One of the main features of political life today is a complete lack of inhibition in saying what you think. Sometimes this disinhibition is just part of the smash-mouth, WWE-style culture that is omnipresent in traditional and newer social media platforms — crass but signifying very little. And sometimes it betrays deep currents of hate and prejudice.
In terms of the effects of uninhibited speech, it doesn’t really matter whether it rests on a sincere conviction or is all about the entertainment value. Such speech has a deeply corrosive effect not only on the targets of the speech but on society at large, which becomes more and more habituated to coarse and hateful expression. We all stand to lose by tolerating it.
Exhibit A for this trend is the recent Jewish American Summit last weekend in Los Angeles. The event was described as an opportunity for Jews to come together “to be inspired”: “Leave with renewed confidence, purpose, and optimism about the future of the Jewish community.” Its main sponsor was the Orthodox Jewish outreach group Aish L.A., which was joined by a long roster of well-known Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation of Greater L.A. and the Jewish National Fund.
Rather than a celebration of Jewish life, the summit turned into a platform for anti-Muslim hate. The person who sucked up all the energy in the room was Mosab Hassan Yousef, a Palestinian ex-militant who describes himself as a former Muslim. In his vulgar tirade, Yousef gave voice to deep contempt for Islam, the Quran, the prophet Muhammad and contemporary Muslims. In what seemed to be a desperate attempt to keep up with white nationalist extremists, he spit out such lines as “I don’t want Muslims in America,” “this country is better without your belief system” and “you disgust me.”
Significant responsibility rests with the organizers who gave this individual a platform at the event. It is never a good look to bring in former members of a group to validate your distaste for the group itself. This tactic calls to mind the Jewish apostates who played the role of Inquisitorial witnesses or censors of Hebrew books in centuries past. And that’s what happened at the Jewish American Summit. Yousef’s remarks were red meat to the lions in the crowd who enthusiastically applauded his anti-Muslim insults. Was he performing his shtick? Or expressing his deep-felt hate?
It didn’t matter, because he was reinforcing dangerous stereotypes about Muslims that have become rooted in American, and American Jewish, political culture. Hateful rhetoric matters. It informed the anti-Muslim event organized several weeks earlier by far-right activist Jake Lang in Dearborn, Mich., under the banner “the Christian Crusader March” in which he demonstratively ripped up a Quran at a City Council meeting. It informed the teenage killers who attacked the mosque in San Diego in May, killing three people and leaving behind a white supremacist manifesto. And it informs the messages of people in power who repeat “replacement theory” rhetoric, such as Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) and President Trump.
Sadly but not surprisingly, this kind of performative hate is not only visited on Muslims. It is also visited on Jews by a mix of extremists from across the political spectrum who all too readily tap into long-standing conspiracy theories about Jewish global domination. Given the resurgence of hate in the United States, this is a moment that demands moral clarity and courage.
It is necessary to take a stand against the haters, many of whom regard Muslims and Jews — sometimes independently and sometimes together — as inferior to white Christians. Political leaders from left, center and right, tech entrepreneurs, educators, and activists should come together to reverse the culture of disinhibition. A good first step would be for all of the sponsors of the Jewish American Summit, beginning with Aish L.A., to condemn without equivocation Yousef’s remarks. This is all the more essential in an age when Islamophobia is growing in our country and finds safe quarters in the heartlands of the American political establishment, from Texas to Washington.
At the same time, we must all join together — Jews, Christians, Muslims and others — to condemn the disturbing currents of antisemitism in this country. But we must do so by honing our powers of discernment to distinguish between hatred of Jews and serious political critique of Israel, lest we succumb to a weaponization of the label “antisemitism” that neither makes Jews safer nor opens the door to honest and constructive dialogue.
Finally, we need to build up horizontal alliances between groups with shared interests. No longer should or can we rely on the state to be our protector. Nor are we most effective when we fight only on behalf of our own community. Working together, as the two of us, a Jew and a Muslim, have been doing for years, is the best way to imagine and bring into existence a more perfect union for all.
David N. Myers is a professor of Jewish history at UCLA. Salam Al-Marayati is president and co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
The post Combating Islamophobia and antisemitism is a shared responsibility appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
