Mix of despair, resolve for U.S. Muslims in Trump era

Four days after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, mental health counselors hosted a webinar on how their fellow American Muslims could cope. They surveyed the political landscape: a White House framing Islam itself as a threat, a surge in anti-Muslim hostility and suspicion of immigrants in general.

The counselors offered tips such as limiting time on social media. And they cautioned against withdrawing in discouragement, worried about losing whatever foothold Muslims have gained in public life since the crucible of Sept. 11.

“It’s very easy to tell a story of victimization, fear, feeling ... not welcome in our own home,” said Ben Herzig, a Massachusetts therapist with a specialty in Muslim mental health. “But the narrative of Islam in American can be a positive one.”

While many express alarm at Trump’s statements, Muslim leaders are pushing back. They are organizing protests, hosting elected officials at their mosques, building ties with other faith groups and encouraging Muslims to run for elected office. Many of these initiatives had been planned before the general election, but have taken on a new urgency since then.

Trump signed an executive order Friday setting “new vetting measures” to keep “radical Islamic terrorists” out of the United States. The order was expected to indefinitely stop Syrian refugee entry into the U.S. and suspend issuing visas for people from other majorityMuslim countries. The new president and his supporters insist his measures are needed to strengthen national security.

Meanwhile, a Texas state lawmaker recently sent a provocative survey to local Muslim leaders asking, among other things, their views of Islamic law and whether they would pledge not to harm Muslims who left the faith. On Wednesday, a businessman attacked a Muslim airline employee at New York’s Kennedy Airport, kicking her, shouting obscenities at her and saying that Trump “will get rid of all of you,” authorities said.

“The discourse has shifted from good Muslims and bad Muslims to ‘how bad is the Muslim you’re talking about?’” said attorney Hassan Ahmad, an immigration law specialist in Virginia with many clients from Muslim countries.

Muslim leaders acknowledge they are in a relatively weak position from which to advocate, amid the nation’s inflamed mood over immigration, religion and terrorism.

The U.S. is home to only about 3.3 million Muslims, which means just a small number of Americans actually know a member of the faith. Many U.S. Muslims come from families that only arrived a generation ago. But they have more organizations, charities and cultural clout than ever, built by a post-9/11 generation eager to assert their American identity.

Companies like Amazon, Nabisco and CoverGirl have recently featured Muslims in their advertisements. The night after Trump’s inauguration, comic Aziz Ansari, speaking from one of the most influential platforms in pop culture, as host of “Saturday Night Live,” called out anti-Muslim prejudice, white supremacy and other bias that has come to the forefront.

“It’s very clear that one of the goals of bigoted language is to make the victims feel isolated and make them feel that they have no allies and they have no power to get them to be silent and intimidate them and make them give up,” said Dalia Mogahed, director of research for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, an American Muslim think-tank.

Last month, about 2,600 people filled the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, for an interfaith event expressing support for the community. Among the speakers were U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.

This month, Wardah Khalid, a 30-year-old graduate of Texas A&M University, started a Washington organization called Poligon to train American Muslims how to lobby Congress. She got the idea from working as an analyst for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker public policy organization.

“There are other groups visiting (congressional offices) every single day of the year and it makes a difference in terms of policy asks,” Khalid said. She said she’s received a strong response to the launch on Facebook and through her website. “It got a lot of momentum,” Khalid said. “People are finally waking up.”