Nadine Osman
The United States’ largest legal organisation has endorsed a resolution denouncing Islamophobia and urging Congress and the United Nations to pass similar measures fighting anti-Muslim sentiment.
The resolution was passed by the American Bar Association’s (ABA) House of Delegates on August 8 during a session looking at a slew of new policies and resolutions.
“RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments in the United States to condemn Islamophobia and to develop and implement comprehensive strategies to combat Islamophobia,” the resolution stated.
The resolution recommends launching awareness campaigns to educate Americans about Islam and Muslims, as well as new methods for reporting occurrences of Islamophobia and hate crimes.
The resolution also calls on the US Congress to support a bill sponsored by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to create an office in the State Department to monitor Islamophobia, similar to the one that exists to monitor antisemitism. Muslim organisations have for years called on the US to track the issue of Islamophobia in the country and have also lobbied the UN to do so.
Earlier this year, the UN voted to observe “International Day to Combat Islamophobia”. But in March, a coalition of more than a dozen Muslim groups urged the international body to do more to combat anti-Muslim hate at the international level.
Over the past decade, there have been several major attacks on Muslim populations living in Western countries, including a shooting at a mosque in Quebec, Canada, and a mass shooting at two New Zealand mosques that killed more than 50 Muslim worshippers.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has tracked and worked on issues of hate crimes against Muslims in the US, commended the ABA’s adoption of the measure.
“We welcome this resolution against Islamophobia by the largest voluntary association of lawyers in the world and the nation’s leading legal association, and we hope the steps suggested by the resolution will be adopted by state and national policymakers,” Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the organisation’s national Deputy Director, said in a statement.
In recent years, Muslim advocacy groups such as CAIR have documented an increase in cases of bigotry and assaults against Muslims.
The ABA’s measure includes a recommendation that US law enforcement departments be trained to spot religious prejudice.
