The Strategy Of Muslim Communities In Encountering Islamophobia In The United States

The number of Muslims in the United States is increasing from year to year as a result of the increasing number of immigrants from Muslim countries who come to work and continue their education as well as the increasing number of Muslims. One of the problems faced by the Muslim community in America today is Islamophobia such as bad narratives, discrimination, and violence against Muslims and their property. This study will examine the role of the Muslim community in America in dealing with the phenomenon of Islamophobia by explaining its strategy through the concept of Non-Governmental Organizations. The data used in this study is literature collected online from websites of Islamic groups in the United States. The results of this study showed that Islamic groups have taken many ways to deal with Islamophobia in this country, namely through political and legal advocacy, media relations, education, and campaigns to garner support and introduce Islam in American society.


INTRODUCTION
The issue Islamophobia has become a global issue nowadays where Muslims become target of discrimination, harassment, and physical assault.This issue mainly occurs in the western world where Muslims become the minority group.Many factors contribute to the rise of this issue such as the history of Muslim and western civilization, the role of western intellectuals, media, and politicians.In the US, Islamophobia rised dramatically after 9/11 where Muslim experienced many kinds of discrimination and stigmatization after this incident.Cases related to Islamophobia has become even higher after Donald Trump was elected in 2016 as the US President.In responding to this islamophobia, many Muslim communities work to advocate the Muslim rights in this country as well as to create the good image of Muslim.
Muslim, historically, has lived for a long in the US since fifteen century but the influx of Muslim started in 19 th century from the Middle East and grew as the impact of political conflicts in the Muslim world, in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.Many Muslim also came to increase their professional skills, to get job, and to continue their education level in the US institution.The number of Muslim in the US is about 3.45 million in 2017 and is predicted to increase year to year as the rise of conversion in this country. 1The purpose of this study is to discuss the role of Muslim communities or NGOs in countering the Islamophobia narratives in the US by describing their strategies and activities to pursue their goals.

RESEARCH METHODS
This research is a qualitative research that study the strategy of the Muslim communities as the subject and encountering Islamophobia in the USA as the object of the study.The main source of data for this research is literature that is collected from online sources including journals, and muslim groups' websites.The Muslim NGOs or communities activities in the US to counter the islamophobia narrative and to create good image of Muslim will be then explained through the concept of Non-Government Organizations.

Non-Governmental Organizations
Non-governmental organizations are not a new phenomenon in the world of domestic and international politics.This actor has existed for a long time and is growing rapidly until recently.In the international scope of 2014, there were around 8,500 NGOs around the world.In the domestic sphere, the numbers could be much higher.These NGOs, are engaged in various fields such as politics, economy, culture, environment, poverty, law, eradicating corruption and so on.The development of these NGOs is influenced by several factors, such as, among others, the inability of the government to solve all community problems alone so that it requires the involvement of civilian groups including cooperation between countries.The rapid growth of information technology and transportation has also had a significant influence on the growth of civil society networks globally which have made the NGO communities flourish at the world level. 2 In carrying out their agenda, NGOs relying not on material strength like those possessed by the state such as economic and military strength, the strength of NGOs is in their ability to raise the masses through the opinions created; the power of lobbying, or influencing the public and policy makers through the narratives they construct.Some of the roles that NGOs usually play include: Humanitarian activities (relief) through the distribution of humanitarian assistance by NGOs such as the Red Cross which is engaged in the health sector, or OXFAM which is engaged in fighting for social and economic justice issues.
Apart from humanitarian issues, NGOs also play a role in community development programs.These usually provide education and economic assistance to communities to improve the economic capacity and the welfare of society.Education programs and campaigns to raise public awareness are also parts of the roles that NGOs often play in the midst of society.
In the political domain, NGOs do various advocacies or efforts to defend for issues that they concern with.Advocacy activities can be carried out in various forms, such as campaigns, protests, debates, and publications.In addition to advocacy, lobbying activities are also carried out by NGOs to policy makers, both government and international organizations, as a step to support the interests of NGOs. 3

