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Trump said the 1st amendment -which stands for freedom of belief and speech- makes clear “that our rights do not come from our government; they come from God”. He regretted “80% of the world’s population live in countries where religious liberty is threatened, restricted or even banned”.

The percentage he cites comes from a report from the Pew Research Center in 2016, where this independent think tank also mentions Muslims being targeted in the United States and directly links this to the current present president of the country:

“In the United States, Muslims were the targets of derogatory rhetoric and proposed discrimination. In July, Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump criticized the parents of a Muslim soldier who was killed in Iraq (…). Later in the year, President-elect Trump appeared to stand by plans for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the United States and a proposed requirement that U.S. Muslims register in a database”, the report summary reads.

>>> You may also read: Alicia and Aladdin, the beautiful love story of a Catholic and a Muslim<<<

But Donald Trump’s speech on religious freedom this Monday at the UN ignored his rethoric and measures against Muslims: “As we speak, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Yazidis and many other people of faith are being jailed, sanctioned, tortured and even murdered, often at the hands of their own government, simply for expressing their deeply held religious beliefs. So hard to believe”.

He called upon all the countries of the world “to end religious persecution”, “repeal laws restricting freedom of religion and belief, protect the vulnerable, the defenceless and the oppressed”. The US president assured: “Protecting religious freedom is one of my highest priorities and always has been”.

“Repeal laws restricting freedom of religion and belief, protect the vulnerable, the defenceless and the oppressed”

What he did not mention was the “temporary ban” on Muslims he promised to implement if he became president and which finally has gotten a version of it for some Muslim majority countries plus Venezuela and North Korea after the judges declared his first travel ban illegal.

He recalled recent “evil attacks” against worshippers in sinagogues in the US, in mosques in New Zealand and churches in Sri Lanka and urged every nation “to increase the prosecution and punishment of crimes against religious communities”. “There cannot be greater crime than that”, he said.

>>> You may also read: Attacks against mosques are more usual than you might think: they are committed by anti-Muslim terrorists and also by groups like ISIS <<<

Trump announced a coalition of US businesses for the protection of “all faiths” in the workplace, although he did not go into detail. “True tolerance means respecting the right of all people to express their deeply held religious beliefs”, he pointed out before saying to the victims of religious persecution that the US “will always stay at your side”.

Last July Donald Trump held a short meeting with people who survived religious persecution worldwide. Sitting on his chair at the Oval Office and surrounded by them, he talked with them in front of the cameras (watch White House video).

The victims were grateful for the opportunity to be listened, like Farid Ahmed, a victim of the Christchurch attacks against Muslims who became known after publicly forgiving the terrorist. But there were also awkward moments during the meeting with Trump, such as when a Rohingya refugee asked him for solutions to go back home after being forced to flee to Bangladesh together with another 740,000 Muslims since 2017. “Where is that exactly?”, Trump asked. “Burma”, an official had to clarify (meaning the state nowadays known as Myanmar). Or like when he asked Nobel Peace Prize Nadia Murad why she obtained the award. She is a Yazidi woman survivor of ISIS genocide against this religious community who brought up attention worldwide about these mass killings, mainly in Iraq.

The law known as “Muslim ban” or “Travel ban” finally included countries which are not Muslim majority nations: North Korea and Venezuela. But it kept Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Iran among those with restrictions, including no travel at all for Syrians and North Korea people. Iraq and Sudan, which where among the countries in the first executive order, where finally dropped.

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La entrada Trump in the UN: “Protecting religious freedom is one of my highest priorities” se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Authorities have confirmed the suspect’s identity: it is Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old from Texas, who shortly before the terror attack published an anti-immigrant manifesto online. The text speaks of an alleged “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and details a plan to separate the United States into territories according to race, The New York Times reports.

Federal authorities have said they are considering to put the terror attack also under hate crime and gun charges, which could lead to a death penalty. El Paso District attorney, Jaime Esparza, announced he will be seeking the death penalty.

Donald Trump has described the attack as “an act of cowardice” and said that “there are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people.”

The firefighters of El Paso have indicated to those who are looking for relatives and loved ones, to go personally to the Family Reunification Center at 8101 Whitus Dr. “You must be physically present, NO data is given over the phone”, they have indicated in Twitter

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has described the massacre as “one of the deadliest days in the history of Texas.”

Dayton shooting

In less than 24 hours another shooting has taken place in the United States. The second was in Dayton (Ohio) and has left 9 dead victims and several injured. The reasons are still unknown.

Police shot the attacker, who has died. He was identified as Connor Betts, a 24-year-old neighbour of the outskirts of the city. His sister Megan (22) was under the victims who lost their lifes. He also killed eight other people, six of whom where black and two others, white. Police do not believe there was a racist motive behind this attack.

There have been three shootings in only a week in the US.

La entrada 20 people killed in a terror attack by a white supremacist in El Paso se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

She is cofounder and chair of Muslim American Leadership Alliance (MALA), which works to empower these US citizens within their communities by sharing their stories and “normalizing” that one can be Muslim and American at the same time. Bottom line against stereotypes is as well: Muslims are not a “monolith”. MALA is the first organization to collect oral histories of Muslim Americans, which are then archived in the Library of Congress of the United States.

