Today in Islamophobia

Today in Islamophobia: In the United Kingdom, Amnesty International and several politicians have come out to condemn the burning of a replica mosque atop of a loyalist bonfire pyre, elsewhere in the country, recent data reveals that racially motivated hate crimes in Belfast have more than doubled in the past decade, and lastly in the United States, Texas GOP have made Islamophobia a central component of their political campaigns, a move analysts say is driven in part by the rise of Christian Nationalism. Our recommended read of the day is by Nareman Amin and Leila Tarakji for The Conversation on the history of enslaved African Muslims in colonial America and how faith and religious writing played a principal role in how many resisted bondage. This and more below:

United States

How enslaved African Muslims resisted bondage through their faith and writing | Recommended Read

Muslims in the United States often face negative stereotyping and suspicion. Especially in the years following 9/11, Muslims have been frequently cast as outsiders. What many may not know is that Muslims have been part of the American story since its founding. Scholars estimate that as many as 30% of Africans who were enslaved and brought to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries were Muslim. The rise of Islam in West Africa, from as early as the eighth century, brought with it the spread of literacy as Muslims learned to read and write in Arabic, the language of the Quran. Historian Sylviane A. Diouf, in her 1998 book “Servants of Allah,” delves into the history of enslaved Muslims. She writes that among the hundreds of thousands of enslaved African Muslims, there were “clerics, teachers, students, rulers, and traders.” Some of those enslaved people were able to create their own written records, in a language that their slave masters could not understand. Diouf also argues that these African Muslims held on to their Islamic faith as a source of “hope, moral comfort, and mental escape” from the grueling circumstances forced on them. As scholars of Islam in America, we have studied the writings of many of these enslaved African Muslims. These accounts offer glimpses into their lives, as well as the cultural traditions they carried with them across the Atlantic. At times, their ability to read and write played an important role in their freedom. read the complete article

Texas is waging a battle to stop “Islamification”

Eighteen months ago Republicans in Texas took on a new fight. It began in February 2025, when Greg Abbott, the governor, described a housing development proposed by the East Plano Islamic Centre as an example of “sharia cities”. A dozen state agencies then launched investigations. In November he designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), America’s biggest Muslim civil-rights group, a “foreign terrorist organisation” and barred it from buying land in the state. In March the state comptroller shut Muslim schools out of Texas’s new voucher scheme. The state Republican Party now ranks “Stop the Islamification of Texas” second on its list of legislative priorities. On its face, this looks like a revival of the backlash to radical Islam that followed the 9/11 attacks. But today’s campaign is driven by fear not so much of external violence as of internal transformation. Across the country, support is swelling for ideas that fuse American civic life with Christian values, loosely defined as Christian nationalism. How this agenda will evolve is still unclear. But Texas, America’s largest Republican state, is now showing one way forward, asserting America’s Christian roots while battling fiercely against a perceived threat. read the complete article

'Scrap It and Start All Over': Ex-Bush and Obama Officials Say the War on Terror's Powers Have Gone Too Far

The senior U.S. officials who coordinated and enforced the response to 9/11 have long since left government. But the legal architecture put in place in the wake of the terror attacks remains, in many ways, more robust than ever. How do some feel now? Alberto Gonzales—who was White House counsel on September 11, 2001, and later attorney general—and Jeh Johnson—who was general counsel of the Department of Defense and secretary of homeland security under former President Barack Obama—provided a rare window into that question at the Aspen Ideas Festival late last month in a conversation that spanned the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), torture, and Guantanamo Bay. "I think President Bush and certainly I were stunned, were surprised that the AUMF is still in existence and relied upon, quite frankly," said Gonzales. That resolution—which gave the president power to use force against the nations, groups, and people involved in 9/11—has been invoked continuously to carry out counterterrorism activities in a slew of countries, even when the mission appears to have little connection to the terrorist attacks almost 25 years ago. read the complete article

