Anti-Muslim versus Anti-Palestinian Bigotry

By Maha Elgenaidi, Founder & Executive Director (Bio)

February 20, 2024

When delivering trainings on anti-Muslim bigotry (sometimes referred to as Islamophobia) for schools and workplaces in all fields, I’ve come across institutional leaders who are conflating anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bigotry. Both result in prejudice, which ultimately leads to harassment, discrimination, and in some cases hate violence. While the tropes of the two forms of bigotry overlap, the remedies for anti-Muslim bigotry won’t necessarily address the remedies for anti-Palestinian bigotry.

Both forms of bigotry are different in the following ways:

1. Muslim identity is based on a religion: the religion of Islam, which has 2 billion adherents living across the world as majorities in 50 nations, and as sizable minorities throughout all continents, most of whom are represented in the United States, which has between 4 and 6 million Muslim Americans, half of whom were born in the United States and may have been American for many generations. Palestinian identity is based on ethnicity. Palestinians originate in historical Palestine as it existed before the creation of the state of Israel. They number about 14 million people worldwide, some of whom live as refugees across Arab majority nations, and in Europe, Africa, and the United States. About 38% of the 14 million Palestinians live in Gaza, the West Bank, and the state of Israel.
2. The tropes against both groups are different in origin. The tropes against Muslims are centuries old, traceable back to the Crusades beginning in the 11^th century. The tropes against Palestinians are decades old, traceable back to the time immediately before and after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
3. The dominant tropes or narratives against Muslims are that they are culturally incompatible with the West, violent, and monolithic. The dominant trope against Palestinians is that they are not a distinct ethnic group of Arabs and therefore are not indigenous to historical Palestine. As a result, it is maintained that they don’t have valid claims to the land they live on today, and even that their history of displacement never took place. The two forms of bigotry directly overlap in perceptions about their culture. Like so-called Islamic culture (which is misnomer; there are Muslim cultures, not one Islamic culture), Palestinian culture is viewed as incompatible with western values. And, like Muslims, Palestinians are viewed as inherently violent, portrayed as “understanding only the language of force.”
4. Both Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bigotry are reinforced in American public institutions: in public education as it decides what to teach and what not to teach about a people, in one-dimensional media coverage, stereotypical portrayals in Hollywood movies, television shows and social media platforms, hateful campaigns by organized hate groups, and in biased American domestic and foreign policies.  
5. Both groups, Muslims, and Palestinians, are currently hurting in the workplace and on school campuses. The former’s image is demonized, and the latter is both erased and demonized when spoken about.

Shared remedies for both start with large-scale education: secularized education about Islam and the diversity of its 2 billion adherents, and education about the history, diversity, and rich culture of the Palestinian people.

Other remedies must include representation of both communities that you will find in your workplace, school, or college campus.

• To request countering Islamophobia training, visit this page.
• To request countering Islamophobia and antisemitism training that is delivered together by Muslim and Jewish speakers, visit this page.
• For all other presentations and trainings, visit this page.