She avoids pointing at anyone specific with the finger but acknowledges that bigotry and hate not only against Muslims, but also against other minorities, has risen in recent years in the US. This week she is visiting Spain to share her experience at Madrid’s Casa Árabe and at Barcelona’s Blanquerna Observatory.

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What does being both Muslim and American mean nowadays?

Being Muslim and American is a chance and a space right now. We’re in interesting times. From my perspective, I was born and raised in the United States, both of my parents are Muslim, I identify as a Muslim, but I also come from a background where my siblings are married to a Catholic or a Hindu. I’ m first generation, I grew up with American values, but also with a strong sense of my Muslim heritage, culture and identity.

I think one of the things being Muslim and American right now is that we are living in one of the best countries, where there is freedom, there is ability to practice, to pick up your identities, to assimilate, whether you are first generation, whether you are refugee, whether you are immigrant or if you are fourth generation of converts.

I think the challenge right now in the United States is that there is discrimination, there is bigotry… With over 750 stories that we have collected in MALA over five years, one of the things which does come up is discrimination, issues with assimilation, dual identity or multiple identities, trying to find belonging, within your community and outside… The whole purpose of having pride in being Muslim and American is the cornerstone of our work, so that people can speak freely and openly about their own experiences, whatever it may be, whether you are secular, whether you are orthodox…

“Having pride in being Muslim and American is the cornerstone of our work”

Is it usually not possible to speak freely about one’s religion? Do people feel frightened to do so?

I don’t think they feel frightened. I think they feel more that, it’s almost like that’s just not my only layer of identity. I don’t just want to be known as a Muslim, I’m also Iranian, Turkish or Bosznian, and I’m also a female, and a mum… Muslim Americans, especially, are not a monolith. They’re one of the most diverse groups in the United States: socially, politically, economically… it’s the broadest social demographic [group].

Your siblings are married to a Catholic and a Hindu. With the current atmosphere, sometimes it seems this together living of different religions or beliefs is not possible, but they are a clear example that it is.

There is actually a quite large number of stories that we have collected of people of mixes heritage. One of the things that I have seen from my experience it that diversity and coexistence of Muslim Americans is phenomenal, wonderful, and it’s possible.

I have the impression that in previous years Muslims rather stayed silent and hid from telling others what their beliefs are. But this seems to be reversing now and Muslims are going public, like going out of the closet. Was there a need for it?

That’s actually a wonderful observation, and to be honest, when we started MALA we would get two types of people, that would be like ‘well, I’m Muslim, [but] I don’t want that label and I don’t want to identify myself, just because of all the baggage in the media, because I don’t want to be associated with this stereotype or this stereotype’.

I think that people now are a lot more at ease, because there is community cohesion, support, social media [and] people’s voices and representation is heard. People are a lot more forthcoming and also have, still, pride in saying that they are Muslim, which is beautiful, because you can be Muslim, American… you could have multiple layers of identity and you could still exist and that’s who you are, that’s who I am.

Zainab Khan presents herself as a “human being” who is Muslim, among many other things. © Salam Plan

Is it also, may be, the reaction to the hate speech of politicians like Donald Trump against Muslims?

I think that in the United States there is a very polarizing social-political climate. Hate crimes have been under increase, and not just for Muslims, but for Jewish people, for people of faith and for people of minority backgrounds.

There is a lot more need for representation in politics and public policy, in civic engagement… It’s wonderful to see Muslim Americans run for office and to see the richness of the diversity of elected officials that we have in the United States compared to other countries. But we still have a long way to go to continue to build bridges, to continue to show solidarity and social cohesion, and also to celebrate our differences and our similarities. When we look at both, I think that’s when we are able to really see that this is how we live together: with shared values.

“You can be Muslim, American, have multiple layers of identity and still exist”

Islamophobia is becoming the new normal, isn’t it?

Hate is never supposed to be the norm. And any type of bigotry, prejudices… that is something that we have to really grab by the horns and address it. The rhetoric around minorities, groups, communities… are labelling. Putting Muslim Americans as a monolith… These are all harmful towards society.

We can continue by showcasing the diversity, the leadership, the incredible amount of recognition and what communities have done… The Muslim American communities… it is a community of very highly educated resilient people.

What is the main prejudice you are tired of listening to and that you feel it is the main issue we all need to address?

That all Muslims are a monolith. That because you are a Muslim, you must be x, y and z. You must be ultra-rigid, or you must be an immigrant, or you must be a refugee, or you must be uneducated, or you must be close-minded. These are all prejudices that we hope to dispel and continue building bridges.

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La entrada Zainab Khan, mentor of Muslim Americans: “Muslims are not x, y and z. We are not a monolith” se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

>>> Follow Salam Plan- ‘journalism against hate’ on Twitter and Facebook<<<

She worked as a journalist in Egypt before and during the Revolution of 2011, when she got an arm and hand broken by the riot police, who also sexually assaulted her, she recalls. Her lawyer believes it was censorship-motivated. Today the author of Headscarves and Hymens lives and works in New York City and Cairo, being a contributor to media like The New York Times or The Guardian.

Eltahawy defines herself as a feminist of Muslim descent born in Egypt. She spoke to Salam Plan in Madrid’s Casa Árabe, during her Spanish tour this week to present her new book, The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls (Beacon Press), which is coming out next Septembre. It is her manifesto against what she calls “universal patriarchy”.

What does Donald Trump mean to you?

Donald Trump for me is a fascist fuck. Donald Trump is a white supremacist, who has been clear all along about his misogyny, his racism, his islamophobia, his homophobia… he’s a whole host of discrimination and bigotry. He was elected by a mostly racist body of American voters and he represents today the growing rise of global authoritarianism that has -at his core- patriarchy, a patriarchy which uses all these forms of oppression.

So, Donald Trump for me is a very dangerous man, but he’s one of many. He’s probably the most powerful of the many, but you have his equivalent with Bolsonaro in Brazil, Duterte in the Philippines, Orbán in Hungary and so on and so forth. And then you have Sisi in Egypt and Mohammed Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, when we talk about authoritarianism.

“Donald Trump is a very dangerous man, but he’s one of many. You have his equivalent with Bolsonaro in Brazil, Duterte in the Philippines, Orbán in Hungary, Sisi in Egypt, Mohamed Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia…”

Do you think everyone who voted for Trump agrees with his rhetoric and all these ideas?

Well, 60 million Americans voted for Donald Trump. What is especially shocking to me is that the majority of white women voters voted for Donald Trump, knowing that he had been accused by at least twelve women of sexual assault, and knowing his rhetoric, that is racist, misogynist, homophobic, islamophobic and all of it. So, if you voted for Donald Trump, you are a racist.

Many Americans get very upset when you say that and they say: “No, I’m not a racist” and they give you a whole bunch of excuses. But you understood very well that you voted for a racist, and if you voted for a racist, you are a racist.

What lessons could the other politicians draw from his success?

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party in the United States for too long has been moving towards the right, because they believe that the best way to win more votes is to bring people over from the Republican party. This is a disaster, it’s a mistake. Some politicians are learning sadly, and you see this in Europe too, that they should co-opt the rhetoric that has won the election for the Republican party.

But I’m seeing now more and more younger politicians and politicians of colour, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , Ilhan Olmar, Rashida Tlaib… especially the women of colour, who have been elected to the US Congress, I’m seeing that they represent a wonderful and refreshing and much needed antidote to the hate of the Republican Party and to the mistakes of the Democratic Party.

“The women of colour, who have been elected to the US Congress, represent a wonderful and refreshing and much needed antidote to the hate of the Republican Party and to the mistakes of the Democratic Party”

The Republican Party has been openly racist for decades. Donald Trump did not invent racism. He’s not the first American politician to run on these platforms. Donald Trump is the fruition of many years of white supremacy, islamophobia, capitalism… many, many other forms of bigotry and discrimination. He’s just especially avert about them.

At the same time, the Democratic Party has been dominated by white politicians and has not fought islamophobia in any effective way. In fact, when we talk specifically about islamophobia, I believe that one of the biggest mistakes of the Democratic Party is that the only time up until now, when they speak about Muslims, is when they talk about American Muslims in the military and in the police.

Also about Obama not being a Muslim.

Exactly, yes. The Democratic Party wants to play the good Muslim card, by saying ‘Muslims are us as well: they also fought for us in Afghanistan and Irak. This is not the kind of opposition to islamophobia that I support. I don’t want to be called a good Muslim or a bad Muslim, I want to be called an American citizen who has every right to be in this country, regardless of whether I’m in your military or not.

American politics has a massive problem with white supremacy, especially, and discrimination of all kinds. (…) Muslims in America were punished for 9/11, and we had no role in 9/11. But the Bush Administration launched two wars against Muslim majority countries and, inside the United States, launched the Patriot Act, which targeted specifically Muslims. And so you saw the rise of islamophobia.

“I don’t want to be called a good or a bad Muslim, I want to be called an American citizen who has every right to be in this country”

Where is the limit between freedom of expression or criticism and islamophobia?

I believe in the right to offend, but I believe in the right to protest offence. When we talk about the First Amendment in the United States, it protects you from the Government controlling your speech, but cooperations can and do. And the media does have its own kind of self-control in a way.

Speech has incited hate and violence in Boznia, Rwanda, in New Zealand… I’m against censorship, but I recognize the power of speech, and I think it’s imperative on us to protest hate speech with all the methods that we have at our disposal because people are being killed (…).

I was a journalist in the Middle East for ten years. I’m against censorship, because where I come from [Egypt], it is used to silence us, because once you give the state the power to censor, at first you think it is for a good reason, to protect us, but then the line gets bigger and bigger, and that is what happened in the United States with the Patriot Act.

>>>You may also read: Expert warns about more terror attacks against Muslims if politicians don’t tackle islamophobia<<<

The week after the New Zealand attacks, Islamophobia cases in the UK rose by almost 600%, according to the Tell Mama organization, which holds the records for it. How would you tackle hate speech? Media are always pointed at, but what about politicians and institutions?

I think politicians must stop using lazy stereotypes of people in a hateful rhetoric for votes. [They] must stop monopolizing any kind of fearmongering that they have used for a long time to portray people as ‘under attack’ or to say ‘these people are coming to take your jobs, to rape your women’.

I think that the media must start portraying a more complicated image of people who are not white. I think that the media is too lazy to portray people. They give you all these very, very reductive images of people. So, you’re not allowed to be a full human being.

Media news rooms are very white. The media must start hiring people of different backgrounds, because they will understand reporting on all of those communities in a much more complicated and rich way.

I think the aim of hate speech is to dehumanize, because if you dehumanize you make it easier to attack. And complication is the best way to humanize someone. Allow people to be complicated.

“The aim of hate speech is to dehumanize, because if you dehumanize you make it easier to attack. And complication is the best way to humanize someone. Allow people to be complicated”

What do you think about New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s reaction to the recent attacks?

I think she’s done some very good things and I think she’s done some very lazy stereotypical things. I think the fact that she refuses to say the name of the man who committed the massacre is very good. I think that the fact that she and the government worked very quickly to change the legislation on semi-automatic rifles and guns generally is very good and necessary, and a lesson to the United States.

I think the compassion that she showed to the Muslim community when she went [to support them]… she looked genuine. But I reject anyone who is not Muslim using the hijab as a form of solidarity, for many reasons. Number one: the hijab is not a gimmick or a toy that you put on one day and you take off the next day (..). It’s an empty gesture. It is much more meaningful to show solidarity by fighting white supremacy every day.

Number two: as a Muslim woman who fought for eight years to take off my hijab [in Egypt], and as a Muslim woman who is in a family where my mother wears hijab for piety, my sister wears it for identity -she wants to say ‘fuck you’ to the racists- and I reject hijab and all forms of modesty… So, when I see white non-Muslim women putting on the hijab, I see that they have chosen a sight that is not mine (…).  I would prefer instead of wearing a headscarf, when they’re out in public, that they support Muslim visible women. If you see a Muslim visible woman being attacked verbally or physically, intervene and help that woman.

“I’m a Muslim woman who is in a family where my mother wears hijab for piety, my sister wears it for identity -she wants to say ‘fuck you’ to the racists- and I reject hijab and all forms of modesty”

People are sometimes surprised or do not believe that Muslim women can be feminists.

I keep my feminism and Islam separate, because for me anything that hurts women and girls, I will fight, regardless of where it comes from. Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, secular politics… I will fight patriarchy everywhere.

I believe the Abrahamic religions -Judaism, Christianity and Islam- are very patriarchal and we have to fight the patriarchy inside those religions. But I also believe there is patriarchy outside those religions.

I think that Islamic feminism in this sense is useful, and I am not an Islamic feminist. I have used their work to give to Muslim women a weapon who write to me and say ‘I want something that will help me fight x, y and z’. (…) If a woman says to me, “my religion is helping me to be more feminist”, I want to have all the weapons at her disposal to fight patriarchy, because I want to fight patriarchy wherever it exists.

You just said you are not an Islamic feminist. How would you define yourself?

I’m a feminist, I was born in Egypt and I’m of Muslim descent. This is how I usually present myself, and I think that makes it complicated enough and that’s all you need know [she giggles].

Feminist Mona Eltahawy thinks patriarchy needs to be tackled universally. © Salam Plan

Why do you say ‘Arab countries need a sexual revolution’ in your book Headscarves and Hymens?

When the revolutions began in Tunisia in 2010 and then spread to many other countries, including my country of birth, the revolutions were men and women together fighting the state. I wanted to ask in my book: when we go home, after we all have risked our lives together… Are the men that we stood shoulder to shoulder with against the state, are they revolutionaries at home, in the street? And we found in many cases the revolutionaries have a patriarch inside them.

Without the social revolution against the dictator in the public space and the sexual revolution against the dictator in the bedroom, the political revolution against the dictator in the palace will fail.

[In] Egypt right now, the political revolution is stuck, because it is one group of men fighting another group of men for a small piece of power: the military and the Muslim Brotherhood. I’m not interested in this, I’m interested in this revolution in the street and the revolution in the bedroom [which] -together- will make possible a much more comprehensive form of liberation on the state level as well.

What is the main lesson you have learned throughout your years of journalism and activism?

To stay angry and to recognize that the revolution lives inside you. So that way, wherever you go around the world, that internal revolution finds the various forms of oppression that patriarchy co-opts and utilizes. I often say that my goal is to destroy patriarchy all over the world (…). The tattoos which I have on my arm [, one of them says]: ‘we are the ones we have been waiting for’.

Don’t you get tired of staying angry?

[She giggles and then gets serious again]. No, not really, because it really does fuel me and I can use it everywhere I go. And for my next book I use anger as what I call one of the necessary sins. Because women are discouraged of being angry. It’s one attribution we’re not allowed to be by patriarchy.

What other six “necessary sins” do you talk about in your new book?

These are attributes that patriarchy does not want women and girls to want to do or to be: anger, attention seeking, profanity, ambition, power, violence and lust. Each of the chapters is about one of these sins and I write about why those sins are important in the fight against patriarchy.

I call this fight “feminism in 3D”: defying, disobeying and disrupting patriarchy. And it’s not about the Middle East or North Africa, it’s about the world. It’s about how patriarchy is universal. And I use stories and examples from feminism fights from around the world: Uganda, South Africa, South Korea, Argentina, India, Ireland… as a way of showing the feminist international revolution that targets patriarchy around the world. So, it’s like my feminist manifesto [she giggles].

I believe Judaism, Christianity and Islam are very patriarchal and we have to fight the patriarchy inside those religions. But I also believe there is patriarchy outside those religions. It’s universal

And how do you imagine Egypt and the US, the places you know better, in ten years’ time?

One of the things that gave me hope in the United States lately is what I was mentioning earlier about the election of these women of colour. I think they have come to American politics and really turned it upside down (…).

I believe the revolution, everywhere in the world, comes from the margins. It doesn’t come from the majority; the majority is too comfortable and wants to hold to the status quo.

In the Middle East and North Africa, Egypt now, including Saudi Arabia too, I really believe that feminism and talking and sexual ownership of our bodies -be it of feminist discourse or LGBTQ discourse-, so queer groups, who are increasingly visible -in Tunisia, in Lebanon they have been for a while now, and in Egypt we have something called the Alliance of Queer Egyptians now-…

So, in the Middle East and North Africa, [I imagine] an increasingly feminist-queer identified struggle; in the United States, an increasingly feminist of colour struggle will be the places of the margins that will influence society at large. They give me optimism, because I’m a tendentious optimist.

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La entrada Mona Eltahawy: “If you voted for Donald Trump, you are a racist” se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

“When people ask me who my biggest opponent is, I don’t give a name— I tell them the truth— it’s Islamophobia, Racism, Patriarchy, Xenophobia and Misogyny. We can’t let them win,” said Ilhan Omar at the Muslim American Society convention.

“As I watch what is happening in this country and with this administration, I can’t believe the lack of panic”, she confessed to Elle magazine. This 34 year-old public servant arrived at the States when she was 12, after having spent four years in a Kenian refugee camp. She is not only one of the two first Muslim women to arrive in Congress but also the first Somali-American to do so, plus the first one wearing a hijab. She made it after just two years as legislator in Minneapolis.

The youth has apparently been key to her success. Almost half of her constituents are aged under 24, she explained in an interview on MSNBC. During the campaign she met with them to listen to their aspirations and worries, and went from door to door to ask for their support until the last moment.

“When people ask me who my biggest opponent is, I don’t give a name— I tell them the truth— it’s Islamophobia, Racism, Patriarchy, Xenophobia and Misogyny. We can’t let them win”

— Ilhan Omar, Congress Rep. for Minnesota’s 5th District

Rashida Tlaib is a 42 year-old lawyer who defines herself as a “social worker at heart”. She does indeed give a name to fight: Donald Trump. She focuses her present fight on him and his message. Once, when the president of the United States, went to an event in Detroit, she stood up and screamed asking him: “Have you ever red the US Constitution? You need to read the US Constitution!”

“He can ban us from coming into the country, but he can’t ban us from getting elected to U.S. Congress”, she said to Marie- Claire magazine during the campaign.

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In a campaign video she was wearing a T-shirt which read “Mums against Trump” and she explained that was “the spirit of why we are doing this”.

“Me being elected is a big message to the whole country: that we are part of the government, we are part of the country and that we wanna give back, just like anyone else”, Tlaib told in an interview on CBS.

It is a specially relevant message the one Tlaib and Omar are sending with their election, taking into account that immigration has been the key issue of Trump’s campaign with Republican candidates. Even its beloved Fox News channel did not was to broadcast a spot where he criminalized the hundreds of people crossing Central America fleeing from violence and poverty in their countries (mainly Honduras) with the hope to get to the US.

Tlaib’s victory is even more significant, due to her Palestinian origin and given that president Trump just recently moved the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That way he broke with decades of global diplomacy which had avoided to take part in the dispute about the capital city of Palestinians and Israelis.

“Me being elected is a big message to the whole country: that we are part of the government, we are part of the country and that we wanna give back, just like anyone else”

— Rashida Tlaib, Congress Rep. for Michigan’s 13th District

Both Tlaib and Omar belong are Democrats and have social-progressive views. They advocate for rights like public education, health care for everybody, better environment policies or the defence of minorities, such as LBGT or immigrants.

Omar will replace Keith Ellison, who was the first Muslim elected to Congress and who is currently the Democrat candidate for attorney general. Tlaib will sit on Democrat Rep. John Conyers, who resigned after sexual-harrassment allegations. Her victory was a given, as no Republican candidate presented himself in her district.

These Midterm Elections of November 6th have marked a record of Muslim candidates in response to the anti-Muslim policy and discourse of Donald Trump Associated Press reported. This time there were almost 100 Muslim candidates, as opposed to 2016, when there were about a dozen.

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La entrada Meet the two first Muslim women elected to Congress in the US: Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Donald Trump as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions prefer to speak about “political violence” or “despicable acts” instead of “terrorism”, when referring to the bomb mailings presumably sent by Sayoc. New York governor Andrew Cuomo did talk about “terrorism” from the beginning. Sessions left the door open to broaden up the five current charges against Sayoc as the investigations unfold. For now, they include illegal mailing of explosives and threats against former presidents.

Regarding the shooting of Robert Bowers in the Tree of Life sinagogue in Pittsburgh which resulted in 11 deaths, the public safety director of the city Wendell Hissrich confirmed in a press conference the massacre “falls under hate crime” (which in Pittsburgh can lead to a death penalty, The New York Times said). The Antidefamation League (ADL) itself -an organization founded to fight antisemitism which now fighst as well against other sorts of hatred- called on authorities “to investigate (the attack) as a hate crime”.

