American Muslims are tired of being left out of the conversation
Donald Trump has made headlines this campaign season for his inflammatory rhetoric about Muslims, including calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
This kind of talk, Muslim activists say, has not only caused a spike in anti-Muslim crimes across America, but led to a vacuum of Muslim voices being included in the media during this back-and-forth about their religion.
Tired of being left out of the conversation, a new campaign by MPower Change, a Muslim grassroots organizing platform, called for the conversation to be shifted from being about Muslims to being with Muslims.
AJ+ spoke with Linda Sarsour, co-founder of MPower Change, about the new campaign.
AJ+: What’s #AboutUsWithoutUs?
LS: The #AboutUsWithoutUs campaign is basically referring to these elections, which have really been about Muslims, Islam, Muslim communities — but we as Muslims have been left out of the conversation.
This campaign is a motivational opportunity that engages American Muslims to say, no longer will this election be about us, without us.
AJ+: When did you come up with this idea?
LS: We came up with the idea about a month ago, realizing and watching the debates — both the Republican and Democratic debates — finding that there’s been a lot of conversations about American Muslims, about bigotry and hate, but also perpetuating bigotry and hate against American Muslims,[and] putting Muslims in the context of national security and terrorism only. I think that was really alarming to us, that we didn’t see any Muslims part of the conversation.
AJ+: How will you amplify those voices?
LS: We’ll allow people to submit videos to us, do a couple of online social media campaigns just to create momentum and motivation around the American Muslim community. People are scared, people are confused, they don’t know what’s going on. There are organizers in the Muslim community around the country doing voter registration, voter engagement work, they’re working on multiple campaigns in all three parties, and our job is to coordinate and allow American Muslims to connect with those people.
AJ+: Why now?
LS: I’ll be honest with you, with the rise of Donald Trump and the rhetoric coming out of Ted Cruz, we have found ourselves with a sense of urgency.
People were saying, “Donald Trump is a joke, don’t worry about him,” a few months ago. And I’ll be honest with you — he’s not a joke and I was never laughing.
I think it’s an opportunity to say, this isn’t about Trump, this is about the supporters and the people that are engaged in supporting his proposals in banning Muslims, his rhetoric around Mexican Americans, his treatment of black protesters who come to his rallies. I mean, this man is reflective of something in our country that we, as American Muslims and others have been fighting against for a long time.
AJ+: What’s next?
LS: We’re garnering pledges of people who’d like to participate so we have a database of people to reach out to, crowdsourcing organizers around the country who are already doing voter registration work. We’re looking towards a national voter registration day, kind of a national American Muslim voter registration day.
AJ+: Do you think the Muslim narrative is owned by others?
LS: Everyone has been telling the American Muslim’s story except for American Muslims. We are using this campaign to say, no longer will it be about us, without us. We’re using this campaign to say that we will tell our own stories. And we also want to tell stories outside of, “we’re the victims” or “we’re the perpetrators of violence.”
There’s a big story in the middle, about our contributions to this country, our social justice work.
I want people to look at American Muslims and say, “They’re our partners in the fight to raise the living wage. They’re our partners in the fight for women to choose — around Black Lives Matter and civil liberties issues.” We want people to see us as a progressive community that stands for the rights and demands justice for all people. And we hope this campaign will reflect that by hearing the stories and the issues that diverse American Muslims across the countries care about and want to work towards.
AJ+: What’s at stake during this year’s election?
LS: The stakes are extremely high this election. This is one election that we can’t sit out, both on the national level and the local level. The types of rhetoric that we’re hearing in these campaigns are things we’ve never heard before: proposals to ban Muslims, to build walls, mass deportation. We cannot allow that to happen, not just on the issues that impact American Muslims, but also on the issues that impact others as well.
This is it. American Muslims, we need to get off the complaints counter, and get on the claims counter.
Others are speaking out against the anti-Muslim rhetoric in this year’s election. AJ+ spoke to Dr. Suzanne Barakat, whose brother was killed in the Chapel Hill shooting last year. She wants Donald Trump to stop inciting violence against Muslims.
For more on #AboutUsWithoutUs, check out our video:
