Jim Crow 2.0 Has a New Target: American Muslims

We are living through a second Jim Crow era. It is rising against Black and brown immigrants, against refugees, and now, unmistakably, against Muslims. The bigotry is not coded anymore. It is not even trying to hide behind dog whistles. It is loud, proud, and standing at podiums in the halls of Congress.

Look at what just happened in Michigan. Dr. Abdul El Sayed won his Senate primary, and within a day he was buried under an avalanche of Islamophobic attacks. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee running against him, claimed El Sayed said the U.S. deserved the September 11 attacks. Rep. Nancy Mace posted asking whether Americans could “stop electing terrorists into office.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee released an attack ad accusing him of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and believing America deserved 9/11. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso stood on the Senate floor and called him dangerous, scary, and an extremist.

This is not opposition research. This is not policy debate. This is a man’s faith and ethnicity being used as a weapon against him, by sitting members of Congress, in the people’s chamber, with no consequence. The NRSC even switched to using his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El Sayed, a deliberate departure from how it referred to him before he won. That is not an accident. That is a message, and everyone hearing it knows exactly what it means.

This should not be acceptable. It is not acceptable. No politician, no pundit, no person with a microphone, smartphone, or a podium should be allowed to traffic in this kind of hate and call it debate. When it happens in the chamber of the United States Senate, it is not just bigotry. It is a stamp of legitimacy on bigotry, and that is more dangerous than any single ugly comment.

What we are watching now is post 9/11 Islamophobia on steroids, and it is being normalized in real time. Back then it was fear dressed up as caution. Now it is contempt dressed up as patriotism, delivered by elected officials and hate mongering social media trolls with large numbers of followings who know exactly what they are doing and have decided there is no political cost to doing it.

As a brown Muslim person, I am not afraid of these people. I will keep speaking up for myself and for my community, and right now my focus is widening. This fight belongs to Black and brown immigrants, to refugees, and to Muslims together, because the same hatred is being aimed at all of us, just with different dog whistles for each.

This has to stop, and stopping it takes more than outrage online. It takes more than a hashtag or a like. If you are a constituent, if you are a person of conscience, if you are simply a human being willing to act, here is what that looks like:

• Speak up publicly, on social media and anywhere else your voice carries

• Bring it to your faith community, whatever that community is

• Call and write your elected officials and demand they condemn this by name

• Support candidates who are being targeted for who they are

• Show up to vote, and bring people with you

Emojis are not solidarity. Likes are not action. Real solidarity looks like phone calls, ballots, and showing up when it is inconvenient. Our communities, Muslim and non Muslim, faith and non faith, are outraged. Now we need to turn that outrage into something that actually moves power.

This moment will not fix itself. It will take all of us refusing to let this become normal.