>>> You may also read: Fox News says George Soros is “subject of many unfounded conspiracy theories” from the right<<<

So, what is the right way to call these attacks? One of the major researchers on terrorism in the US and a leading expert worldwide is Bruce Hoffman, a professor at Georgetown University and director of the Center for Security Studies. He said to Salam Plan: “Hate crimes and terrorism are not mutually exclusive. They are the same and it baffles me why such distinctions are made. Certainly, the mail bombs and Pittsburgh shooting, according to my definition, are acts of terrorism.”*

“The mail bombs and Pittsburgh shooting are acts of terrorism”

— Bruce Hoffman, Georgetown professor

Let’s see how he comes to that conclusion, which is not only his at all. Experts from around the world have been trying to get a straight answer to the meaning of “terrorism” for decades and there is still no final consensus. But they agree on basic common characteristics and an essential aspect that differentiates the terrorist attack from what is not.

Hoffman recognizes there are many different visions. In his book Inside Terrorism (Ed. Columbia University Press), he devotes up to the first 44 pages to, literally, “defining terrorism”, the very title of the first chapter. A historical review of the phenomenon, which emerged with the anarchist movement at the end of the 19th century, demonstrates the changing meaning of the word and the way it is carried out. But at the same time it confers clarity on characteristics which have remained over time.

Political or ideological motivation is essential

Hoffman concludes that for an act to be described as a terrorist attack nowadays, the following aspects must converge:

• “ineluctably” political in aims and motivations, it is “propaganda by deed”;
• violent or with threat of violence;
• planned to achieve “far-reaching” psychological repercussions beyond the immediate victim or target;
• carried out by an organization “with an identifiable chain of command or a conspiratorial cell structure” or by individuals or a small group of them inspired by a terrorist group;
• perpetrated by a “subnational” group or a non-state entity.

Hoffman also cites a detailed study carried out in the 1980s by Alex P. Schmid in which that researcher compared more than 100 definitions of “terrorism” in an attempt to come up with the final definition. He did not succeed, but he did draw up a list of the concepts that appeared most often as part of those definitions. The three most mentioned and coinciding were in the following order:

• violence or force (83.5%)
• political (65%)
• fear or emphasis on terror (51%).

Other concepts, such as “threat” or “psychological effects” only appeared in less than half of those definitions, although these two were those which followed in frequency to the ones previously mentioned.

So the concept “political violence” used by Trump and Sessions to refer to the frustrated attacks of Sayoc would directly fit into the common charasteristics of what terrorism is, according to more than 100 definitions. Also the explosive devices were not a hoax, as the FBI director Chris Wray confirmed.

The three most mentioned concepts in more than 100 definitions of “terrorism” are: “violence”, “political” and “fear”. So the concept “political violence” used by Trump and Sessions to refer to the mail bombs of Sayoc would directly fit into it.

Lieutenant-Colonel Manuel González Fernández, analyst professor of geopolitics and the so-called “jihadist” terrorism at the Spanish Gutiérrez Mellado Institute, argues that a terrorist is someone who carries out “acts of indiscriminate violence to modify or change political wills, organizations or societies.” In his opinion it is a concept that is based more on the aims than the actions themselves: “If by attacking a mosque you get people to fear going to the mosque or you provoke the need of a stronger police deployment, you are a terrorist,” he explains in his classes.

González Fernández offers another note that helps understand how terrorists act: “We see a squared chessboard with limitations, while they see a clear board. They can appear on any square of the board.” Thus, he agrees with Hoffman, who also points out the absence of the rules of war in his book, because a conventional war must be produced respecting aspects such as: not killing civilians, respecting countries and neutral actors, not taking enemy hostages, giving a correct treatment to war prisoners… Rules which, by the way, are similarly defined in the Q’ran.

>>> You may also read: The true meaning of ‘jihad’ and how ISIS fails to accomplish it<<<

Georgetown professor Hoffman admits that also in the conventional wars these rules are sometimes breached, but he indicates that those cases qualify as a “war crime”. In the case of terrorists, they violate these basic rules systematically.

“We see a squared chessboard with limitations, while terrorists see a clear board. They can appear on any square of the board”

— Manuel González Fernández, Gutiérrez Mellado Institute

Rafael Calduch is professor of International Public Law and International Relations at the Complutense University of Madrid. International terrorism is among his main research approaches. He defines terrorism through six conditions:

“1. Political relationship strategy based on

2. the use of violence and threats of violence by

3. an organized group, in order to induce a

4. feeling of terror or extreme insecurity in a

5. non-belligerent human collectivity and

6. thus, facilitate the achievement of their demands”.

What about ‘lone wolves’ or ‘lone actors’?

For Calduch, the so-called “lone wolves” commit acts of terror, but they are “fanatics who act at their own risk” and do not consider them terrorists, because he attributes to the latter a strategy, with “planning, tactics and logistics”.

The differentiation between “wolf” (non-terrorist act) and “lone actor” (in a terrorist context) extends among researchers: Hoffman’s definition of terrorism includes precisely the lone actors and avoids the concept of “wolf”.

