American essayist and Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Marilynne Robinson wrote in an essay titled ‘Survival of cultural and religious tolerance’ –“Since religion is central to most identities within the larger national culture, religious tolerance has been the great guarantor of the survival of the variety of cultures.” Robinson was born in Idaho and lived a big part of her life in Iowa located deep in the Midwest. As a traditional Calvinist, her books are viewed in line with Puritanical ideas of the 17th century America. This particular theory today does not apply to post- Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s USA in the context of religion of all people who are living in America.
2024 is a consequential presidential election on many levels. There are about 4 million Muslims living in America today. At the backdrop of the Israel and Palestine war at the Gaza Strip, the sentiment of intolerance towards the Muslims or Islam is a glaring reality. Muslims in return feel the same way about Israel. This war is getting the full support of the U.S. and it is giving all the ammunition to Israel. Israel is killing the Palestinians including innocent children during airstrikes. With each passing day, negative feelings are manifesting on a mass scale, erupting and engulfing a lot of people’s way of thinking. People are behaving emotionally; as such anti-Israel sentiments are sweeping across America among Muslims and vice versa. Since last week, a storm has been brewing in Michigan, where a large number of immigrant Muslims resides. It is one of the battleground states.
I am not religiously following the 2024 election in general as politics is not my cup of tea. I am especially avoiding all the controversies surrounding Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. One (Trump) is a sex offender and a convicted felon, pathological liar, who thinks Bagram Air Base is in Alaska. He is confused between Alaska (a state in the Union) and Afghanistan (a Southern Asian country). Donald is once again making delusional assurances to the voters. He is promising to reach Mars before the end of his next term (2029) with the help from his new best friend Elon Musk, of course!
The other female candidate (Harris) is an unexpected and relatively unknown candidate (until a few weeks ago) who was chosen to fulfill Joe Biden’s agenda. Though Harris is the current VP, she was mostly kept in the background until Biden was deemed unfit to continue with his election in 2024. Without a concrete plan in regard to a separate state for the Palestinians, Muslims in the U.S. are apprehensive about giving Kamala their full support. They are not going to put their blind faith on her the way they did in Joe Biden’s case in 2020. Now they are unsure because of the Biden- Harris administration’s position on Israel’s war on Gaza. Muslim voters want assurance from Harris “that she’ll help create an autonomous Palestinian state and end Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.” – Newsweek
“Every vote matters in Wisconsin, which was decided in 2020 by mere 20,000… Wisconsin is home to 40,000 Muslim voters.” Muslims all across America are angry over the fighting in the Gaza Strip. To win their votes Kamala Harris needs to do more than give her “lip service,” according to some residents in a suburban town in Madison, WI. They are demanding “a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as an embargo of U.S. weapons to Israel.” Unless Harris gives out a concrete plan about Palestine the Muslims are apprehensive to vote for Harris. Most Muslims prefer Harris over Trump as the next US president.
“According to a national survey conducted for the council of American Islamic Relations about 30% of American Muslims nationwide support Kamala Harris…Eleven percent said they plan to vote for Donald Trump and nearly 7% said they are undecided,” reported NPR.
I may have been one of those few people who hadn’t watched the Kamala/Trump debate on television. Since the debate, I just shrug hearing how euphoric the Indian-Americans are feeling seeing half-Indian Kamala Harris took on a head to head battle with big bad Donald Trump. On the night of the debate, I was rather busy doing something very important. I had to mend my decorative ceramic flower planter using the strongest adhesive that I had found on Amazon. (A few days ago, I had accidentally dropped it while bringing it inside. With the night air getting a bit chilly now, one has to pay special attention to the potted plants.) It was a much more delightful task than watching the frontrunners go at it and attack each other. It would have been a déjà vu moment of the 2016 debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It is still very vivid in my memory!
