Community Memorandum: Recommendations for A Foundational White House Islamophobia Strategy
95 Organizations Demand A White House Islamophobia Strategy that Centers Justice & Accountability
April 2024
This community memorandum offers input from organizations working with impacted BAMEMSA and SWANA communities on key initial recommendations, as a starting point, for federal government agencies in implementing a comprehensive White House Islamophobia strategy. This memorandum also offers concerns with the existing process for developing the White House Islamophobia strategy, provides a community-rooted framework of structural and gendered Islamophobia and contains key agency recommendations. While these recommendations are wide-ranging, we note that they are not exhaustive. This community memorandum was developed by Muslims for Just Futures with consultation from our working-class community members and Palestine Legal, Afghans for a Better Tomorrow, HEART, DREAM of Detroit, Muslim Women For, American Muslim Bar Association (AMBA), Center for Constitutional Rights, and Savage Daughters. Overall, 95 community-based organizations, national networks, and coalitions working across communities have endorsed the recommendations and joined this memorandum.
Structural Islamophobia is a system of dehumanization that impacts Muslims and communities racialized as Muslim. This includes a diverse and broad set of communities of color including Black, Arab, Muslim Middle Eastern, South Asian (BAMEMSA), Sikh, and Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) communities. Eradicating structural Islamophobia requires a thorough and multifaceted strategy that should be guided by those directly affected, as government policies, laws, and institutions serve as the primary drivers of structural Islamophobia. It is imperative that the federal government prioritize community-led demands and the key set of recommendations included in this memorandum in order to shape the White House’s Countering Islamophobia Strategy to ensure its effectiveness and prevent future harm. We firmly assert that combating Islamophobia demands an approach firmly anchored in justice, community engagement, and government accountability.
How Organizations Can Take Action
1. Share this community memorandum and recommendations with organizations and integrate them into your advocacy platforms;
2. Endorse the strategy by completing the form below and remain updated on this work;
3. Resist the co-option of countering Islamophobia strategies by federal, state, and local-level government agencies that further entrench a framework on countering Islamophobia that separates the fight against anti-Palestinian racism, Zionism, and anti-Arab racism from efforts to dismantle structural Islamophobia.
If you would like to endorse the strategy, please complete this form here. In addition, read MJF’s letter to the Senate Finance Committee here. Please note we already submitted this memorandum to the government. However, if you would like to endorse from a movement-building perspective and would like to remain informed about updates regarding the strategy, please complete the form.