Biden repealed the Muslim Ban. That’s nowhere near enough.
By Ramah Kudaimi, Deputy Campaign Director - Crescendo
Once it became apparent that Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential election, many communities breathed a collective sigh of relief. For Muslim Americans in particular, it was momentous. After all, Donald Trump spent his presidency banning our families, scapegoating all Muslims, and filling the government with officials who made no attempt to hide their disdain for our faith.
President Biden ran on the promise of undoing much of what Trump had wrought and a return to normalcy. That included a promise to repeal the Muslim Ban, a series of executive orders that restricted immigration from several Muslim-majority countries. (Trump repeatedly reworked the order until it could survive legal challenges, with the Supreme Court ultimately upholding it in 2018.)
Today, President Biden issued an executive order repealing the Muslim ban.
This is obviously great news.The Muslim Ban has kept thousands of families apart, and denied people life-saving medical treatment as well as educational or professional opportunities.
It’s also not just about the ban itself — but about what else came with it. According to the No Muslim Ban Ever Campaign, the ban has had broader consequences: the United States has slashed refugee admissions to a historic low and drastically cut the number of visas issued to nationals of Muslim majority countries. Meanwhile, the number of hate crimes against Muslim, Arab, Sikh, and South Asian people in this country has risen sharply.
So the repeal of the Muslim Ban is very welcome. But to truly tackle the Islamophobia that led to the ban, a Biden administration also needs to start reckoning with decades of U.S. policies that have criminalized Muslim communities both at home and across the globe.
This September will mark 20 years since George W. Bush launched the War on Terror, which led to the U.S. invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as drone strikes against countries from Somalia to Yemen to Pakistan. The Obama-Biden administration continued and expanded these drone strikes and air wars, even after they declared the end of the War on Terror in 2013. In Obama’s last year in office, the U.S. dropped 26,172 bombs in seven countries, all Muslim-majority.
Trump then not only built upon what other presidents had already begun, but further entrenched US wars by, for example, sending an additional 20,000 troops into the Middle East and Afghanistan. In his first year in office, he dropped what’s known as the “Mother of All Bombs” in Afghanistan and obliterated the cities Raqqa, Syria and Mosul, Iraq. He has dramatically escalated airstrikes in Yemen and Somalia while at the same time rolling back accountability measures, making it harder to understand the true extent of civilian casualties. His presidency has been a boon to the military-industrial complex by increasing US arms sales to foreign countries. He pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, enacted devastating sanctions, and had been considering attacking Iran during his last weeks in office.
This War on Terror that has been fought by Bush, Obama, and Trump has also included the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and mass surveillance. It has meant the establishment of networks of torture and offsite prisons (remember Guantanamo Bay is still open). It has also meant further militarization of the police through programs such as the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI). It has meant a Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program (renamed Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention under Trump) that targets and criminalizes Muslims. And some, including Biden, are now pushing to pass a “domestic terrorism” law in response to the white supremacist attack on the Capital on January 6, which rightfully worries people in BIPOC communities considering more likely than not such new legal powers will target them.
Other countries have joined in to make this truly a Global War on Terror. From Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, to Turkey’s attacks on Kurdish communities, to Russia and Iran’s backing of Bashar al-Assad in his destruction of Syria, all these states claim their violence in the name of fighting terrorism. China has used the War on Terror as cover for its war against the Uighur people. The same with India and Kashmir, Myanmar and the Rohingya people, and Saudi Arabia and the UAE with Yemen. Anywhere Muslims are being targeted by state violence, all the state has to do is scream terrorism and that is more often than not accepted as justification.
To really make a difference, here’s what a Biden-Harris administration needs to do:
Push Congress to repeal both the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) and the 2002 Iraq AUMF, which have for decades created a world of endless war. Cease the airwars that continue to kill people abroad with complete impunity. End military funding to regimes from Saudi Arabia to Israel to Turkey to India and beyond that use these weapons to brutalize various communities. Cut Pentagon spending and invest that money in community needs instead such as housing, healthcare, and education. Work towards accountability for all war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially by the US and its partners. Hold corporations accountable for their upholding and enabling of anti-Muslim policies- not allowing the weapons industry to be part of foreign policy making is one important step. Admit and support refugees fleeing state violence and environmental catastrophe across the globe, and stop contributing through US militarism to the conditions causing these people to leave their homelands.
Our movements need to continue building across struggles and borders. Until we take a comprehensive look at how the Muslim Ban was so readily accepted in the United States — and until we tackle the institutions and frameworks that allowed for it to happen — nothing will really change.
Ramah Kudaimi works at the Action Center on Race & the Economy, where she serves as the the Deputy Campaign Director of the Crescendo project, which takes on anti-Muslim corporations. She was previously the Deputy Director at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and has been a member of the National Committee of the War Resisters League. You can follow her on Twitter @ramahkudaimi. You can follow ACRE at @ACRECampaigns
