Travel ban challenge puts Hawaii’s Muslims in spotlight
HONOLULU: Hawaii has 5,000 or so Muslims — less than 1 percent of the state’s population — who are finding themselves thrust into an international spotlight after the state’s top lawyer launched a challenge to President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, saying it contradicts the islands’ welcoming culture that values diversity.
Named as a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit fighting the ban is Ismail Elshikh, the imam of the island of Oahu’s only mosque — a converted plantation-style house in a hilly Honolulu neighborhood a few miles from Waikiki beach.
Elshikh’s mother-in-law is living in Syria and would not be able to visit her relatives in Hawaii because of the ban, and that will deprive the rights of Elshikh, his wife and their children as US citizens, said Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin.
It was difficult for the shy and reserved Elshikh to make the decision to join the lawsuit and he is not speaking publicly because of legal reasons and fears for his security in a state that has seen a rise in threats to Muslims that started just before Trump was elected, said Hakim Ouansafi, who is the president of the Muslim Association of Hawaii.
“It took some thinking. It took some convincing,” Ouansafi said.
Chin said the small size of Hawaii’s Muslim community had no bearing on his decision to challenge the travel ban because “they are part of our community. They should not be labeled presumptively as terrorists.”
Also, the lawsuit is a way to protect a minority community in a state familiar with the wrongs committed when Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WWII, Chin said. “And we should speak for them in ways that people did not speak for the Japanese back in the 1940s when everything was happening,” he said.
The first Muslims in Hawaii can be traced back to the 1800s, Ouansafi said. Today, Hawaii’s Muslims have ties to 46 countries, including Asian and Arab countries. About 30 percent are Americanborn who converted to Islam, he said. And about 80 of Hawaii’s Muslim families are originally from the six countries named in the revised travel ban. “It’s beautiful mix,” Ouansafi said.
Youssef Dakroub, born and raised in Lebanon, met his wife, who is from Hawaii, in Dubai. They moved to Oahu in 2006, where he now owns a Moroccan and Lebanese food restaurant in downtown Honolulu.
Dakroub said the lawsuit challenging the travel ban reinforced his belief that Hawaii is the right place for him to live.
“Hawaii is home,” he said.