Islamophobia
The Oxford English Dictionary states that the term "Islamophobia" was first written in 1991 in the journal Insight in the United States.Another version reveals that this term first appeared in 1925 in France in the writings of Etienne Dinet and Slima Ben Ibrahim, entitled 'accès de délire islamophobe'.There are also those who reveal that this term was first expressed during the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979. 4onceptually, The Runneymede Commission on British Muslim and   Islamophobia (1997), explains that Islamophobia is a form of unfounded hostility to Islam that impacts on practices and against Muslims both individually and group, including also not involving Muslims from various political activities and social affairs. 5his report categorizes views that are considered islamophobic and those that are not, namely closed and open views of Islam (closed views and open views of Islam).The closed view on Islam believes that Islam is a single monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to changing realities; Islam is seen as something that is alienated / exclusive from others; inferior to the West, barbaric, irrational, primitive, and discriminatory against women; Islam is a political ideology that is used for political and military purposes; Islamic criticism of the west must be rejected; Hatred against Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices against Muslims, and anti-Muslim attitudes should be viewed as natural and normal.
On the one hand, those who have an open view contended that Islam must be placed in the same way as other religions or cultures and can interact with the various cultural plurality.Muslims also have the right to be invited to be involved in various collaborations to solve various problems in people's lives.In fact, Muslim critics of the West must be accepted and discussed.. Historically, the negative western view of Islam has existed since the beginning of the encounter of Islam and the west of the 8th century AD when the expansion of Islam had reached Spain.Western society at that time still had very limited knowledge of Islam so that their views were mostly influenced by elites such as Peter The Venerable (8th century Bible writer) who thought that Muslims or generally referred to as Saracens, a group of barbarians.This continued, at the end of the 11th century in the era of the Crusades, the West which was threatened with the expansion of Islam began to create religious arguments to mobilize European society to engage in war in this holy war such as the story that Islamic teachings were pseudo prophetic because they took part of their teachings from Christian teachings; Muhammad was not a prophet, but someone who was born into a lowly family, and was a pagan, who gained power and control of power through fabricated revelations and spread it through violence. 7n the 16th century, the Christian religious reformist, Martin Luther, portrayed Islam and Muslims with a bad image.For example, The belief that Islam as superior to Christianity is considered as the work of the devil.While Islam itself is called as the religion of violence and brutality as it was spread through the sword and murder.This legacy of the negative construction towards Muslims continues to the present day. 8he study on Islamophobia has been widely studied by scholars from various perspectives including from historical perspective that can be seen from the work by Lutfi Sunar (2017) who studied the histoy of Islamophobia in the Western world and specifically in the United State; Other works focused to study Islamophobia in the in certain places or countries such as the study of Islamophobi in China by Luqiu and Yang (2018); 9 and Islamophobia in the United States under Trump regime by Lajevardi and Oskooii (2018). 10he work that focused on Islamic group in the US done by Zaiddinnov, (2021), who compared the response of CAIR (The Council on American-Islamic Relations) the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) to counter the terrorist stereotype in the US Public, media and politicians.Using content analysis study, this research concluded that both Muslim groups condemned the act of terrorism.But at the same time, these two also differed in responding the state policy on counterterrorism, domestic or international where CAIR tend to be more sensitive and critical while AIFD praise the state policies.11 Another work was by Yuting Wang (2017) who specifically studied on the role of women in the Riverside Mosque, Midwestern city of United States.This study explained the religious and social of the muslim womens in that mosque in terms of creating cohesiveness among Muslim from diverse ethnics; educating Muslim children; and creating good relationship with the nonmuslim neighborhs.12 This study showed the positive role of the Muslim community in that mosque to empower Muslim womens through the mosque.
Emily Cury (2019) on the on hand discussed the strategy of Muslim to counter Islamophobia that rised during the 2016 General election.According to Cury, Muslim used three main strategies to confront that including constituent Empowerment by education Muslims to actively participate in politi-cal election, confrontation by confronting the anti Muslim narratives and groups through many ways and collaboration with officials to tackle the issue of Islamohobia. 13here is indeed so many researches on the issue on Islamophobia as its phenomena are happening almost everytime in many places.However, there is still limited study concerning the role of Muslims to respond the act of Islamophobia toward them including stigmatization and discrimination.Hence, this study is going to involve to developed the role of Muslim actors in facing Islamophobi in the Non-Muslim majority countries by discussing in general the role of Muslim groups in the United States to confront the issue of Islamophobia.