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Lieutenant González Fernández reminds that Osama bin Laden already incited to the solitary action in 1993. This military professor also redefines the attackers usually called “lone wolves” in the media to “coyotes”. From his point of view, a “coyote” is an actor who is part of an operative cell, because they do not self-finance, they do not use means autonomously, they do not radicalize themselves, but rather with books and the internet.

The researchers on global terrorism of the Elcano Royal Institute, Fernando Reinares and Carola García-Calvo, also prefer to talk about lone actors for similar reasons.

What stays clear after comparing the analyses of all these terrorism experts is that for a violent attack to be described as a “terrorist attack” there must be a political or ideological motivation behind it.

Neo- nazi and ISIS terrorists

So not any massive attack against civilians by a group or a person can be described as a terrorist act, even if Daesh (ISIS name in Arabic) assures that it was carried out in its name. This was the case in Las Vegas attack on October 1st 2017, where the FBI dismissed the vindication of this terrorist organization. Although it is known that its author, Stephen Paddock, planned the attack, the absence of his motivations prevents his classification as a terrorist.

As for the investigation on the van strike in Toronto carried out by Alek Minassian on April 23rd 2018, authorities spoke about it as an “incident” at that time. The suspect killed ten people and injured another 13 in what appeared to be a “deliberate” act, according to Toronto Police, but no political or ideological motivations seemed to be behind this tragedy. Therefore, he was charged with counts of murder and attempted murder, not terrorism.

Terrorist attacks were committed by Anders Breivik in Norway -who with neo-Nazi ideology killed 77 people (mostly young people of the Norwegian Socialist Party) in July 2011- or Ali David Sonboly in Munich in 2016, also with neo-Nazi ideology. Those were terrorist attacks just as the ones perpetrated by followers of ISIS terrorist group.

“All the attacks that have taken place lately (in the West) have had two types of reaction: if the author was from a European (non-Muslim) family, a reason for mental illness has been sought, or a rare situation… But name a Muslim as a possible author of an attack, then there is no need to explain more,” professor Emeritus of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Barcelona, ​​Dolors Bramon, complains.

This happened in the case of Breivik (the court which tried him, assessed the possibility of a mental illnessand but ended up dismissing it and he has to serve a prison sentence) and in Sonboly (killed in the attack). For Bramon, this is a sign of the Islamophobia implicit in the West societies which appears after each new attack and she asks to avoid it.

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* This article was first published in Decembre 2017. It has been updated on Octobre 29th of 2018.

La entrada Why some attacks are considered terrorist acts and others not se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Fox defends George Soros against “many unfounded conspiracy theories”.

The billionaire advocates for the rights of migrants and minorities, ranging from LBGTQ to Muslims, through its Open Society Foundations. These aim to “build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens”.

Donald Trump accused him of organizing the demonstration against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in Washington DC and stated protesters were “paid professionals” who got the money from Soros “and others”.

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After the report of an explosive device in Soros mailbox emerged, Fox News used the opportunity to clarify that he is “subject to many unfounded conspiracy theories”, such as financing the march of migrants from centralamerican Honduras crossing Mexico towards the States. It is a similar accusation to the ones the Hungarian billionaire faces in his country of origin from its prime minister, Viktor Orbán, himself.

Meanwhile, Hungarian media outlets which favour Orbán -such as Magyar Idök, Magyar Hírlap, Faktor or Origo, had not informed about the bomb package against Soros and Orbán had not said anything either by the time this piece was redacted. Soros has been a target of Orbáns policies in the last years to the extent that his Governments itself speaks about its “Stop Soros” legislative package to tackle migration and refugees.

The European Parliament recently voted in favour of applying sanctions against Orbáns Government as it sees “a clear risk of serious violations” of the European Union’s values, due among other issues, to its media censorship or its treatment to immigrants. The European People’s Party members -to which Orbán’s Fidesz belongs- had freedom to vote and many of them voted against him, included its president, Manfred Weber.

The offices of Soros’s Open Society in Budapest have had to move to Berlin.

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He took part in a panel of scholars to present a program of interreligious dialogue among lawyers worldwide called “Abrahamic Forum”. Asked by Salam Plan whether he thinks Donald Trump is “ready for dialogue with Muslims”, Destro answered:

“Yes, I do. Part of the problem is there is so little knowledge of Islam. I work with Muslim groups in the United States all the time, almost every day. And certainly, the White House understood that when they asked me to do this job, so I see no contradiction whatsoever”. The professor denied further comment.

“Part of the problem is there is so little knowledge of Islam. I work with Muslim groups in the United States all the time, almost every day. And certainly, the White House understood that when they asked me to do this job, so I see no contradiction whatsoever”

Currently, Destro is waiting the approval of Congress to be Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, the post for which President Trump nominated him one month ago.

He is Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies and Law professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. He is specialized in freedom of religion as well as civil rights, among other topics.

“Respect requires that we first understand each other as we are not as we wish the other one should be”

The “Abrahamic Forum” in which Destro takes part, is a program, where lawyers of different faiths -mainly Christian, Muslim and Jewish- and worldwide come together to debate and understand each other. They work on specific topics, like “the care of refugees”, and meet usually twice a year to discuss their findings.