United Kingdom

Mosque effigy on loyalist bonfire in Northern Ireland condemned as ‘vile’

A loyalist bonfire in Northern Ireland featuring an effigy of a mosque has been condemned as an incitement to hatred. The effigy sits atop a tower of pallets that is to be burned on Friday night in the County Tyrone village of Moygashel as part of wider loyalist commemorations. Placards beneath the display read “secure our borders” and “end the threat of radical Islam”. Amnesty International and politicians condemned the effigy and urged police to intervene. “This vile display is a blatant attempt to stir up anti-Muslim hatred and intimidate local families,” said Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland director. “The police must investigate this as a potential crime, identify and hold to account those responsible, and ensure this material is swiftly removed before it can be used to incite further hatred and violence.” Police said on Thursday that a 56-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of displaying threatening, abusive or insulting material that was intended to stir up hatred. He remains in custody. read the complete article

Inside King’s College London’s crackdown on pro-Palestine students

Khadija* was just seven weeks into her degree when she received an early-morning phone call from her university, King’s College London, that left her scared and confused. The then-18-year-old was told she had made “inappropriate and offensive remarks” about one of her lecturers, who had served in the Israeli army. Over the next five months she would go through a disciplinary process that would see her banned from attending the lecturer’s classes and ordered to write a 2,000-word “reflective” essay. She would also be considered for referral to the UK government’s “counterterrorism” programme, Prevent, which rights groups have criticised for disproportionately targeting Muslims and lacking transparency. This all took place last year after the teenager posted in a pro-Gaza student WhatsApp group, saying she had come across her lecturer’s public LinkedIn profile and felt “sick” to discover they had spent four years in the Israeli army and had reposted and liked content defending Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. read the complete article

Racist attacks in most diverse part of Belfast double in a decade

Racist incidents and racially motivated hate crimes in the most diverse area of Belfast more than doubled in a decade, new analysis has revealed. It is among the trends highlighted by a new data visualisation website, Rise, produced by a human rights organisation based in the city, and makes plain the growing racism that boiled over into rioting last week. Using data published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Rise shows that in Belfast’s Central ward, where 26% of the population is non-white, annual reports of racist incidents rose from 82 in 2016-17 to 174 in 2024-25, an increase of 112%. Meanwhile recorded racist crimes increased by 161%, from 43 up to 112. More widely, almost half of racist incidents and hate crimes (45%) in Northern Ireland since 2007 took place in Belfast. A total of 8,847 crimes and incidents were recorded in the city over the period, equivalent to a rate of 26 per 1,000 people. read the complete article

Australia

As a Muslim, it is encouraging to hear Pauline Hanson quote from a book. If there’s one thing we need, it’s more reading

If Hanson has developed an interest in books and learning, then I find myself in the unusual position of wanting to encourage it. I would be more than happy to recommend a reading list on Islam, Muslim history and Muslim Australians. Indeed, I have curated such a reading list on my website. Because if there is one thing the current debate desperately needs, it is not more slogans: it is more reading. Perhaps more surprisingly, I also find myself in agreement with Hanson on another point. She often says we should deal with the facts. On that point, at least, we agree. The difficulty is that when the conversation turns to Islam and Muslims in Australia, facts are often the first casualty. Terms such as “radical Islam”, “hate preachers” and threats to “western civilisation” carry rhetorical force but little analytical precision. Their effect is not to inform but to frame – to construct a narrative in which Islam appears uniquely prone to extremism and Muslim Australians become a permanent source of cultural anxiety. This is not new. As I observed in my report A National Response to Islamophobia, framing matters. It shapes how we interpret events, assign responsibility and ultimately treat one another. When public commentary selectively highlights crimes committed by individuals claiming Islamic justification while ignoring the overwhelming reality of peaceful Muslim life, a conclusion is quietly suggested: that the problem lies not with individuals but with Islam itself. Yet this conclusion is not supported by evidence. read the complete article

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