Biden administration launches national strategy to combat Islamophobia, anti-Arab hate

The Biden administration on Thursday announced it is launching a national strategy to combat Islamophobia. 

The move, which the administration described as the first-ever Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate, comes a little more than a year after Hamas’ unprovoked attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023, which was followed by spikes in antisemitic protests and antisemitism across the United States.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment. 

“The very idea of America is that we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives,” President Biden said in a statement posted to social media. “This Strategy is a historic step forward to live up to our ideals. Let us walk forward together, upholding those ideals and advancing our collective prosperity.”   

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The Biden administration on Thursday announced it is launching a national strategy to combat Islamophobia.  (Pete Marovich/Getty Images)

The aim of the strategy is to “address the bias, discrimination and threats Muslim and Arab Americans have long faced,” the White House said in a release, noting that threats against Muslim and Arab communities in the U.S. increased over the last year.

“In October 2023, 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, an American Muslim boy of Palestinian descent, was viciously killed in his home in Illinois, and, over the last year, there have been other grievous attacks on Muslim and Arab Americans,” the release said. 

Oday Alfayoumi and others carry the casket of his son, Wadee Alfayoumi, for burial at Parkholm Cemetery in La Grange Park, Ill., Oct. 16, 2023.  (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

The White House noted President Biden established an interagency group in December 2022 to fight antisemitism and Islamophobia. Last year, the administration released the first-ever National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism. 

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An anti-Israel sign at Columbia University in New York City April 27, 2024.  (Reuters/Caitlin Ochs)

The strategy to combat Islamophobia will focus on increasing awareness about anti-Arab hate, improve safety, tackle discrimination, accommodate religious practices and build solidarity across communities. 

Antisemitic incidents hit record highs after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the continued war with Hamas. 

People protest during the 98th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City Nov. 28, 2024.  (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

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Just this week, students at Columbia University started distributing a newspaper that had articles like “Zionist Peace Means Palestinian Blood” and “The Myth of the Two-State Solution” and anti-Israel protesters interrupted last month’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.