Party Politics and Islamophobia

The following piece was written in response to a piece in Business Insider entitled ‘Young Trump supporters told they need to fight terrorism on college campuses by ‘exposing Islam’ because all Muslims are ‘radical’.’

Islamophobia has become politically acceptable in America and is getting deeply embedded in the Republican party.

Students attending a Florida conference on Thursday were told that they need to “expose Islam for the ugly thing it is” during a session on addressing terrorism on college campuses. Sophia Witt, director of Israel Outreach for Turning point USA, directed the F Unity “Addressing Terrorism on Campus “ session at the conservative advocacy group’s Annual Student Action Summit in West Palm Beach Florida. “I don’t even want to call it radical Islam it is just Islam “ Witt declared to applause.

Turning point USA is a conservative advocacy group that has gained significant momentum in the Trump era. Its president and founder Charlie Kirk is close friends with Donald Trump Jr. and has met with and was retweeted by President Donald Trump. Trump Jr, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Tucker Carlson of Fox News, Laura Ingram of Fox News and Nigel Farage from the UK were among the speakers at the conference.

This was not an event linked to a fringe right-wing group, but the mainstream of conservatism today.

Witt told the young people in attendance that they should reject calls to find unity in debates regarding Israel and Palestine “Stop unifying with terrorists,” she said, “All Muslims are radical… and there are a lot of ways to go undercover and expose Muslims and Islam Witt implored.”

The hate conference did not go unnoticed by the Muslim activists in the US

Dr. Shaik Ubaid, the co-chair of the Muslim Peace Coalition-New York, expressed alarm at the acceptance and support of racism and hatred by mainstream conservative leaders. He demanded that the Christian and Jewish clergy, especially the Orthodox Jewish rabbis condemn the demonization of Islam and Muslims by some leaders belonging to their faith. “The silence by many clergy members from the Jewish, Christian and Hindu faiths is not only immoral but suicidal because once the hate becomes politically acceptable, the Jewish, Catholic, Hindu and Sikh communities will be openly targeted to,” he said