The Biden administration on Thursday announced a national strategy to combat Islamophobia and discrimination against Muslim and Arab Americans. The plan outlines over 100 actions across federal agencies and society.
This strategy follows a similar plan to address antisemitism released earlier this year. It arrives five weeks before President Biden leaves office and President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated.
The White House stated the plan’s importance has grown due to increased threats, citing the October 2023 killing of Wadee Alfayoumi, a 6-year-old Muslim boy, in Illinois.
The plan focuses on four areas: Raising awareness of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate and recognising these communities’ contributions; improving their safety and security; accommodating their religious practices and reducing discrimination; and building cross-community solidarity against hate.
The strategy emphasises the need to recognise that both Muslims and Arabs are targeted for their identities. It highlights new data collection and education efforts to increase awareness of this hate. The plan also calls for wider sharing of effective hate crime reporting practices and clarifies that discrimination against Muslim and Arab Americans in federally funded activities is illegal. It also urges state, local, and international partners, as well as non-governmental groups, to adopt similar initiatives.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized the plan, stating: “The White House strategy lays out some positive recommendations related to anti-Muslim bigotry, but it has been released too late to make an impact, fails to promise any changes to federal programs that perpetuate anti-Muslim discrimination on a massive scale.”
They added that the plan doesn’t address what they termed a “federal watchlist” or the “US-backed genocide in Gaza.”