“The goal is not to reach an agreement, but trying to understand each other,” he explained in his conference. “Respect requires that we first understand each other as we are not as we wish the other one should be”. The final goal is to “prevent and punish genocide”.

“When something goes wrong, you need to be able to pick up the phone and say: ‘Ali, what is happening over there?’”

Destro also pointed out that the reason for this forum is that “when something goes wrong, you need to be able to pick up the phone and say: ‘Ali, what is happening over there?’”. So, Trump can apparently rely on that if Robert Destro’s nomination is confirmed. The decision of Congress is expected to be taken in August.

WOCMES takes place every four years in a different city. This year it has been organized in Seville by the Three Cultures of the Mediterranean Foundation and about 3,000 researchers and experts from around 91 countries have registered to take part in this academic summit which will last until Friday, the 20^th of July.

In this very Congress there was a panel held by other US experts on Wednesday where they analysed “what is really new about the Trump era for Arab and Muslim Americans”, as the panel title reads. Salam Plan was also there. You may read more about that by clicking HERE.

** Since you are here … we want to ask you a small favor. Share the work of Salam Plan so that more and more people get to know this journalism against hate, without propaganda, without sensationalism. Also, you can follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Pass it on. THANK YOU!

La entrada Trump is ready for a dialogue with Muslims, future Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights assures se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Wiretapping Muslims and Arabs in a generalized way for considering them “potential terrorists” happened for the first time in the 60’s of last century, professor Louise Cainkar of the Catholic Jesuite Marquette University in Wisconsin explained. At that time, Arab visiting students were interviewed and controlled by agencies like the NSA. They were “threatened” with deportation if they acted for Palestine in the context of the Six-Day War of June 1967.

“With Richard Nixon, the profiling program of Arabs and Muslims got institutionalized”

— Louise Cainkar

With Richard Nixon as president of the US, the “profiling program got institutionalized”, Cainkar said. The so-called “Operation Boulder”, was “a program that scrutinized the activities of Arab Americans and profiled visa applicants with Arab sounding names”, Sarah Laskow explained in the Columbia Journalism Reviewin 2013. The ‘Declassification Engine’ built up by history professor at Columbia University Matthew Connelly revealed it. In 1972 an article in the Washington Post informed about 2,000 students found “deportable” and 400 students had left their country on their own, the Marquette professor highlighted.

‘Operation Boulder’ was one of the first governmental moves to islamophobia, according to the panel at WOCMES.

“The discourses, representations and policies shifted after the Iranian Revolution. From Arab to this much wider group of Muslims”, she said. That was when the “Middle East” concept came into place. While ‘Arab’ and ‘Muslim’ do not mean the same thing, American policies seem to have treated both as synonymous. In fact, professor Erik Love from the Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, defended during the panel in Seville that “islamophobia is racism, [as] it fits neatly into American’s tradition of white supremacy”.

Trump’s “age is an intensification in anti- Muslim animus but not a turning point; it has reached a new watermark”, Jameel Haque summarized. This History professor at Minnesota State University describes himself as well as Muslim activist in the US. “My authority as an expert is continuously challenged as are historic facts [I present]”, he complained about one of the challenges he faces in his work.

“Trump’s age is an intensification in anti- Muslim animus but not a turning point”

— Jameel Haque

To him, “what is new in the Trump era is that the federal government is complicit” and gives a “microphone” to hate groups. He feels he always has had to challenge what he calls “islamofiction”, but at present there are two new aspects into it: a “Muslim ethnic and racial significance” and that “Muslim natives of the US are viewed as foreigners and suspicious”.

In this respect, he recalled the episode on Barack Obama’s birth certificate and his alleged Muslim faith as a matter of suspicion. Not only there was an anti-Muslim discourse there by Donald Trump, but Obama always challenged this by “affirming his Christian faith”. For Jameel Haque this was “implied islamophobia”, the same as maintaining the Guantanamo camp.

Love reminded of another episode in the past election campaign during the debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump with questions of the audience include. One woman asked: “With Islamophobia on rise, how will you help people like me not to be seen as a threat?”. Trump answered with more security and Clinton “accepted the premise” of relating Muslims to security issues with what Love defines as a “softer islamophobia”. She answered: “We need American Muslims to be part of our Homeland security”.

Haque stated US textbooks have always included “misconceptions” about Muslim and Arab people, like speaking about the “Reconquista” against Muslims, who are never called Europeans but referred to by their faith. Haque believes an “update of our [educational] curriculum should be a forward step towards understanding”.

He also proposes activists to build a community of diverse minority groups, not only ethnic, cultural or religious groups but also others like LGBT, for example. He believes a unified work would help them have their own political voice more represented.

WOCMES takes place every four years in a different city. This year it has been organized in Seville by the Three Cultures Foundation and about 3,000 researchers and experts from around 91 countries have registered to take part in this academic summit which will last until Friday, the 20^th of July.

** Since you are here … we want to ask you a small favor. Share the work of Salam Plan so that more and more people get to know this journalism against hate, without propaganda, without sensationalism. Also, you can follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Pass it on. THANK YOU!

La entrada Is Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim policy really something new in the United States? se publicó primero en Salam Plan.