Today in Islamophobia

Today in Islamophobia: In the United States, the Council on American-Islamic relations (CAIR) that US President Donald Trump sharing of an anti-Muslim post featuring a picture of Muslim schoolchildren “endangers the children and validates hate speech”, meanwhile in the United Kingdom, 55% of people believe the country’s national identity is disappearing due to “diversity”, and lastly, the Washington D.C.-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), has released a new report examining the rapidly expanding ecosystem of Hindutva pop music (H-Pop) and how this popular music trend is spreading Islamophobia in India. Our recommended read of the day is by Salmaan Khan for The Conversation on how racialized immigrant populations in Canada have been found to experience higher-than-average unemployment rates and lower income levels than other workers across the nation. This and more below:

Canada

The Muslim wage gap in Canada’s largest metro area costs workers an estimated $1.2 billion a year | Recommended Read

Racialized immigrant women, for example, have been found to experience a “triple disadvantage,” reporting higher-than-average unemployment rates and lower income levels than other workers. Such findings underscore the fact that the Canadian labour market is not a meritocratic space but one shaped by systemic barriers that produce unequal access to opportunity. It’s within this context that my recent report sought to investigate the labour market experiences of Muslims in Canada. My co-researchers and I conducted a pilot study, “Working While Muslim,” which drew on data from the 2021 census and an original survey of 423 Muslims in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Our results point to significant gaps in labour market outcomes between Muslims and non-Muslims that persist even when the data are broken down by gender, immigration status or visible minority status. Muslims in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area have higher unemployment rates, face employment segregation and earn lower incomes than their non-Muslim counterparts. read the complete article

How Canada’s Muslims face ‘perfect storm’ amid rising xenophobia

While the attack outside the Toronto Islamic Centre drew some local headlines and mosque leaders said an arrest was made, community members and experts have questioned whether this incident and others like it are being treated seriously enough. They also warn that a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment is blending with anti-Muslim racism in Canada, leaving Muslim community members vulnerable and at heightened risk of violence. “It is a perfect storm right now,” said Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s former special representative on combatting Islamophobia. Canada has experienced several incidents of deadly, anti-Muslim violence over the past decade, making it the Group of Seven (G7) country with the most targeted killings of Muslims (PDF). Elghawaby, the former Islamophobia envoy, noted that a confluence of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric has contributed to violence in Canada and abroad. read the complete article

United Kingdom

Two in five Britons think Muslims cannot integrate in UK, poll finds

Two in five Britons believe Muslims cannot integrate into British society and more than half believe the country’s national identity is disappearing due to “diversity”, a report authored by a former government adviser on extremism has found. Sara Khan, who stood down in 2024 as the UK’s first counter-extremism commissioner, said such views contrasted sharply with accompanying findings that showed 85% of Muslims “favour integration”. Extremist views were being exploited and promoted by hostile states and malign domestic actors, it was said. Researchers logged 1,784 far-right offline events and 225 Islamist events over a 12-month period. At the launch of the report – titled Britain Under Strain: The Broken Social Contract, Democratic Distrust and the Mainstreaming of Extremism – Khan warned there was a “vanishingly small” window in which a new prime minister might act effectively to deal with the division and hate. According to the findings, 55% of people believe Britain’s national identity is disappearing because of diversity. Nearly a third (31%) of respondents described themselves as open to the view that non-white people would “never be as British” as white people. read the complete article

How Keir Starmer failed British Muslims

When history turns its gaze to Keir Starmer’s relationship with Britain’s Muslim communities, the ledger will be a heavy one. The most serious charge is not any single policy failure, but something more ambient: during his tenure, the Overton window of acceptable hatred toward British Muslims shifted dramatically rightward, and the man at the helm either could not or would not stand in its path. In the wake of Starmer’s resignation as Labour leader on Monday, opening the way for a replacement to become the new prime minister, these are the key moments when he failed British Muslims. read the complete article

