The Connecticut legislature has penned a proclamation designating the month of January as “Muslim Heritage Month.” Muslims are humanity’s second largest religious group and, historically, Muslims have made significant contributions in a variety of fields, including science, math, architecture, and technology. The proclamation enumerates Muslims’ contributions to the state and the country.
This recognition of Muslim citizens of Connecticut —now a community 150,000 strong— is long overdue. We look forward to working with officials to make our community more visible and better understood by our neighbors in schools, libraries, and local government. But in all honesty, this designation, at this time, also feels acutely dismissive, reinforcing our position as second-hand citizens whose values and demands hold no weight with our legislators and representatives.
Symbolic gestures without material actions in conjunction with them are meaningless. True dignity for Muslims —and all oppressed peoples and minorities— cannot be achieved until systemic injustices are addressed and dismantled everywhere, from the streets of Hartford and New Haven to the occupied territories of Palestine, Sudan, Yemen, and Lebanon.
In particular, at this moment, Muslims in Connecticut and around the world are deeply anguished and enraged by the U.S.-supported genocide of innocent civilians in Palestine, where the Muslim majority —but also people of all faiths— are suffering. To designate a Muslim Heritage Month during a genocide of which Connecticut Muslims, alongside many others, have been very critical, reveals a lack of true concern for the demands and well-being of Connecticut’s Muslim population. This solely symbolic designation is hard to perceive as anything other than an insult to the very people Muslim Heritage Month seeks to honor.
While the Biden Administration has led the U.S. in supporting Israel’s actions, the state of Connecticut has been deeply complicit, providing material and moral support. Last year alone, $69 million of Connecticut residents’ taxes helped provide weaponry used in Israel’s ongoing oppression of the Palestinian populations in Gaza and the West Bank.
The State of Connecticut is also heavily invested in Israel through its pension funds; as of January 31, 2024, Connecticut had approximately $95 million invested in Israeli companies and State of Israel Bonds. These investments include holdings in over a dozen funds, primarily those of public employees such as state workers, teachers, and municipal employees. These investments provide funding that enables the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and, consequently, the slaughter of innocents in Palestine. For example, Connecticut pension funds have nearly $1 million invested in Israeli company Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense contractor and military technology company. Elbit cooperates heavily with the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), producing about 85% of both the IDF’s land-based equipment and UAVs.
Connecticut Treasurer Erick Russell refuses to sell investments in Israel, saying his responsibility is to make as much money possible for the Treasury, subject only to U.S. or Connecticut law limitations. How else are Connecticut’s Muslim citizens to interpret this, except as a valuing of financial gains over basic morality and a complete disregard for our family, friends, and fellow Muslims being slaughtered?
How can the state announce a Muslim Heritage Month to “promote… appreciation for the invaluable contributions of Muslim Americans,” as Gov. Ned Lamont stated in his proclamation while continuing to ignore the pleas of Muslim citizens that Connecticut stop supporting war crimes, human rights violations, and crimes against humanity being carried out against Connecticut Muslims’ brothers and sisters in Palestine?
Every January, the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is celebrated on the 20th. Dr. King was known for his human rights activism as well as his verbal critique of America’s position as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” He once said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” This quote resonates even more today amidst a genocide being committed against the civilian population of occupied Palestine; Connecticut’s government has met this situation not with silence, but instead with financial and vocal moral support.
True recognition and appreciation of the Muslim community entail immediate divestiture of all funds supporting the genocide, open condemnation of Israel’s genocidal actions, and the United States and its allies’ continued support of those actions.
Hend Elsantaricy of Newtown is a co-founder of Muslim Advocacy for Rights, Unity and Fairness — MARUF CT.