Biden launches belated effort to combat Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate

Critics say President's unflinching support for Israel in Gaza has driven anti-Arab sentiment

US President Joe Biden has five weeks left in office. Donald Trump will be inaugurated on January 20. AP

US President Joe Biden has unveiled a long-awaited strategy to counter Islamophobia and hate against Muslims and Arab Americans, made more acute since the start of the Israel-Gaza war.

Detailing more than 100 calls to action across all sections of society, the White House said it was its first ever national strategy to counter hate against Muslims and Arabs.

“Over the past year, this initiative has become even more important as threats against American Muslim and Arab communities have spiked,” the White House said in a statement announcing the initiative late on Thursday.

The White House cited the killing of six-year-old Wadea Al Fayoume in October last year. He was stabbed to death by his landlord in his home in Chicago and his mother was critically injured because they were Palestinian American.

"Over the last year there have been other grievous attacks on Muslim and Arab Americans," the White House said.

The 64-page document comes five weeks before the end of Mr Biden's term. A similar strategy to fight anti-Semitism was released in May 2023, and was spearheaded by Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris.

“You saw that in our anti-Semitism strategy, and obviously we’ve been talking about this Islamophobia strategy as well – or talking about coming up with a way forward in protecting communities,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told journalists. “Certainly, that’s the President’s commitment.”

On January 20, Donald Trump is due to begin his second term in the White House. During his first administration, he imposed the so-called Muslim travel ban, a measure Mr Biden rescinded on his first day in office.

Mr Biden's Islamophobia initiative drew criticism from Arab Americans who say his unequivocal support for Israel in its war on Gaza is the main driver of anti-Arab sentiment in the US. In November 2023, three Palestinian university students speaking in Arabic and wearing keffiyehs were shot in Vermont. One of three, Hisham Awartani was paralysed from the waist down.

“The Biden administration at large fails to realise that there's a connection between the proliferation of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism with its horrific policies,” said Abdelhalim Abdelrahman, a Palestinian American writer and political analyst.

“It is in questioning the death toll, perpetuating several myths about October 7 and basically giving the Israelis everything they want on a silver platter militarily, that led to a mass demonisation of Palestinian Americans, Arab Americans, Muslim Americans,” Mr Abdelrahman told The National. “So, the initiative in general is not worth the paper it was written on.”

Other Arab and Muslim Americans said the initiative fails to address another driver of Islamophobia, the so-called no-fly list which unfairly targets Muslims and Arabs.

Since the start of the war, which was ignited by the Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people on October 7, Arab and Muslim Americans as well as pro-Palestinian groups have been demanding that Mr Biden adopt a more measured approach to the war, including ending weapons shipments to Israel.

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, including many relatives of Arab Americans.

After Mr Biden abandoned his re-election bid, Arab Americans tried to lobby Mr Harris to change course on Gaza, but she gave little indication that she would.

Mr Trump, who capitalised on anger with the Biden administration with promises that he would bring peace to the Middle East, won significant support in Dearborn, Michigan, the city where the majority of residents are Arab Americans.

But in recent weeks the community has said that they were disappointed with Mr Trump's recent nominations to top foreign posts in his incoming administration, which have included staunchly pro-Israel figures.