From the 2016 United States election, it seems that Donald Trump does not seem to admire Muslims and feels that they are a threat to the United States due to the rise of ISIS (which kills more Muslims than it does any other group). Trump is making sweeping generalizations about Muslims, while simultaneously stirring unnecessary fear in the hearts of many Americans. He has plans of not accepting any further Muslim immigrants into the United States (although Islam are the second largest religious group in the world) and he also plans on IDing Muslims to make them more easily identifiable for persecution and stop-and-frisk. These plans are discriminatory and do seem unconstitutional so there are doubts of these plans actually being executed. However, the election of Donald Trump serves as an initiation for further attacks against Muslims and hate crimes. In light of recent events, it is important for Muslims to take care of one another.
What Many American Muslims Want You (Non-Muslims) To Know
Your solidarity with domestic Muslims is meaningless if you support crimes against Muslims overseas. If you are one hundred percent satisfied with governments that continuously use drones targeting innocent civilians globally; and expediting civil wars, we do not need your solidarity. If you do not include Syrians, Iraqis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Somali, Sudanese, Bangladeshi, Yemeni, Jordanian and other overseas Muslims in your prayers, then we will find it hard to trust you. If you support apartheid like governments and governments that illegally colonize lands of Muslims and those who live peacefully among Muslims, we will not fully trust you to stand by us. It is all or nothing.
Protection of Hijabi Muslim Women and Female Bodied individuals
Hijabi Muslim women (especially black Muslim women) need to feel safe. Women who are visibly religious must be cared for and protected. There have been several reported instances of hijabi sisters and the gender non conforming or binary having their hijabs taken off in public settings. There are many instances of rape and sexual harassment of both hijabi and non hijabi Muslim women that we need to address. Please remember to look after, defend, and protect Muslim women and female bodied individuals.
U.N.I.T.Y: Overcoming the micro level community issues (racism, sexism, homophobia) in order to get to the macro level problems
Being disconnected from one another is possibly the worst thing that we could be doing in times like this. Within the Muslim community there may be a lot of racism from several races towards the black Muslim sub-community. I’ve seen a lot of colorism as a South Asian woman. This needs to change. There are also Muslim men who do not fully support the cause of Muslim feminism which addresses issues from slut shaming, to female genital mutilation, to sexual harassment, and more. Many Muslim women for instance do not feel connected to their communities, due to lack of unity, even though they are always in the front lines fighting for and protecting Muslim men. Regardless of your views, to Muslims, everyone is a child of God and must be welcomed in God’s home. In terms of homophobia and transphobia in the community, if people who are LGBTQ+ do not feel comfortable entering a mosque, there is a huge problem. If people who are more privileged are capable of helping people who are underprivileged, it would help the Muslim community get together more to be against the side of the oppressors.
Why would some (but definitely not a large portion [of]) Muslims vote for Donald Trump, and why did some Muslims not vote at all?
People are genuinely upset about the current affairs of the United States. Regardless of who the president is (Obama, Clinton, or Trump), we would possibly be living under the fear of having predominantly Muslim countries being bombed or under attack. It is quite possible that many Muslim men harbor sexist views, therefore they would rather vote for a Trump presidency than a Clinton presidency, or that they voted based on lack of knowledge or out of spite. Some may even call it self hatred to vote for Trump as a Muslim. It may also be possible that they did not vote at all because voting would not be to their benefit since Muslims are often treated like second class citizens. The number of Muslims admitted to Guantanamo Bay and being treated like test animals despite being innocent did skyrocket after 9/11. Thus, the lack of empathy towards Muslims may have harbored a distrust towards the government causing some of this backlash. We must unite in order to push for change against an oppressive system.
Looking back: Malcolm X and Clara Muhammad
Although the Nation of Islam did have many internal conflicts, black nationalism did ensure a form of unity for all Muslims and did embrace the intersectionalities of a struggle against racism and for the expression of religious freedom. Leaders like Malcolm X and Clara Muhammad were incredibly important and must be remembered and appreciated. If we were to bring history back and make them proud, it could be to the benefit of all Muslims. If we work on the most marginalized in society first, all Muslims can get their freedom.
Fear of retaliation and the hierarchy of oppression: What are our rights?
The media constantly tells us to believe that we are truly violent people and that we are not oppressed. We cannot tolerate this hatred and begin to believe these lies. What happened to the Jews of Nazi Germany during the holocaust (which also took the lives of gypsies, homosexuals and more) should not happen to Muslims although many Muslims have died by the millions through countless wars. We shall not fight violence with violence, but we must defend one another and elect better leaders for this world--people who will fight for our rights.
Solidarity
We Muslims must have solidarity among one another and not be as divided. Those non Muslims who are reading this need to have solidarity with Muslims.