I simply could not bring myself to watch a rerun of the same so to speak. It is of more disinterest to me simply because Trump is not a Muslim and immigrant sympathizer. He hates all Muslims. As for Kamala Harris, I have no definite opinion yet. What Kamala is, remains to be seen if she is elected. But at first look, she does not come across as someone who has the interest to safeguard everyone in America. Of course, she is saying all the right things to get ahead of Trump in the poll. Early on, she made it clear if she wins she is going to continue with fulfilling Biden’s agenda. She appears a bit catty the way she says, she “understands” everyone’s plight. No, she does not. Thousands of Palestinian children are being killed since Israel declared war on Palestine. This does not bleed her heart, and she says she understands? The hypocrisy! Bottom line: Kamala Harris is pro-Israeli.
Whatever pro- Palestinian lines she has been throwing when it suits her need is something to be taken with a grain of salt. These are seasoned politicians we are talking about. They change colors as we change outfits every morning. She has been parading her spouse (a person with Jewish descent) to gain more Jewish votes. To add fuel to the fire she clearly said how Israel had a right to defend itself after the Hamas attack. That comment alone is going to cost her thousands of Muslim Americans’ votes. No Muslim is going to rationalize her words as people are on edge and feeling very emotional. She is giving “lip service” about Israel and the Muslims want a concrete plan from her. Storm is brewing in Michigan and Wisconsin (two battleground states). It is not looking good for Harris. In the swing states without the Muslim votes it is not going to be an easy win for Kamala Harris.
How is Trump doing this time around with his prejudice and hatred of Muslims? His 2016 campaign rallies were mostly about anti Muslim rhetoric. As of last week, he and his running mate JD Vance are trying something different. To make things a little spicy, they have a new angle which is to go after the Haitian immigrants. They are spreading lies that in Springfield, Ohio, Haitian migrants (Catholics) are stealing people’s pets and eating those. They claim they have firsthand reports that they are eating stolen cats, dogs and barbecuing Parakeets. Until yesterday, this outrageous story dominated the news. This morning I saw a news piece that they are still at it even after the city manager of Springfield confirmed that there are no reports of that allegation to be true. Such offensive stories and innuendoes only can come out of a mentally deranged individual.
I haven’t really followed Trump on the campaign trail since he got shot. Every word that comes out of Trump’s mouth is a lie, fabrication or half-truth. I would rather mend my broken ceramic planter than listen to his gibberish. Seeing Trump only agitates me and stress is not good for anyone’s mental health. Whatever little pieces or short videos come to my attention I hear nothing new. He has not yet put out a clearly defined agenda in front of the American public as to how his presidency this time will be different. Election is less than two months away and the early voting have already began. Trump reminds me of the age-old adage, “it is the same old wine in a new bottle.”
On Sept 17, 2024 amidst storm brewing in Michigan (one of the battleground states) Trump was there begging to the Arab Muslims to vote for him. Seeing him on TV appealing to the Muslim made me feel dismayed. Even there (an Arab Muslim dominant state) he had the audacity to utter garbage about the Haitian Americans eating animals. This mentally unstable person should be sent to jail as he has a conviction. That is very unlikely as the US Supreme Court is shielding poor little Trump from all kinds of “injustices.”
But no matter how much I want to avoid election news; there is no escaping; it is on TV, radio, cell phone, internet, YouTube- everywhere. First thing in the morning, at 5:30 am when I open my phone there is usually a video message from Barack Obama asking me to donate money to Kamala Harris’ campaign as time is running out. My immediate reaction is: “please it is too early, instead can you go and get me coffee so that I can have it after saying my prayers?” All puns aside, that is how I really feel at times. Trump, a convicted criminal, as a nominee for the Republican Party, and Democrat Harris as a late comer, I am very nonchalant about the November election. I just want it to be December so that we can get on with our lives.
Some reflections: In the context of Muslim Americans and the 2016 election.
At a time when Muslims who are living in America are under ongoing verbal attack from Donald Trump, a Republican front-runner for the 2024 presidential nomination — Kamala Harris’ pro-Israeli stance will shame anyone with a conscience. Neither of the candidates have the magnetic allure of former President Barack Obama. To defend religious freedom, Obama visited a mosque in Baltimore, Maryland into the eighth year (final) of his presidency. He went there amidst growing tensions because of Islamophobia. On February 03, 2016, he had showed up at the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque and Al Rahmah School in Maryland. He went there to “praise the important contributions of Muslim Americans and reaffirm our nation’s tradition of religious freedom.” It was viewed as an “anti-Trump” tour as well.