Muslim and Islamophobia in the USA
The presence of Muslims in the US can be traced back in the 15th century when Colombus came to the US in 1492 where Muslims became part of the Colombus crew.However, this claim is still debatable as the proof is still vague.The well documented Muslim migration started in the sixteen century until nineteenth century where many the African Muslim slaves brought to America.Other Muslims from Indians and Arabs, who were not slaves also immigrated during this period. 14n the 20th century, after the World War I and II, the number of Muslim immigrants increased not only from many Muslim countries who came to continue their study or to developed their technical skill (professional advancement).Another factor that increases the Muslim migration to the USA is the political turmoil occurred in the Muslim countries such as in Palestine, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan and Bosnia.Due to the political conflict from those Muslim countries, many people decided to flee their countries and come to the USA.
To date, many people come to America for various purposes such as education, looking for work, business and for political reasons.These Muslim immigrants maintain their Islamic identity from generation to generation through the communities and institutions they build including mosques, Islamic centers, Islamic schools, Islamic publishing organizations, interest-free financial institutions and charitable organizations to support their purposes. 15he number of Muslims in the United States is estimated at 3.45 million in 2017.This means that the Muslim population makes up one point one percent of the total US population, which is around 322 million.This number will continue to increase every year with the birth rate of Muslim families and more and more immigrants are entering the US.By 2050 it is estimated that Muslims will increase to 8.1 million people, a proportion of 2.1 percent of the total number of US citizens.The number of Islamic associations or organizations in the US is also quite large, approximately 50 Islamic organizations spread across various regions in the US. 16n the United States, the impact of 9/11 was also widespread.The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) report pointed to an increase in acts of hatred, violence, harassment, and other acts of intolerance against Muslims in the United States.In 2006, according to the USA Today-Gallup Poll report, the number of Americans who have a negative view of Muslims is quite high, 22% do not want to be neighbors with Muslims, 31% are worried and afraid if one plane with Muslims.Even the American government is required to monitor Muslims more than any other society. 17he scale of Islamophobia dramatically increased under Donald Trump's regime due to his Islamophobic rhetoric from his campaign in 2015 until elected as president in 2020.Since Trump participated in the 2015 presidential election campaign, he has repeatedly expressed very tendentious words towards Islam such as, "Islam hates Us", or "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on". 18 Under Trump's leadership, Islamophobia has escalated far beyond the effects of the events of 9/11 in 2001.The Pew Research Center showed that the FBI reports 93 attacks on Muslims after 9/ 11, while in 2016 under Trump there were 127 attacks on Muslims. 19he allege of Trump's islamophobic regime is getting stronger when looking at the composition of advisors and assistants in his administration.Trumpappointed advisors, mostly people affiliated with the anti-Muslim movement in America such as Walid Phares, the US foreign policy advisory team, is an advisor to Act for America, an organization considered to be the largest anti-Islam movement in the US; Michael T. Flynn, the US national security adviser, Mike Pompeo, (CIA Director), both are affiliated with anti-Muslim groups in the United States. 20rump's most controversial policies was when he signed an executive order known as the travel ban in 2017, often called Trump Muslim Ban 1.0.This policy is a policy that limits the entry of Muslims from 7 Middle Eastern countries into an unforgettable momentum as Trump's policy is considered part of the Trump regime's Islamophobic politics.This policy prohibits citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen from entering the United States.But Trump changed the list of the countries after many protests from US citizens on that policy.
Another institutional effort in creating Islamophobia is through legislation, for fear of creeping sharia or Islamic law many countries have tried to issue anti-sharia or anti-foreign law bills.In 2012, 78 bills or amendments were introduced in 29 state legislatures as well.as the US Congress, 73 of which were introduced by the Republic.According to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), about 80% of US legislators who sponsor this type of law also sponsor laws that restrict the rights of other and vulnerable minorities group in the United States. 21n the other hand, anti-Muslim groups and organizations also contribute in spreading fear and hatred against Muslims and that includes the millions of money sponsored such as In 2011, Center for American Progress (CAP), found that seven charitable foundations spent $ 42.6 million between 2001 and 2009 to support the spread of anti-Muslim and anti-Islam rhetoric in the United States including the Donors Capital Fund, Richard Mellon Scaife Foundation, Lynde and the Harry Bradley Foundation, Newton and Rochelle Becker Foundation and Newton and Rochelle Becker Charitable Trust, Russell Berrie Foundation, Anchorage Charitable Fund and William Rosenwald Family Fund, and Fairbrook Foundation.
The media also plays on the Islamophobic narrative.According to Media Tenor International, news outlets such as Fox, NBC, and CBS described Islam primarily as a source of violence between 2007 and 2013.In a study of news coverage from LexisNexis Academics and CNN for all terrorist attacks in the United States between 2011 and 2015, found that news outlets provided more drastic coverage of attacks by Muslims, especially foreign-born Muslims -although these attacks were far less frequent than other types of terrorist attacks.Attacks by Muslim perpetrators received, on average, 449% more coverage than attacks carried out by non-Muslims.Erin Kearns, an author of the study said, "you can expect that attack to receive about four and a half times more media coverage than if the perpetrator was not Muslim.Put another way, a perpetrator who is not Muslim would have to kill on average about seven more people to receive the same amount of coverage as a perpetrator who is Muslim". 22he impact of the Islamophobia propagation was the increase of Anti Muslim Bias including Bullying, denial of religious accommodation, denalia of service; and hate crimes such as Harassment, violent attack, damage, destruction, and vandalism targeting property.In 2017, CAIR reported, there was 2,599 incidents of Anti Muslim Bias, and 300 of hate crimes in the USA. 23

Encountering Islamophobia Through Islamic NGOs Activities
In the midst of widespread issues of rejection and negative propaganda against Islam in the United States, there have also emerged groups of people who are mobilizing themselves to stay away from Muslim and immigrant communities in the region.As in the issue of Trump's 2017 travel ban, various community groups from various groups and religions have also criticized Trump's policy, including Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Jews Against Anti-Muslim Racism, the Women's March on Washington, the New York Immigration Coalition, dan the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).All communities or groups that participated in the protests condemned Trump's policies on racist and anti-Islamic actions.Among the slogans they wrote in their action #StandWithMuslim; "Donald Trump, shame!" dan "No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!". 24mong the largest Muslim groups in the US are the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)).These organizations have a mission to educate the Muslim community, and advocate for various Muslim problems or problems in the US, especially in the issues of discrimination and intolerance faced in society.This group carries out various activities to achieve its goals at the community, interfaith, media and government levels including advocacy, legal service, Media, Education, and youth empowerment.

Advocacy
This strategy is used by the Muslim communities to defend the right of Muslim through approaching the government in regionals and the national levels.CAIR and MPAC for example frequently visit and contact elected representatives in the US Congress to promote legislative agenda to support equality and social justice for Muslim and for all American, regardless of faith and background.These groups regularly write policy papers on policy issues, domestic and foreign policy and present to the government administration, exports in policy makers, think thanks, and media centers. 25o strengthening the Muslim voice and political position, Muslim groups formed coalition called USCMO, the US Council of Muslim Organizations, a coalition of leading national and local Muslim organizations, that seeks to promote effective communication and coordination between all American Muslim organizations and sponsor Muslim civic engagement for the good of the nation.The founding members of USCMO are American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), The Mosque Cares (Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed).this USCMO a strategy of Muslim groups and movements to strengthening their political position so as their voices or aspiration can be responded by the stated. 26he advocacy process not only in the level of policy but also in the legal aspect, CAIR and MPAC have their legal team that will always work to defend the right of the victims of islamophobia.According to CAIR, Since its inception, CAIR has assisted over 25,000 discrimination victims.Its California branch for example receive about 800 inquiries each year, which is tried to address by mediation, negotiation, public pressure, or legal action.CAIR and MPAC regularly update their advocacy processes and results in their websites.

Media Relations
Regarding relations with the media, this Islamic group continuously communicates with local and national media to ensure the accuracy of reporting on Muslims in US media.MPAC even has a special agency that changes the narrative on Islam and Muslims in the Hollywood film industry from negative to positive perceptions.So far, in US films, Islam and Muslim are often depicted negatively.This has influenced the world's perception of Islam.MPAC has build relationship with many production companies of hollywood, studies, and institutes such as BBC One, TNT, NICK, ABC, CBS, Paramount, Show Time, Walt Disney, HULU, NBC, Legendary, FX, National Geographic, Sundane Institue and DreamWorks. 27

