Standing Against Islamophobia

Network Against Islamophobia

The Network Against Islamophobia (NAI), a project of Jewish Voice for Peace, provides support and resources for those interested in organizing against Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism and making the connections between Islamophobia and Israel politics.

NAI is facilitating online resource-sharing of FAQs, public letters, press statements, and other materials developed by NAI, individual chapters, and our allies.

NAI seeks to build connections among JVP chapters and other groups working on these issues to effectively challenge Islamophobia in our local communities and develop our thinking together.

Get involved with NAI!  Email: nai@jvp.org

Elly Bulkin, Sydney Levy, Donna Nevel—NAI Conveners

Resources

NAI resources build on work that many people and groups have long been doing, especially in the Muslim and Arab American communities.  We created these resources for JVP members and other Jewish groups organizing against Islamophobia, and hope that they will also be useful for those in the larger community who want to learn more about the links between U.S. Islamophobia and Israel politics, and U.S. Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism. 

Video: Jews recommit to Standing Against Islamophobia

FAQs on U.S. Islamophobia and Israel Politics, Click Here to Access

This two-page document responds concisely to six questions that address: (1) the importance of making links between Islamophobia and Israel politics; (2) the development of the view of Israel’s leaders and supporters that Muslims are “the enemy”; (3) financial connections between Islamophobia and adamantly pro-Israel politics; (4) the Israel politics of leading anti-Muslim ideologues; (5) “liberal Islamophobia”; and (6) the notion of “good Muslims” with whom mainstream Jewish groups find it “acceptable” to work.

Resources on Islamophobia & Anti-Arab Racism in the United States

The resource list begins with an overview section, “A First Look at Islamophobia & Anti-Arab Racism in the United States.”  Eleven sections focus on different aspects of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, including one on “Islamophobia, Israel, & the ‘War on Terror.’”  Seven additional sections fall under the heading of “Post-9/11 Anti-Muslim Campaigns.”

Many of the resources provide links or references to articles, interviews, reports, and books on these topics, as well as to sites that provide other relevant resources

Challenging the Pamela Geller/American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) Anti-Muslim Ads

We know that Islamophobia takes many different shapes and forms, as do our actions.  We highlight the multiple responses to the Geller/AFDI ads as examples of the bold and creative organizing that groups have been doing all over the country—often in coalition with one another. We hope that learning about such activism will be useful to our continued organizing against Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism.  The Geller/AFDI ad campaigns most often explicitly link Israel with Islamophobia, either through images and words that smear both Muslims and Palestinians or through ads designed to respond to “anti-Israel” or “pro-Palestinian” ads.

NAI Newsletter, v 2.

  • What JVP Chapters Have Been Doing to Challenge Islamophobia
  • Stories & Strategies:  Organizers Speak OutAn Interview With 
Bina Ahmad, National Lawyers Guild National Vice President, Public Defender, and inspiring organizer
  • Islamophobia in Social Media: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
  • Hamas is ISIS? What People Are Saying About
 This Meme, Islamophobia, and Israel

NAI Newsletter, v 1.

  • What JVP Chapters Have Been Doing to Challenge Islamophobia
  • Stories & Strategies: Two Organizers Speak Out—interviews with Estee Chandler of JVP-Los Angeles and Taher Herzallah, one of the Irvine 11 and National Campus Coordinator of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).
  • Learning More about Islamophobia: (1) Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America (2011) by the Center for American Progress (CAP); (2) “Follow the Money: From Islamophobia to Israel Right-or-Wrong” (2012) by Elly Bulkin & Donna Nevel; and (3) Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and Its Impact on American Muslims (2013) by the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (MACLC), Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).
Get

the Wire

Stay up to date on the most important news from Palestine and the Palestine solidarity movement, and receive action alerts and invitations to online events.