Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while the intensive campaign to help Ukrainians has been led by the US government (last week, the State Department declared that the US “is the largest single-country donor of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine,” with almost a billion dollars), American Arab and Muslim communities and organizations started sending help to their brothers there who make up a very small minority.
Last week, the Washington Post estimated that Muslims constituted less than one percent of Ukraine’s population, about half a million persons, but the leadership of the Ukrainian Muslims said the number was two million. The newspaper wrote about contradictions among Muslims there because, while most of the Ukrainian Muslims condemned the Russian invasion, almost all of the Russian Muslims did not.
At the same time, reports from Ukraine about discrimination against Arabs there, who were mostly students, caused Arab-American organizations to send letters to the State Department to investigate, as some of them had relatives in the US or were themselves American citizens.
For many years, these Arab-American organizations have been critical of the Ukrainian government, not only because of its heavy restrictions on Arab refugees, particularly from Syria but also because of the Ukrainian soldiers’ participation in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Following are three opinions from Arab and Muslim leaders in the US about the current events in Ukraine, taken from tweets, websites, and statements to the media.
First, James Zogby: 1985 founder and president of the Arab-American Institute in Washington; a leader in the Democratic Party; and, during Barack Obama’s administration, a member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Second, Hoda Osman: the New York based president of the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA), a US-registered non-profit for media professionals of Arab and Middle Eastern descent.
Third, Oussama Jammal: Secretary-General of the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), a Washington-based umbrella for tens of American Muslim organizations.
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James Zogby: Double Standards –
“… The reality (is) the double standards on display by US political leaders, the mainstream media and commentators who apparently have no self-awareness as they put their anti-Arab bigotry and/or hypocrisy on full display …
It passed without comment in the US press when an Israeli government official denounced the Russian invasion as a ‘grave violation of the international order’ while another expressed his government’s support for Ukraine’s ‘territorial integrity and sovereignty.’ Notably absent from discussions in that context was the fact that Israel has in the past invaded and occupied neighboring countries using a similar ‘security’ argument to the one invoked by Russia today…
Behind each of the following examples of clear double standards is racism:
First, a video that went viral about a Russian soldier killing a child and wounding another with both presented as Ukrainians was wrong on two accounts: the first child was a Palestinian killed in an Israeli air assault in Gaza, and the second was a Palestinian girl, Ahed Tamimi, who was later arrested for striking an Israeli soldier …
Second, on the day that American TV outlets were showing ‘heroic’ Ukrainians stockpiling Molotov cocktails for use against the Russian invaders, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead for throwing a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli settler’s car …
Third, while there is a bipartisan consensus for sanctions against Russia because of its violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and international law, there is a comparable bipartisan consensus that such measures may never be taken against Israel despite its decades-long egregious violations of Palestinian rights and international law …
The fourth case in point is the welcome that Ukrainian refugees have received from the same European countries that closed their doors in the face of refugees fleeing conflict in Middle Eastern and African countries…
Finally, there is America's insistence that in defending Ukraine it is standing up for international law, human rights, and democracy – concepts which the US has never applied to the securing the rights and freedoms of the Palestinian people …”
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Hoda Osman: Media Racist Coverage –
“The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA) has condemned aspects of reporting on the conflict in Ukraine, particularly how journalists have compared it with experiences in the Middle East …
There were several examples of explicit bias from across the media landscape when it came to reporting on the war in Ukraine –
In a CBS News segment, a reporter said: ‘But this isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan,that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European — I have to choose those words carefully, too — city, one where you wouldn’t expect that, or hope that it’s going to happen.’
In an NBC news segment, a reporter said: ‘To put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria, these are refugees from Ukraine... They’re Christians, they’re White.'
On British channel ITV, a journalist commented: “The unthinkable has happened. … This is not a developing, third-world nation, this is Europe …'
In British Daily Telegraph, a journalist wrote: 'They seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking. War is no longer something visited upon impoverished and remote populations. It can happen to anyone.'
A reporter on French 24-hour news channel BFM TV said: ‘We’re not talking here about Syrians fleeing the bombing of the Syrian regime backed by Putin, we’re talking about Europeans leaving in cars that look like ours to save their lives.'
We strongly condemned any implications that a population or country is uncivilized or that ‘economic factors’ somehow make one nation more deserving of conflict, asserting that this commentary normalizes tragedy in parts of the world and dehumanizes and renders their experience with war as somehow normal and expected …”
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Oussama Jammal: End of Violence—
“The U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), the nation’s largest umbrella group for American Muslim organizations, urgently calls for an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, restoration of Ukraine’s geographic integrity and sovereign right to self-governance, and a two-pronged resolute global diplomatic push to:
First, rush humanitarian aid to the embattled Ukrainian people.
Second, bring about peace and an end of violence in Ukraine …
Europe, though we may have forgotten in the 77 years since World War II ended, has a long and very bloody history of internal, violent disunity.
American Muslims, in particular, well-remember the horrific Serbian genocide against Bosnian Muslims only 30 years ago. And the Serb-led war against Albanian Muslims in Kosovo just 23 years ago, ending in 1999 …
This along with the dismaying rise of ultranationalism (some against Muslims) throughout Europe in the early decades of this century makes peace in Ukraine imperative.
Muslims also suffer under Russian aggression in Syria, and have so historically in Afghanistan, in Chechnya and throughout the Caucuses …
We Muslims intimately understand and are deeply concerned for the plight of Ukrainian children, women, and men in the face of an immoral war prosecuted for the now 'sacred' sake of the claimed security needs.
We Muslims recognize a pretext when we see it.
We have seen the 'shock and awe' (like during the invasion of Iraq) that begins the utter destruction of a society firsthand.
We have paid the life-costs of occupation after an invasion that lies at the business end of the Great Powers forked-tongue Orwellian rhetoric: 'War is peace.' 'Freedom is slavery.' and 'Ignorance is strength' ...
We Muslims know how silence kills and how reticence – just one time – emboldens other aggressors in the waiting known only to God.
USCMO, therefore, calls for peace in Ukraine …”
