A Return to Our True Heritage: A Call for Muslim-Jewish Action and Solidarity
For over a decade, I have been conducting trainings, facilitations and lectures on Islamophobia throughout the United States. To be honest, I originally never wanted to conduct such talks but I was constantly being asked by my friends and colleagues to do so. As an Intercultural Diversity consultant, social justice educator and a Higher Ed professional, I was concerned about being pigeon-holed in my profession in a manner that would prevent people from seeing my broader expertise. After realizing how little the participants in my sessions knew about Islam and Islamophobia, I realized that I had a responsibility to help educate people about what I had thought was basic information about the topic. I found it disturbing that the knowledge-base in our country was so incredibly deficient.
In all my sessions, I made sure to give people historical context about Islamophobia going back all the way to the Crusades. In doing so, I’ve made sure to ensure that participants were aware of the shared history and heritage of Muslim and Jewish communities and civilizations. Now more than ever, it is critically important that we dispel with the myth that Muslims and Jews have always been in conflict. Conversely, history bears a reality in which Islamic civilizations consistently protected Jewish people from persecution typically by European Christians. In addition, Muslims and Jews were jointly subjected to horrific violence by European Crusaders in the Holy Land and later in Spain as well. In fact, after hundreds of years of inclusive rule in Moorish Spain, Jews (and Muslims) who all were subjected to persecution due to the Christian Spanish conquest and the later inquisition were invited to seek safe-haven in Muslim Ottoman Turkey. In addition, most Islamic civilizations were decentralized federations with freedom of movement and local self-determined control for Jewish (and other minority) communities. Examples of this can be found in places like Fez, Morocco with ancient Jewish quarters that have been there for many centuries. This history of protecting Jewish communities from persecution is as recent as World War II in which Albanian Muslims protected Jewish people from the Nazis. Albania is the only country in Europe that had a larger Jewish population after WWII than before the Holocaust.
You may be curious as to why I’m so focused on this history. Some may think that this history is irrelevant after almost 50 years of conflict over Israel and Palestine. However, I would argue that Israel-Palestine is not a conflict simply based on Muslims and Jews. I would argue that it is primarily a conflict between a nation-state (including its policies and practices which in no way represents the views or perspectives of all Jewish people) and the Palestinian people, many of whom are Christian. Although the politics of Israel and Palestine are important, I think many have let this issue cloud a broader dynamic and history between Muslims and Jews in relation to the West (for lack of better terminology). It is my view that Muslims and Jews have strategically been pitted against each other for a broader neocolonial political interests.
Irrespective of the source of such conflict, what is certainly true is that Muslims and Jews in the United States once again find ourselves in a common state of severe persecution and hate-mongering against us. Over the past 1.5 years, the rise of Trump and the alt-right movement has not only fomented Islamophobia, but has unleashed and mainstreamed White Nationalism and anti-Semitism to a level not seen in decades in this country. However, in contrast to prior historical realities, White Jewish people are positioned differently than Muslims at this historical moment in the United States. The reason that this is true is because Islamophobia and White Nationalism are not just ideologies about religion but about race and racism. The reality is that Muslims are perceived to be People of Color and Jewish people are now perceived as White. Although it is true that Jewish people once were very much not viewed as White in this country, that is no longer the case today.
Some may wonder why I’m delineating this difference as mattering at the onset of a plea for solidarity. I am doing so because Muslims in many ways in this country are often more easily demarcated and identifiable as non-White people who are subjected to random acts of hate. This has been true even prior to the rise of Trump and is emphasized by the fact that even Sikhs, Hindus, Arab Christians and Latinos have been subjected to hate crimes simply because they have been perceived as Muslims by Islamophobes. It is also highlighted by the fact that the FBI just reported a 67% increase in hate crimes against Muslims in 2015.
Anti-Semitism is once again on the rise in this country. What is most disturbing is that it is sanctioned by a White Nationalist ideology that is now directly connected to the next President of the United States (particularly now that Steve Bannon, head of Breitbart and the alt right movement has been appointed as Trump’s Chief Strategist). There are legitimate reasons for Jewish people in this country to fear what may be around the corner and further unleashed going forward. We all should stand together in resistance and opposition to this horrific development in this country and unequivocally denounce any and all anti-Jewish hate.
I am calling for Muslim and Jewish people in this country to reclaim our heritage to once again come together to support one another in the face of hate against our communities. However, this time it will be critically important for Jewish people to leverage their attained White privilege in this country to support and help protect against the racism, hate and violence that Muslims are continuing to be subjected to.
It is time for our communities to build coalition, leverage our resources and work together in the face of this common threat we face. I understand that there are real issues and tensions that exist among many in our communities, but I believe our shared interests far exceed our differences. We do not need to agree on every single issue in the world to stand together in the face of our common immediate threat that we face within our country here in the United States. Is the politics of Israel-Palestine more important to you than our direct safety and security here? I would certainly hope not. Furthermore, might it be possible for Muslim-Jewish solidarity here to potentially model for Israelis and Palestinians that peaceful and equitable coexistence as possible?
Beyond a Muslim-Jewish alliance and coalition, it is my hope that all marginalized communities and groups will build coalitions of solidarity. For centuries, many of our people and communities around the world have been subjected to the ‘divide and conquer’ colonial strategies that have exacerbated divides between people. This history has only been to our own detriment and the benefit of those seeking to exploit our divisions. I believe that we are finally in a moment in which we are realizing our common shared destiny that can only emerge through coming together to build a broad-based unified movement comprised of all marginalized communities and allies.
In the face of violence and hate, our most powerful weapon is to build power and strength by coming together. However, in order to make our common movement strong, we will have to find ways to work through our differences and challenges in order to prevent outsiders from weakening our solidarity. That is how the powerful undermined and fragment movements. We must engage in this process with humility, recognizing that none of us will have all the answers and that we must be inclusive in order to deepen investment and commitment to what we build together.
I don’t know exactly how this movement will take shape or form, but it is my hope that we begin with identifying the fact that we need to come together and recognize our power and strength in unity which requires us to make sacrifices in order to move forward. I look forward to working with everyone who is willing to work towards building this new future. Along the way, many of us will be attacked and persecuted, but vigilance and courage will be necessary; and allies who are not targets of the hate will need to step up and speak out as well.
Comrades, this is call to action and solidarity. Let’s build what no other challenge we’ve faced has yet galvanized us to do. It is time to step up in an unprecedented manner. And for any Muslim or Jewish person reading this, it is time to abandon our differences in order to draw from our shared heritage from which we can draw strength in order to fuel and power this movement that we can work together to help build.
