Last week, the Muslim community on Twitter responded to Sunday night's debate with the hashtag: #MuslimsReportStuff. Trump, after being asked about his plans to combat rising Islamophobia, responded by saying, "Whether we like it or not, there is a problem. And we have to be sure that Muslims come in and report when they see something going on. When they see hatred going on, they have to report it." His comments sparked the #MuslimsReportStuff hashtag as Muslims poured in funny, sarcastic, and serious reports about everything ranging from witty Trump jabs, "I need to report I saw an orange haired man on my TV scaring children"(@deanofcomedy), to sarcastic self-reports, "I did laundry this morning but still haven't put it away" (@sanamasuds). While the Twitter community chose to respond mostly with humor, some people chose to address the problem they found with Trump's comments on a more serious note.
When candidates address the Muslim community, it is often only through a national security perspective. Many Muslims feel this is belittling Muslim's value in American society as little more than tools to help fight terrorism. When speaking of Islam in the context of national security, candidates speak to the Muslim community saying "they" have to help "us," giving the divisive impression that Muslims are a foreign entity separate from that of the American community. Some Muslims feel this language creates a double standard: Politicians expect Muslims to help combat those trying to attack America (which all reasonable Muslims agree with), while implying that Islam is foreign, or 'other,' rather than part of American life.
Rhetoric which implies that America is at war with, or is innately opposed, to Islam is a contributing factor to homegrown terrorism. If Muslims don't feel integrated and part of American society, they could accidentally become more open to divisive anti-American propaganda. Instead of politicians simplistically asking Muslims to report violence that they already report anyway, they must address the root cause of both homegrown terrorism and Islamophobia: the idea that America and Islam are two separate and conflicting concepts. Muslims are, and always have been, part of the fabric that makes up American life. And as such, all of us Americans (Muslims and non-Muslims) must understand what this means. When someone who claims to have ties to our community commits an atrocity in the name of our religion, it harms us. This makes it our obligation to take responsibility for people who seek to abuse Islam as an inspiration to commit violence. If someone is harming any of our American communities, we must do everything in our power to aid our law enforcement officers in preventing it. Muslims must be on the forefront of protecting all Americans against any violence from any enemies, foreign or domestic, religious or non-religious, Muslim or non-Muslims.
Rather than being defensive over statements made by non-Muslims concerning the Muslim community, we should seek to understand the reasoning behind those comments. Our leaders don't always make these comments because they are anti-Islam; let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are looking to protect our country from harm -- something we should easily get behind. Muslims should be less defensive and more helpful not just because it's the right thing to do, but because we are an integral part of the community that we would be helping. Our job is to stand up against anyone seeking to divide us as Americans, because the only way we succeed as a society is if we all stand together. As Thomas Payne famously wrote, "“Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess.” We can learn from Payne that if a so-called Muslim seeks to divide Americans by committing violence or otherwise committing any other crime in the name of Islam then it's incumbent on all Muslims, as well as non-Muslims, to call them out and report them.
