Interfaith leaders respond to White House’s strategy to counter Islamophobia

[Episcopal News Service] The Biden administration on Dec. 12 released its long-awaited strategy to counter Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate.

“This first-ever National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate is a historic step forward to live up to our ideals. It seeks to deepen understanding of these communities and the discrimination and bias they have long faced across a number of sectors,” President Joe Biden said.

“The strategy also sets forth a whole-of-government and whole-of-society effort to combat these forms of discrimination. It includes more than 100 commitments to counter hate, discrimination and bias against Muslims and Arabs,” he continued in the introduction to the 64-page document outlining the strategy. “As with the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, while we focus on communities who have experienced a sharp rise in hatred, the actions that this strategy puts forward also seek to protect the freedom and safety of other religious and ethnic communities.”

The Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign, a multifaith coalition dedicated to building a more inclusive and pluralistic United States, welcomed the national strategy and called upon people of faith and goodwill to renew their commitments to building a more pluralistic nation and dismantling hate and discrimination.

“Anti-Muslim bigotry, like any form of hate, racism and discrimination, is a dehumanizing phenomenon,” said the Rev. Margaret Rose, The Episcopal Church’s ecumenical and interreligious deputy to the presiding bishop and the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign’s co-chair, in a Dec. 12 statement.

“For more than 14 years, the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign coalition operates under the notion that what impacts one, impacts all. When we dehumanize others, including Muslim, Sikh, Arab, Palestinian and South Asian communities among others who are impacted by Islamophobia, we dehumanize ourselves,” she added.

The campaign noted that Muslims have been a part of the American story since before the founding of the United States. It emphasized institutions must take the lead in the effort to counter Islamophobia and hate and bigotry in all forms.

Biden acknowledged the sharp increase in discrimination and violence against Muslim, Arab and Jewish communities in the United States over the last year.

“Today’s release fulfills a promise made by our nation’s highest office to acknowledge and address Islamophobia as one of the many forms of hate and discrimination that obscure our path toward reaching our greater American ideals of freedom, fairness, dignity and justice for all,” said Rabbi Esther Lederman of the Union for Reform Judaism, who serves as Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign co-chair.