Campaign
Various campaigns have been carried out by Muslim groups to spread a sense of solidarity between communities and remove barriers by interacting with various levels of society across religions and backgrounds in the United States.Such as the anti-Islamophobia campaign agenda of CAIR with the ISLAMOPHOBIN® brand.This campaign invites Muslims to get involved in distributing leaflets, holding discussions at mosques, press conferences, and spreading this campaign on the media -social media, facebook, twitter, vine, instagram and youtube with the hashtag #ISlAMOPHOBIN. 28he US Council of Muslim Organization (USCMO) on the other hand routinely creates campaigns that are named such as the One America Campaign with several agendas including, first, National Open Mosque Day that is held every 14 October each year which aims to motivate Muslims so that they can immerse themselves in the surrounding community and invite non-Muslims to come to the mosque.The purpose of this activity is to strengthen bonds between communities, eliminate misperceptions about Islam, and increase a sense of solidarity and a spirit of togetherness between communities and religious communities. 29According to USMCO: this campaign is an effort designed to "push back" against what has become a consistent effort to balkanize US citizens into mutually antagonistic subgroups.A common feature of such efforts is the notion that one or more of these subgroups should have restricted rights (temporarily or permanently) due to a pressing need to protect this country's national security.Consequently, One America Campaign is one way to assertively say that we can, in fact, have it both ways.That is, we can respect our pluralistic democracy while vigilantly protecting this nation from those who wish to harm us.It is our strong belief that scapegoating particular American citizens simply because of their faith will leave us with a country that is actually less safe and more prejudiced. 30cond, A Million Voters Registration Drive which is organized to mobilize American Muslims to get their vote right registered in the US.This is firstly introduced in December 2015, and successfully created awareness of voter registration among Muslim in 2016 through facilitation of registration boot in mosques, schools and community centers nationwide To encourage voter registration USCMO used many channels including email campaign, social media campaign, posters flyers, promotional videos, and booths.The same strategy also used by CAIR that posted in its websites the link and the registration guidance to online voter registration.
As the impact of that massive campaign by Muslim Communities in the US, The CAIR report shows that there has been an increasing involvement of Muslims in elections in the United States.In the 2018 midterm elections, CAIR collected data on the number of Muslims involved and elected in legislative elections at both the US local and national levels.The number of Muslims who were elected was approximately 55 people.Those who successfully occupied the congress were Andre Carson, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar.
What is also interesting in this report is the involvement of the Muslim community in the elections in the United States and their active involvement in politics since the 2016 presidential election which won Donald Trump as president.About 53% of Muslims feel increasingly interested in political issues and as many as 55% are actively involved in politics after the 2016 presidential election.According to the survey, the majority of Muslims' political choices are democratic parties with 78% of Muslim elections choosing democratic parties and only 17% taking sides to the Republican Party. 31The CAIR report is also the same with the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) report which shows the significance of Muslim interaction in elections in the US, from 60% in 2016 to 75% in 2018.This is due to more than 70 percent of the Muslim community who are not satisfied with the current US conditions. 