After 9/11, the mid-2000s was also laced with many terrorist attacks which put the Muslims in a tough spot. They had to defend their identity as Muslims and explain away that Islam is a religion of peace. And “the face of terror is not the true face of Islam.” There is a monumental difference between the terrorists and the good Muslims. In his speech, Obama talked about the positive role Islam has played in the nation’s history. He had decried the violence and the anti-Muslim rhetoric that was on the rise since the deadly attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California. He also emphasized that for the horrific acts of a few terrorists, an entire religious group should not be targeted. To the gathering Muslims at the Islamic Society mosque, Obama’s words reaffirmed the role of American Muslims as he reminded them about America’s tradition of religious freedom. He had asked the religious leaders to speak out against extremism and reiterated that America needs a fresher course on religious tolerance. But were they really listening?
Since then Donald Trump has made endless condescending and unacceptable remarks aimed at the Muslims. On February 20, 2016 before ending his final campaign in South Carolina, to rile up the crowd, Trump had related an anecdote about a US four star general. He told the crowd that roughly about hundred years ago when the general was battling the Muslim insurgents in the Philippines, he made his troop dip bullets in pig’s blood before shooting them. Trump believes that similar practices can be an American strategy to teach the Muslims a lesson. The story, however, turned out to be a hoax. Because of such atrocious and made up tales of Donald, the Muslims in America are left with more questions about politics of fear than some much needed resolutions as Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric had continued to climb. There is no doubt left in people’s minds that Trump is a product of racism and Islamophobia.
Donald Trump during his four years of his presidency (2016-2020) pretty much had remained unchanged. He is incapable of change and I also do not believe people really can change from their core. One might adapt to certain situations because of circumstances but that does not mean that a person has changed.
Trump also had called for a boycott of all Apple products since CEO Tim Cook was resisting a court order to give access to the FBI by providing them the security code of Farook and wife Tashfeen’s iPhones (a Pakistani couple responsible for the December San Bernardino, California attacks).
It was rather disheartening to see and read that some were comparing Trump’s anti-Muslim proposals to the civil rights movement because of his bold conservative statements. It was hard to watch that Muslim activists who had attended any of Donald Trump rallies and dared to talk back to him with answers like “Islam is not the problem” were bullied, given bad looks and sometimes escorted out in handcuffs by the police. Such police aggression became a daily occurrence. Some fearless ones did continue with their fights as did Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and many other rights activists who fought against racism.
In some workplaces, the Muslim workers still are denied their civil rights and religious freedom. In 2016, there was an enormous dispute over prayer breaks in a meatpacking industry in Fort Morgan, Colorado. A huge number of workers there were refugees of East African descent. Eleven Somalian women workers were fired from their jobs over taking short breaks for prayer. The company’s supervisors were hostile to prayer requests, and in protest those women didn’t show-up for work for a few days. Then they were let go.
Such workplace disputes are complex and workers who hold very strong religious and cultural beliefs face undue hardship. The company owners had argued that in a slaughterhouse, making leeway for the workers’ religious accommodation imposes a significant cost on the employer, and therefore, the company had a right to deny that request. It sounds rather a twisted argument that a worker missing ten minutes of work can slow down an entire shift.
Irrespective of what religion one belongs to – most of us believe that religion is very important to our lives. We believe we are much better for its influence since we practice it for self-improvement and spiritual fulfillment. I know it helps me to cope with life’s difficult challenges.
Since the beginning of time, religious aggression has led to atrocities like the Crusades, the Holocaust and the Spanish inquisition. We all remember the Serbian aggression in Kosovo in the 1990s, when Slobodan Milosevic launched the genocidal “ethnic cleansing” by torturing, killing and mass-executing thousands of Albanian Muslims.
Donald Trump’s image may not immediately spring in mind as Milosevic’s evil twin, but he is not far behind. Since he had launched his 2016 campaign, he said things about punishing the Muslims in every conceivable way. Donald has very superficial knowledge about the Muslim world, who never took the time to understand the Islamic definitions of extremism and faith-based solutions. In such trying times in America, the Islamic scholars are holding seminars which focus on the reasons for the extremism, and what the Muslims should be doing to build healthy communities by dispelling the negative stereotypes about the Muslims. Trump has vilified the peaceful and law abiding Muslim communities in the USA, Europe and worldwide.
