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What is Islamophobia? 

Islamophobia.org is a on online resources developed  and monitored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Their mission centers the enhancement and understanding of Islamic civil rights, promoting justice, and empowering American Muslims.  With offices throughout the United States, the organization collaborates with government affairs, local and national media, research efforts surrounding community life and civil rights, and education efforts through conferences, workshops, and trainings.  The define Islamophobia is:

"Islamophobia is a fear, hatred, or prejudice toward Islam and Muslims that results in a pattern of discrimination and oppression. Islamophobia creates a distorted understanding of Islam and Muslims by transforming the global and historical faith tradition of Islam, along with the rich history of cultural and ethnic diversity of its adherents, into a set of stereotyped characteristics most often reducible to themes of violence, civilizational subversion, and fundamental otherness. Islamophobia must also be understood as a system of both religious and racial animosity that is perpetuated by private citizens as well as cultural and political structures."

ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice:
The 21-Day Practice on Creating Inclusive Spaces and Combating Islamophobia

21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge is the registered copyright of America & Moore, LLC. 2014.

The American Board Association (ABA)  founded in 1878, is committed to set the legal and ethical foundation for the American Nation. The ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice promotes policies affecting racial equality, environmental and economic justice, LGBT rights, gender equity, and other significant rights issues. The ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice has developed this  21-Day Practice  to augment our awareness, empathy, compassion and determination to stand for religious freedom. Your participation in the 21-Day Practice is, of course, completely voluntary, and your participation shall not be construed as agreement with the views expressed in any of the assignments in the syllabus. You may opt out of participating along the way, or you may choose to complete the assignments at your own pace.

DAY 1 

  1.  What can lawyers, law students and judges do to recognize and intervene when they encounter Islamophobia?
  2. What are the negative repercussions of Islamophobia?

DAY 2

  1. How is Islamophobia similar to white supremacy?
  2. How does Islamophobia impact the lived experience of American Muslims?

DAY 3

  1. Why did the U.S. Founding Fathers advocate for Muslims’ religious freedoms, but actively ignore Muslim slaves in their presence?
  2. What were the long term impacts of how white slave owners racialized prominent enslaved Black African Muslims as Arab/Moorish on account of their literacy and class background disrupt notions of American Blackness?
  3. How do race and religious identity today impact who is eligible for constitutional protections such as religious freedom?

DAY 4

  1. How does Islamophobic bullying Muslim students in schools?
  2. How are Muslim students, who wear hijab, impacted when their hijab is tugged, pulled, or offensively touched?
  3. How can schools and workplaces improve their responses to Islamophobia monitoring?

DAY 5

  1. How can employers and co-workers encourage Muslim collegaues and students to be more of their authentic selves?
  2. In what ways does the increased visibility of Muslims in Hollywood encourage more representation of Muslims on screen? And how does that impact public perceptions of Muslims to be considered more mainstream members of society?
  3. What are fears of Islamophobia that impact Muslims in the United States and across the world?

DAY 6

  1. What are some of the distressing trends related to Islamophobia that impact discrimination, racism and xenophobia?
  2. How can workplaces, law firms, law schools, and corporations work to create more inclusive spaces for Muslims?

DAY 7

  1. What are some of the negative impacts of Islamophobia on economic activity and commercial enterprises?
  2. What are ways to increase the sense of belongings for Muslims?

DAY 8  

  1. How do media perceptions of Muslims contribute to Islamophobia?
  2. In what ways are depictions of Islamophobia rooted in historical constructions of racism and xenophobia?

DAY 9

  1. What tactics can be deployed to prevent racially motivated attacks on Muslims?
  2. How can social exclusion and social alienation experienced by Muslims impact others in the law firm, law school, and workplace settings?

DAY 10

  1. In what ways to perceptions of victimhood stigmatize Muslim women?
  2. What strategies can be deployed to eliminate bias to empower Muslim women?

DAY 11

  1. How can public perceptions impact how Muslim practice their faith in public?
  2. What are examples of workplace and school harassment that Muslim face based on nationality, race, religion, gender, etc?

DAY 12

  1. How can employers encourage recruiters to be intentional about avoiding bias in hiring?
  2. How are Muslims negatively impacted on the job market because of their Muslim identity? How do other groups experience this same or similar type of workplace hiring discrimination?

DAY 13

  1. In what ways is the discrimination that Muslims face same or similar to those of other religious groups or protected classes?
  2. How is discrimination that Muslims face different from other groups?

DAY 14

  1. How can educators, lawyers, law students, and legal practitioners understand Islamophobia as both a type of bullying and a consequence of bias and of misinformation?
  2. What are ways to speak up and stand up for Muslim peers?

DAY 15

  1. How does the Islamophobia industry contribute to misleading narratives, propaganda, and local policies that vilify Muslims?
  2. What are ways to correct misinformation and disinformation about Islam and Muslims?

DAY 16

  1. How has racial and religious resentment contributed to the ostracization of Muslims?
  2. How does the marginalization of Muslim women impact other women and identity politics?

DAY 17  

  1. How did enslavement and heavily restricted mobility impact the early Muslims in the Americas?
  2. How have immigration reforms impacted American Muslims?

DAY 18

  1. What are the long term impacts of police surveillance and mass policing on American Muslim communities?
  2. How do concepts of radical self-care and self-compassion work to overcome the psychological wear and tear on Muslims as result of daily Islamophobic macro and microaggressions?

DAY 19

  1. What can be done to combat hate speech and hate crimes targeting Muslims by lawyers, law firms, law schools, and judges?
  2. What are steps that can be taken to reverse anti-Muslim bias incidents?

DAY 20 

  1. How does the Black Muslim experience in the United States show internal diversity within Islam?
  2. In what ways has slavery shaped Islam among African American Muslims?

DAY 21

  1. What workplace practices can be used to accommodate Muslims during the month of Ramadan?
  2. What ways can lawyers, law students, and other legal practitioners work to honor and respect Muslim faith traditions?

Additional reading 

Islamophobia Is Racism- syllabus

This syllabus was built by Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, Arshad Ali, Evelyn Alsultany, Sohail Daulatzai, Lara Deeb, Carol Fadda, Zareena Grewal, Juliane Hammer, Nadine Naber, and Junaid Rana.

The authors also highlight  that "This is an interdisciplinary syllabus with social justice education as its objective. It is not meant to be an exhaustive or comprehensive list of resources or readings, but instead provides one possible curated list of teachable texts and materials that provide a good introduction to each section." 

Download PDF:  

Goals of Syllabus:

  1. Define anti-Muslim racism as an alternative to the concept of Islamophobia
  2. Understand the relationship of race and religion to white supremacy through the racialized figure of the Muslim
  3. Provide an intersectional and comparative analysis to anti-Muslim racism
  4. Strategize ways to challenge anti-Muslim racism and resist white supremacy

The syllabus is organized by the following themes and topics, which move from broader framing issues to more specific examples. Later readings may benefit from the contextualization provided by earlier sections.  

I. Race, Empire and Islam
II. The Production and Reproduction of Anti-Muslim Racism
III. The Impact of Anti-Muslim Racism
IV. Policing, Security and Anti-Muslim Racism
V. Resisting Anti-Muslim Racism
VI. Further Reading and Resources

Institute for Social Policy and Understanding – resources on Islamophobia

Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative – services and trainings