32USCMO state that the increase of the Muslim voters in the US election was because of "the hard work of many Muslim organizations, activists, Imams, and local community leaders; and the highly charged political environment, the attack on the Muslim community and other minorities, and the serious concern over the sharp increase of hate crimes on the Muslim community". 33ther activities carried out by the Muslim community in the US, CAIR, USCMO, MPAC, provide updates related to various issues in the US which are sent via email and press releases to respond issues and the US policies.This is done to increase awareness of Muslims on various important issues that occur in the US.Seminars, conferences and training activities for government officials, media crews, and the academic community are also carried out to educate the public about Islam and Muslims.Every year CAIR also invites representatives of various religions to visit CAIR's office and obtain materials related to Islam and Muslims in the US.
The hard work of Muslim communities in creating positive image of Muslim within the US Society and advocating Muslim rights showed positive impact that there is a changing perception among the American community toward Muslim to be more positive.Moreover, many Americans have even converted to Islam.It turns out that the media's negative framing of Islam has triggered the curiosity about Islam among the American people.This is especially for the young people who study in the university level where they find that there is a gap between the Islamic publicity in the media and the textbooks they get in college. 34he same result was conveyed by the Arab American Institute, 2017, that there has been a change in the perception of the US society towards Islam for the better in the last decade. 35The Pew Research Center, in its 2017 report, stated that there has been an increase in the degree of response of the American community to Muslims in a better direction.When compared to 2014 US perception, which is measured from 0-100, only 40 points, in 2017 it increased to 48 points. 36he change in perceptions for the better is certainly influenced by the various activities carried out by Islamic groups such as CAIR, MPAC and USCMO in interacting with the US community and building the trust of the US community towards Muslims.Not only the perception change, but also the increase of Muslim number in this country.Pew Research Center reported that the number of American Islam has been growing by around 100.000 annually.It is also predicted that Muslim will be 2,1 % of the nation's total population or 8.1 million in 2050. 37

CONCLUSION
The phenomenon of Islamophobia is not new in the western world, it has been since the era of Islamic expansion into European territory, the Crusades era until now in the modern world where narratives that are biased against Islam are still used by politicians, media, activists, and intellectuals alike.The impact is that Muslim groups face a lot of discrimination, harassment, humiliation, and violence.
In the United States in particular and in the Western countries in general, Muslims do not keep silent in facing various phobias against their religion.They conduct various programs for social inclusion in order to establish a good relationship with the government, media, and interfaith leaders.They also carry out campaigns, discussions, and seminars to counter the narrative of Islamophobia.Some of the groups in the US that are discussed in this paper are only a small part of which have played a role in this fight against Islamophobia.Many Muslim communities in the US, including mosques communities and Muslim leaders play the same role in rectifying and educating people about Islam.
As a result, the efforts of these Muslim groups gradually result in a positive impact.There has been a shift in the perception of the US society on Islam from negative to a more positive direction.Indeed, the number of Muslims in this country keeps growing year by year.Besides, the threat of Islamophobia has motivated the Muslims in the US to take part in political contestation.As a result, they have succeeded in placing several representatives in the US Congress and legislative bodies at the local level in 2018.