
the vast overlaps between them. Yet one might ask: what are the Obama-era roots
of migrant children being caged at the border? Which Democrats supported
legislation decades ago that was the foundation of Trump's border wall
initiative? What will Biden's promised increase of federal funds for policing
mean for American Muslims, with Black Muslims shouldering the greatest burden?
In fact,
maybe we should take Biden at his word: that under him, "nothing will
fundamentally change".
This
November, as in 2016, American voters get a right-wing ballot: decidedly
anti-Black, pro-war, and anti-worker. The Democratic Party's strategy of
courting the right has a deep history: Bill Clinton won part of the Republican
vote, first, by executing a Black man with mental illnesses in 1992 and next,
by playing on anti-Black tropes to gut America's welfare programme in 1996. Yet
his soulful saxophone playing was enough to render him anti-racist. Today,
Harris has a far better cover: a biracial Black and brown identity.
For those
frustrated with this impasse, the moment calls for action outside of the
electoral system. It asks Americans to build strong labour movements, which the
Republicans and Democrats alike will attempt to undermine; to organise
collectively and militantly against debt, war, and climate devastation, which
both parties promote. And, if the "mirch and masala" celebrations
sweeping Twitter are any indication, it is time to decisively reject the
enduring use of brown skin to cover up Islamophobia.
Americans
can choose to remain unimpressed by attempts to diversify a cabinet of
imperialists and instead stand against the ever-expanding apparatus of military
and police domination. We can choose to reject rejoinders to sign on with a
lesser evil or to support "any functioning adult". Instead, it is
time to remember that each election cycle asks earnest, thoughtful Americans to
set aside their agitation and ratify a system that does not serve them. It is
time, for once, to keep the spotlight on the most insidious and enduring
elements of America's political system.
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Nazia
Kazi is Associate Professor of Anthropology and author of Islamophobia, Race,
and Global Politics.
Original
Headline: Islamophobia in the US presidential election
Source: The Al-Jazeera
URL: https://newageislam.com/muslims-islamophobia/biden-anti-islamophobia-candidate-just/d/122856
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism