To combat Islamophobia

The carnage that took place a fortnight ago in Paris, admittedly by Daesh, has backfired, hurting Arabs and Muslims everywhere, especially in Africa, Europe and the United States.

If nothing else, it has degraded Arabs and Muslims everywhere, igniting racism and religious persecution.

In my teens, my parents took me to Jerusalem where we visited the famous Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus Christ is believed to be buried. My father pointed out that day that the famous Muslim caliph, Omar, the second caliph after Prophet Mohammad, had visited Jerusalem and this prominent church. While there, some of his Palestinian hosts asked him to pray inside the church, a step that would have led to turning the church into a mosque, but Caliph Omar asked them to wait a while, until he is through with his visit. He then stepped out of the church into the yard and a few steps from the church kneeled in the open space and began to pray.

Visitors to Jerusalem may nowadays see the Mosque of Omar, established about 100 metres away from the church — a praiseworthy gesture Palestinians, Christians and Muslims, have always lauded.

That is one reason why I have named my son Omar. Another was in honour of Libyan leader Omar Al Mukhtar to fought to liberate his country from Italian rule.

Regrettably, the bloodletting in Paris has precipitated harsh reactions, especially ugly intolerance in the US, which has a large, successful, Arab American population.

One town, Hamtramck, in the state of Michigan, earned in 2013 the distinction of becoming, according to a front-page report in The Washington Post, “what appears to be the first majority-Muslim city in the United States following the arrival of thousands of immigrants from Yemen, Bangladesh and Bosnia over a decade”.

In an apparent bid to project a different image of Arabs, the Ramallah-based Wishah Popular Dance Troupe, composed of 10 Palestinian male and female dancers, performed gloriously last Sunday before a full house at the popular Lincoln Centre in Washington, DC.

The event, in one of five cities of their successful US tour, was sponsored by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the largest Arab American grassroots organisation in the US, founded in 1980.

In the US, the stance of the Republican Party, which is in control of the House of Representatives, has been disappointing and critical.

Last week, the Republican representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation aimed at tightening controls on refugees from Syria and Iraq. The vote was 289 to 137.

There is hope it will be derailed since President Barack Obama has promised to veto the resolution and the US Senate will not endorse the House of Representatives’ action.

The president has pledged to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees into the US, although more than half of state governors declared that their states would not accept to resettle any Syrian refugee.

The Republican bill will require the Federal Bureau of Investigations to certify the background investigations of each Syrian or Iraqi refugee admitted into the US and, the Department of Homeland Security and Intelligence must certify that the refugees are not security threats.

Moreover, it is deplorable to hear the several erroneous claims by the leading Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, who maintained that he watched “thousands and thousands of people” in Jersey City, N.J. cheering the fall of the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, “giving the impression that he was talking about Muslims living in the United States being happy that so many Americans died in the attacks”, as reported by The Washington Post.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, in pushing back, reportedly said that Trump’s comments about Islam are “manipulating people’s angst and their fears”.

In a published column, Jack G. Shaheen, author of “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People”, wrote: “We can push back against this anti-Muslim virus.”

He suggested that President Barack Obama could hold a press conference “to discuss the misguided and dangerous nature of this rising wave of Islamophobia”.

James Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute and author of “Arab Voices”, asked in an opinion column published by The Huffington Post: “How long it will take and how much damage is done before we can come to our senses will be determined by the degree to which we demonstrate strong and assertive leadership to challenge and overcome the fear and temporary madness that is in the air.”

This is a point that should be taken by the Arab American community, which should take a progressive step and explain Islam in the classroom.

The writer is a Washington-based columnist.