Donald Trump isn’t just the most dangerous man ever to win the presidency—he’s also the most divisive. Trump ran on a platform that called out to racists with promises to erect barriers both literal and legal between people, and he'll pursue these invidious ends once in office.
But a funny thing—a remarkable, really, and glorious thing—has happened precisely because of the course Trump has set us on: He’s inspired people with longstanding differences to set them aside and unite against his message of hate. As the New York Times Laurie Goodstein reports, Jews and Muslims are joining together “to resist whatever may come next.”
And while not knowing what may come next is one of the scariest things about living in Trump’s America, it’s always easier to face an uncertain future together:
Vaseem Firdaus, a Muslim who has lived in the United States for 42 years, spent Friday night at a Shabbat dinner for members of a women’s group called the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, in a home here filled with Jewish art and ritual objects.
Until Mr. Trump was elected president, Ms. Firdaus, who is 56 and a manufacturing manager at Exxon Mobil, felt secure living as a Muslim in America. She has a daughter who is a doctor and a son who is an engineer, and she recently traveled to Tampa with her husband looking to buy a vacation home. But Mr. Trump’s victory has shaken her sense of comfort and security.
How many people share fears just like Firdaus’? Far too many—and that’s precisely what Trump was hoping for.
But many of us have long experience with rulers like Trump, and we have much to share with one another in the name of survival in the years ahead:
“When did you know it was time to leave?” Ms. Firdaus asked one woman who had just recounted how her relatives had fled the Nazis. “The ones that didn’t leave are the ones who went to Auschwitz.”
The Jewish women tried to convince her that they would not let it come to that. “If Muslims have to register, we’re all going to register,” said Mahela Morrow-Jones, who is helping to build the first West Coast chapter of the Sisterhood in Santa Barbara, Calif. “You’ve got to believe it, sister.”
The Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom just held their third annual conference, hosting 500 attendees—up from 100 two years ago—and allowing Jewish and Muslim women to learn from one another and support one another:
“Sitting here makes you feel it’s really not so hopeless. This is food for the soul,” Ms. Firdaus said. “But there were 60 million people who voted for Trump. I’m not ready to leave, but you have to have a plan.”
And as Goodstein notes, the Sisterhood is not the only such effort. Last month, the American Jewish Committee and the Islamic Society of North America formed a new group called the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council to help protect the rights of religious minorities. With organizations like these leading the way, that gives us good reason to believe others will follow.
There are frightful fights ahead of us, but we need not fight them alone. As a wise woman once said, we are stronger together, and the brave Muslims and Jews who today link arms are showing us why.