When President Joe Biden repealed
the “Muslim ban” on his first day in office, many celebrated the end of a policy that had divided families, derailed visas and uprooted lives.
The reality, however, is that the xenophobic sentiment that many saw in the travel ban remains a raging problem in the United States, according to Muslims in New Jersey. Hate speech, bullying and bias crimes have soared during the Trump era, while Muslims in public office have faced repeated slurs and threats.
Montgomery resident Sadaf Jaffer, who became America’s first female Muslim mayor in 2019, knows this firsthand. As mayor, she faced bigoted speech daily, with strangers accusing her of being part of a Muslim invasion and infiltrating the government to impose Islamic law.