The dangerous bias at play in Elon Musk’s attack on Arab-American organisations

Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on February 11. Reuters

This past week began on a deeply disturbing note. Elon Musk reposted on X (formerly Twitter) a dangerously false attack on more than a dozen American entities who had received USAID or State Department grants over the past decade. The original post referred to the groups as “terrorist-linked”.

In his repost, Mr Musk commented: “As many people have said, why pay terrorist organisations and certain countries to hate us when they’re perfectly willing to do it for free?”

The groups listed in the original post had apparently been compiled by a person with an anti-Arab or anti-Muslim bias. He appears to have gone through a list of grant recipients and randomly culled out entities with “Arab” or “Muslim” in their name or who had done work in the Middle East.

I don’t know all of the groups mentioned, but those I do know – for example, American Near East Refugee Aid – has been at the forefront of providing lifesaving support to refugees or victims of war or natural disasters, and, in the process, building better ties between the US and affected communities in need across the Middle East. Other groups I recognised had equally important, impressive records of service.

What was obviously most troubling to me was that my organisation, the Arab American Institute, was second on the list. This was upsetting for two reasons: the charge was profoundly off-base and irresponsibly dangerous.

The fact is that the Institute received a State Department grant in 2018 (during the first Trump administration) to create partnerships between Arab-American elected officials and public servants with local elected officials in Tunisia. The Institute, which was founded in 1985, has a proud history of encouraging Arab Americans to get elected to local office.

As our work progressed, we realised that many of these young leaders had never been to the Middle East, and if they had gone at all, it had simply been to the countries from which their parents had come. I had long hoped to create a programme that would enable them to get exposure to, and an understanding of, the broader Arab World, and to be able to share their experiences and what they had learnt in American political life with their counterparts in Arab countries.

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For a person with an anti-Arab or anti-Muslim bias to liken such efforts with support for terrorism is so wrong that it defies understanding

The initial phase of the programme was so successful that the State Department supported expanding it into Morocco and then Jordan. It was a delight to see these young Arab and Arab-American participants working together in a collaborative manner, discussing problems they face in municipal governance and actions that could be taken to improve constituent services – how to address local needs and challenges.

They worked together in building local democracy and finding solutions that made a difference in people’s day-to-day lives – issues such as trash collection, creating community tech hubs and providing support for families with disabled children. The programme ended in 2023.

For a person with an apparent anti-Arab or anti-Muslim bias to liken such efforts with support for terrorism is so wrong that it defies understanding. And for a person of Mr Musk’s standing in this administration to have amplified this message with a repost and comment is irresponsibly dangerous.

As welcoming and inclusive as the US can be, we also must acknowledge that our country has a history of hate and violence, a disproportionate amount of which in recent decades has been directed at Arab Americans and supporters of Palestinian rights.

After a former employee of mine at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee was murdered in 1985, I was asked to testify before the US Civil Rights Commission and the US Congress on hate and violence directed against my community.

In my testimony I noted how the environment for hate crimes against Arab Americans was fostered by those who have incited against us. I observed that when we have been called terrorists or terrorist supporters (sometimes by respected pro-Israel groups), it has spurred some to use violence against us. I know this personally from the content of death threats I have received over the years.

In the past two decades alone, there have been four convictions of people who have threatened my life and the lives of my family and my staff. These threats have most often been accompanied by accusations of terrorism or support for terrorism.

And so, I take it seriously when a person as powerful and well-positioned as Mr Musk irresponsibly charges my institute with being a supporter of terrorism. That his post has been viewed by nearly 20 million people makes it even more concerning, as only takes one disturbed person, who has read it to decide to respond by striking out in an act of violence.

Some have cautioned us not to react to Mr Musk’s incitement, hoping that it would just fade away. I disagree. In the end, the best defence we have is to point out both how wrong his statements are and the danger posed by his words.