An advocate and a scholar discuss the roots of discrimination and share strategies for addressing it
Nancy Khalil, assistant professor of American culture at the University of Michigan, speaks at a recent workshop on addressing anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab bias. The event, part of an ongoing series, was hosted by the Office of Institutional Inclusive Excellence. Photo: Jenna Schad
One of the first things Tahirah Amatul-Wadud learned in her fight to protect the civil rights of Muslims is that people “need to feel recognized and safe in their own identity.”
And the second: within that safe space, it’s important to be open to being uncomfortable.
“We have to create space [for people] to listen to things that might disrupt what we were raised on or what we grew up learning,” said Amatul-Wadud, executive director for the Massachusetts chapter of The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. “Try to peel back the onion of our own perspectives and ask, ‘Why do I believe this? Where does that come from?’ You might not change your opinion, but at least you'll know why it's there.”
Monroe France, vice provost for institutional inclusive excellence, moderates a discussion with Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, executive director for the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Nancy Khalil, assistant professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan. Photo:Jenna Schad
Amatul-Wadud’s counsel was one of several insights shared with students at a September 16 workshop addressing anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab bias and offering tools and strategies for moving forward. The event was the second in a series of workshops hosted by the Office of Institutional Inclusive Excellence, the first being a session on antisemitism held during first-year orientation in August, which was then followed by a dialogue session on antisemitism. Similarly, students were invited to return on Wednesday, September 18, for a dialogue session about anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab bias.
Amatul-Wadud was joined by Nancy Khalil, assistant professor of American culture at the University of Michigan, whose expertise in the politics of American Islam informed her focus on foundational structures of anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian biases.
Monroe France, vice provost for instititutional inclusive excellence, facilitated the workshop, and called it an extension of a “learning journey” central to building and sustaining an inclusive community at Tufts.
“Part of our commitment as we go forward at Tufts is a deep rootedness in dialogical practice as a pathway for us to further understand difference and who we are as a community,” he said.
For Khalil, any discussion of anti-Muslim bias or Islamophobia today must be foregrounded in an understanding of the racialization of Islam within the long history of anti-Muslim bias in Europe and the U.S. “Anti-Muslim bias isn’t new, and Islamophobia didn't start with 9/11,” she said. “Muslims had been demonized for about two centuries and were established as the villainized ‘other’ in the European Christian mindset.”
Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bias take the same forms as racism even though Islam is not a race, she explained. “Anyone who fits an imagined caricature of what a Muslim is is vulnerable to those deep-rooted prejudices, similar to other forms of structural racism that perpetuate inequities including in media coverage, school curricula, policies, and legislation.”
Hostilities are further fueled by ignorance about what it means to be Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim—terms that are commonly conflated even though they refer to different identity categories, some of which may overlap.
For example, anti-Palestinian racism, Khalil argues, is really an issue of colonialism, “which resulted in the displacement of the Palestinian people and the inequity that they've been facing since then.” “Palestinians don't share religious identity; they don't share political leanings; they don't share a racial identity,” she said. “They share an ethnicity, and they share an ancestral land.”
Unlike individuals who are members of racial or religious groups, the U.S. constitution does not offer protections to those impacted by colonialism, which poses a unique challenge to addressing bias against those supporting Palestine in the United States.
Amatul-Wadud said reports of anti-Muslim discrimination and violence have increased in Massachusetts since the Israel-Hamas war started last October. In 2023, the Boston-based nonprofit was inundated with requests for guidance and support. “We had college students being followed, stalked, grabbed. Students were losing jobs, losing scholarships, being harassed, being punished, being academically disciplined for speaking against a foreign government,” she said.
Discrimination, she said, “is a political issue that we have a right to speak out on.”
Reflecting on a core value that guides her mission, she said, “when things get tough, I'm not talking about ‘them.’ I'm talking about us. And so, I just ask, if nothing else, [that] as you move into the world, please remember that we are talking about us and that we are all impacted by the events of today.”
During the question-and-answer session, Khalil stressed the importance of listening. “Last year, universities really just forgot that skillset. So many people approached things with a lot of concern, intense feelings, and policy changes, which lead to mistrust. The whole time, I kept thinking, Why aren't we listening?”
When it comes to advocating for change, Amatul-Wadud urged students to think big and lead with love.
“Ask for the biggest thing, the greatest thing, create the policy. Do the best thing, even when it feels uncomfortable,” she said. “When we equivocate, our haters are still going to hate us. So move with the most love, be the most inclusive, and deal with the fallout. But hold your head high. They can’t take that.”
A session on “Tools and Strategies for Addressing Racial Inequity” will be held on October 25. Students can find more information and register for this and other upcoming events on the OIIE website.