Reversing the racism – Henry Nowak, two-tier policing and far-right riots

While historically, the far-right have tended to deny racism, defend the police and demonise or attack protestors, in this case it was the far-right accusing the police of ‘reverse racism’ against white people and “two-tier policing” which holds that racialised and migratised people are given preferential treatment. The “Justice for Henry Nowak Protest”, included far-right leaders and influencers such as Tommy Robinson and Britain First leader Paul Golding. This was the latest in a series of ongoing and escalating far-right actions in response to major incidents that are, I argue, part of a wider mainstreaming, emboldening and consolidation of far-right ideas, power and influence predicated on white grievance narratives. The first such narrative equates anti-migrant racism and anti-Muslim politics as the will of the people. The second is that white people are “left behind” (often represented as the working class but extended to all white people, “the people” and nation). The third is that the far-right represents these people and white grievance politics must not be countered but called expressions of “legitimate concerns”, pandered to and parroted to keep the far-right out of government and off the streets. read the complete article

United States

Trump 'putting children at risk' with anti-Muslim kindergarten post: CAIR

US President Donald Trump's sharing of an anti-Muslim post featuring a picture of Muslim schoolchildren endangers the children and "validates hate speech", the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said on Monday. CAIR's statement came after Trump shared a post on Truth Social which attempted to mock a kindergarten graduation ceremony from a school in Minnesota. "Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab ... in kindergarten," read the original post created by right-wing account End Wokeness. The accompanying photograph was taken at Minnesota's Gateway STEM Academy and showed smiling children celebrating the end of the school year, with several girls wearing hijabs alongside graduation caps and gowns. CAIR's Minnesota chapter said the president was using his platform to target Muslim children. read the complete article

How Islamophobia Harms Us All

On January 1st of this year, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as the first Muslim mayor of New York City. Throughout his campaign, he was the target of attacks from other politicians, such as his opponent, Andrew Cuomo, who called him a "terrorist sympathizer." Though many Americans clearly recognized these comments as Islamophobic, the outpouring of faith-based prejudice continues. The reception to Mr. Mamdani continues a pattern of targeting high-profile Muslim politicians. Representative Ilhan Omar is another example: She has regularly received death threats, had noxious substances thrown at her, and the president has more than once suggested that she does not belong in the country. These attacks aren’t isolated incidents; they reflect a broader climate that shapes how Americans see Muslims and how policy treats them. Obviously this type of bigotry has negative effects on the Muslim-American community, but Muslims are not the only ones harmed by such unchecked critiques by politicians. Decades ago, writer and lecturer Jack Shaheen documented pervasive negative stereotypes about Muslims and Arabs in American media. Unfortunately, although negative portrayals of some minority groups are now understood as grossly stereotypical and derogatory, the portrayals of Muslims and Arabs are not. read the complete article

India

The Business of Hate: Inside the digital ecosystem of Hindutva pop music

For years, debates around online hate speech in India have focused on political speeches, social media posts, WhatsApp forwards, and viral videos. Yet a new report argues that one of the most influential—and least scrutinised—vehicles for spreading anti-minority hatred has been hiding in plain sight: music. Released by the Washington D.C.-based Centre for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), the report, Profiting from Hate Music, examines what researchers describe as the rapidly expanding ecosystem of Hindutva pop music, or “H-Pop”—a genre that combines devotional, nationalist and popular musical styles with rhetoric targeting Muslims and Christians. According to the report, this music is no longer confined to fringe corners of the internet. Instead, it is thriving across some of the world’s largest technology platforms, generating millions of views, streams and shares while simultaneously producing revenue for creators and, indirectly, the platforms themselves. read the complete article

Ireland

Anti-Islamic rhetoric online increasing, Muslims in Ireland say

There has been an increase in the amount of anti-Islamic hate online, Muslims living in Ireland have said. The tone and type of anti-Islam rhetoric they are observing is "increasingly violent," said Mark Malone, research lead at the Hope and Courage Collective. Anti-Islam hate has been accelerating online over the last few years and that is spilling out into real-world violence in Ireland, according to the charity. "We've seen significant amounts of anti-Muslim and Islamophobic hate online across almost all of the social media platforms, but in particular Meta and X," Mr Malone said. read the complete article

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