Why I’m opposed to Ilhan Omar’s bill against Islamophobia

Why I’m opposed to Ilhan Omar’s bill against Islamophobia

Washington Post-January 25, 2022

By Masih Alinejad

Masih Alinejad is an Iranian journalist, author and women’s rights campaigner. She hosts “Tablet,” a talk show on Voice of America’s Persian service.

Five years ago, I took part in the largest single-day protest in U.S. history: the 2017 Women’s March, the day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. This was my first protest in my new country. The most amazing part of it was what didn’t happen. No one beat us up. No one arrested us. No one opened fire.

As someone who has been repeatedly targeted by a vicious authoritarian regime — like countless others in my home country of Iran — I found this to be an astonishing experience.

Yet I worry that other Americans might be creating precedents that could undermine our freedom to speak out. In December, the House passed the Combating International Islamophobia Act by a vote of 219-212. The bill, introduced by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), mandates the creation of a State Department office to combat Islamophobia around the world and would require the State Department to include data on incidents of Islamophobia in its reports on human rights. (The State Department so far does not appear to have commented on the bill, though the White House has issued a statement supporting it.)

There is no question that the U.S. government should act to defend Muslims overseas wherever it sees crimes being committed against them — as in the cases of the Uyghurs in China or the Rohingya in Myanmar.

But the U.S. government is already doing these things, and without needing to establish a new office of the kind that Omar is calling for. The bigger risk is that creating a mandate to monitor Islamophobia comes with its own risks. The legislation does not provide a clear definition of Islamophobia, nor does it make any clear effort to exempt the crimes of Islamist states against their own people. Is criticism of the Taliban a form of Islamophobia? What about criticism of the Islamic Republic of Iran? Can one criticize Hamas or Hezbollah as terrorist organizations?

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/25/why-im-opposed-ilhan-omars-bill-against-islamophobia/