In this series, we collaborate with other human rights, civil rights, and civil society organizations under the umbrella of the US Human Rights Network to advance the utility of the rights-based framework as a meaningful organizing tool for impacted communities and social movements to articulate claims of social, cultural, and political rights, and belonging.

For nearly two decades, and spanning three presidencies, the US federal government and state governments have infringed on the freedoms of its citizens and lawful residents by systematically institutionalizing federal measures and state legislation that disproportionately discriminate against, and other Muslims. Since 2001, 15 federal measures* were implemented that target and discriminate against Muslim individuals and communities, the most recent of which is President Donald Trump’s Travel Ban. These measures subject Muslims to unwarranted surveillance, profiling, exclusion, and discrimination along the lines of race, ethnicity, national origin, and religion. Furthermore, since 2010, 223 anti-Sharia bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the US. Among those introduced, 20 bills have been enacted into law in 13 states. These bills impose legal barriers that specifically seek to prevent Muslims from engaging fully and freely with their religion by preventing Islamic interpretations that guide ethical and moral life, as outlined in Sharia, from being considered in US state courts, and by infringing on the rights of Muslims to enter into contracts based on Sharia.

These federal measures and state legislation are preventing the US from maintaining its obligations to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Universal Periodic Review, as well as US ratified international treaties, notably, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Read the full article about the impact of islamophobia at Othering & Belonging Institute.