He even went after the few thousand Syrian refugees who were granted asylum in the United States. When the Obama administration was trying to reinforce the US refugee programme, he kept up his anti-Muslim slurs. With his billions of dollars and worldly comforts, Trump was simply unable to understand that these refugee families had escaped violence, civil war in countries like Syria, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
We cannot simply pretend that the Muslims haven’t done anything to attract criticism. But the ones who are responsible for so much mayhem and devastation are not peace loving everyday Muslims. They are selected groups of terrorists who follow extreme idealism in the name of Islam. In recent history, it started with 9/11. Some of the victims’ families still continue to say explosive things like “Islam=Terror.” Since the terrorist attack, quotes from the Holy Qur’an have been taken out of context by certain groups and been publicized for the masses to view Islam as a promoter of “hate and violence.”
Following the terrorist attack, the plan to build an Islamic Community Center near Ground Zero in New York City had sparked huge controversy. The aim of that center was to promote multi-religious and cross cultural exchanges. Many Americans did not embrace the construction of the building as a symbolic attempt to reject bigotry and hatred.
The two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq made the military families in the USA very impatient. Front page stories showing US flag draped caskets carrying the remains of the dead soldiers reaching the American soil devastated many. American people know that it is the American president who had sent troops to those places and yet mainstream America vented its anger on the Muslims and Islam. There were thousands of casualties on both sides, but the numbers of Muslims killed far exceeded the coalition forces. The dead Muslims were collateral damage.
During the Iraq war, a heartbreaking image of a Marine Cpl named Todd Nicely, a quadruple amputee in a wheelchair leaving his daily physical therapy session dismayed the Americans. In the photo, he had his wife Crystal by his side holding his prosthetic leg in one hand and a bouquet of flowers with another – while Todd looks at her with sadness. Readers empathized with the couple’s anxiety ridden faces laced with uncertainty, and whatever challenges that lie ahead. Such images of unbroken spirit only evoked sympathy for the couple, and many people once again blamed Islam.
The January 07, 2015 barbaric Charlie Hebdo attack had left 12 people dead. Al Qaeda’s offshoot in the Arabian Peninsula had claimed responsibility for that attack. The November 13, 2015 attacks in Paris left 129 people dead and 352 wounded. ISIS claimed responsibility for that attack. The Dec 02 San Bernardino mass shooting attacks had left 14 dead and 22 injured. It is alleged that the perpetrators, the married couple were supported by ISIS.
All of the above attacks were condemned from the Vatican to the White House. However, post 9/11 sentiment and the San Bernardino killings had left deep wounds in the American psyche. Intolerance continues to grow because people like Donald Trump with his anti-Islamic comments had added fuel to the fire when public emotion was very raw against the Muslims.
Because of all the rhetoric the Muslims in America since 9/11 did not have an easy time. But somehow they have to keep calm and assert their position as peace loving citizens of the U.S. In multi-cultural and multi-faith America, the immigrant Muslims must find a way to grow a new national sentiment against religious intolerance by emphasizing that our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The goal should be to reconcile differences by igniting positive debates about acceptance of other religions and their teachings. American leaders always have preached their love for liberty, equality and freedom of religion – which are the very foundations of this nation.
In the face of the recent past tragedies, attitudes towards the immigrant Muslims are getting worse. Both party candidates should focus on the reality of what it means to be a Muslim in America. Donald had a free ride in bashing a minority group just because they are Muslims.
The pastoral leaders and religious scholars have a great role to play here. They can stand up and preach that the War on Terror only implicates a small subset of Muslims. In a world of religious pluralism, we must be tolerant of different religious beliefs. If we are inept, we only give power to the likes of Trump to tarnish the name of the good Muslims. This tolerance is much needed in America now. Otherwise, like a boogie man Donald will continue to keep us up at night!
Zeenat Khan writes while traveling to Monticello, Virginia. The purpose of this visit is to tour the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father who wrote the Declaration of Independence, and the controversial third president of the United States of America.
