Today in Islamophobia

In Australia, the federal police have determined that One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s comments about Muslim Australians “do not meet the threshold” of breaching hate laws”, meanwhile in Canada, members of Winnipeg’s Muslim community say they’re “deeply shaken” after bullet holes were found in the windows of a mosque that was targeted while people were attending a prayer service, and lastly in the U.S., The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has released a new report noting that bias attacks and threats at Islamic places of worship have risen by 183% in the past 3 months. Our recommended read of the day is by Siraj Narsi, Hasnain Walji, and other Muslim American leaders for The Houston Chronicle on how the “Sharia threat” is a hoax, as right-wing politicians use it as “a political weapon used to sow division where there is actually cooperation.” This and more below:

United States

The 'Sharia threat' is a hoax. Here's why | Recommended Read

In recent months, a dangerous rhetoric has surfaced in our political discourse. We have seen campaign ads and heard statements from elected officials and candidates for various public offices — including some high-ranking members of the United States Congress — suggesting that Muslim Americans are seeking to “impose Sharia law” on the U.S., without any shred of evidence. Some have gone so far as to question the very fitness of Muslims to be a part of this national fabric, while others in leadership positions holding the power to stop this madness, have maintained a troubling silence. The horrific mass shooting at the Islamic Center in San Diego few weeks ago is a devastating reminder that the anti-Muslim rhetoric is not a harmless political abstraction. It has serious consequences. The victims were not only the three members of the American Muslim community, but also the two non-Muslim teenagers who committed this atrocious crime, and their families, as they were poisoned by this relentless hateful false narrative. This is the true cost of a toxic climate fueled by a tired, dangerous rhetoric that has surfaced with impunity in our national political discourse. The “Sharia threat” is a hoax, a political weapon used to sow division where there is actually cooperation. To the best of our knowledge, no representative and reputable Muslim group or organization in any part of America has ever made such a demand. It is a blatant falsehood used with impunity to gain political leverage at the cost of our social harmony. read the complete article

US Mosques Experience 183% Rise in Bias Attacks

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a report July 27 noting that bias attacks and threats at Islamic places of worship have risen by 183% in the past 3 months. Threats of violence, arson, and intimidation are among the bias-related attacks faced by mosques in the US since May. In Wilmington, North Carolina, a man banged on the mosque door, cursed, and is recorded on video saying, “About to tear this *expletive* down” and “Going to hell in seven years.” The man was already a suspect in a multi-agency investigation, according to the CAIR report. A man called the Madison Heights mosque in Michigan, and — among other hateful comments — said, “We’re going to come on strong and get rid of you.” Christopher Andrew Lord was subsequently charged with making false threat of terrorism and using a computer to commit a crime. read the complete article

Broken Arrow leaders were flooded with anti-Muslim emails on a proposed mosque. Here’s what they said behind closed doors

After nearly three decades living in Broken Arrow, Muhammad Calsy thought he had seen it all. Sure, there were customers who walked into one of his three Tulsa convenience stores with something negative to say about immigrants or Islam. In the days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Calsy feared a wave of violence against Muslims — or people perceived to be — would hit him too. But he can also remember the faces of those who visited to say things like: “Man, we know what happened. It’s not you guys. You didn’t have anything to do with it.” Those memories came to mind as he scrolled through social media last winter, reading comments responding to the Islamic Society of Tulsa’s plans to build a new mosque and commercial complex minutes from Calsy’s home. Several accused Muslims of trying to “take over” Broken Arrow and push Christians out. Others cited fear of terrorism and Sharia law. Many raised concerns about deadlock on a two-lane road and the impact of rapid development on the state’s fourth-largest city. While most of their private communications echoed these concerns, the Flyer’s review shows at least two elected officials who cast votes against the Islamic Society’s application agreed with anti-Islamic sentiment expressed in their inboxes. read the complete article

They gathered to celebrate a Muslim holiday. Then an animal rights group found their event

The concept for the pop-up selling Karachi highway-style barbecue as well as tacos made with halal meat garnered buzz on social media, and some 250 people gathered beneath string lights — traveling from as far as San Diego and San José — to visit Shahnawaz Ranch in Perris in the Inland Empire for its opening night this summer. “People were loving it,” Khan said. But Khan’s plans began to fall apart in late June when national animal advocacy organization Animal Outlook lodged allegations with the U.S. Department of Agriculture that livestock had been inhumanely slaughtered during a May event at Shahnawaz Ranch for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, and that the operation had sold the meat without required federal inspection. And on July 18, during the pop-up’s opening weekend, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department visited the site and issued a cease-and-desist order noting that the operation did not have the proper permits to operate a food business and entertainment venue, after neighbors made complaints of a large event the previous night and of animals being slaughtered. read the complete article

United Kingdom

Police arrest dozens at London rally supporting Palestine Action

British police have arrested 77 people as crowds gathered outside a London court to declare support for Palestine Action, which is proscribed as a “terrorist” organisation in the United Kingdom. The rally outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday was organised by the Defend Our Juries activist group to picket the start of hearings against the first of thousands of people charged with voicing support for Palestine Action. Defend Our Juries says it is seeking to safeguard the legal process in the UK. Critics accuse the government of undermining civil liberties in an attempt to shield Israel from the consequences of the genocidal war it launched in Gaza almost three years ago. read the complete article

Racist attack victim warns of rising Islamophobia

A Muslim worshipper, Zeeshan Ali, says police approved the group's quiet prayer near Hyde Park, but a woman later accosted them with Islamophobic remarks and blocked their prayer by standing in front. read the complete article

Canada

Winnipeg's Muslim community shaken after shots fired at mosque with people inside, leaders say

Members of Winnipeg's Muslim community say they're "deeply shaken" after bullet holes were found in the windows of a mosque that was targeted while people were inside Wednesday night. "We often believe that incidents like this will not happen to us," Feisal Adem, the director and imam at Rahma Islamic Centre, said during a Thursday evening news conference at the Watt Street mosque. "The peace and sense of security that our members once felt have been deeply shaken by this incident." In the latest in a string of acts of violence targeting Muslims in Canada, two people drove by and fired shots at the northeast Winnipeg mosque Wednesday night, community leaders said at a news conference Thursday. Later that night, two people on foot attacked the building's walls with what appeared to be a blunt object, breaking glass. The National Council of Canadian Muslims — a non-profit that advocates for civil liberties and human rights — says that incident was caught on security video. read the complete article

China

The Fate of China’s Muslims

The Chinese state’s ongoing and relatively well publicized campaign against Uyghur religion, culture, and identity—which some experts have labeled cultural genocide—has brought long-overdue attention to the plight of Turkic Muslims in Chinese Central Asia (an area administrated today as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). Yet many are surprised to learn that one of the largest and, depending on how one counts, also the oldest Muslim population in China, known today as the Hui, is in many respects—linguistically, culturally, and even physically—largely indistinguishable from the Han Chinese majority. Often referred to as Chinese Muslims or Sino-Muslims to distinguish them from the Turkic-speaking Muslims of Xinjiang (which include Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and Kyrgyz), the Hui number more than 11 million and are dispersed across every province of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with the largest concentrations in its western regions. They descend from Arab and Persian merchants who arrived in China via maritime routes (and later overland across the Silk Road) and from soldiers and administrators relocated to China under the Mongol Empire. The absence of Chinese Muslims from our consciousness is curious but, as two new books show, neither new nor unexpected. In Islamic China: An Asian History (2025), historian Rian Thum notes that “people who were at once Muslim and Chinese” are not often included in general histories of either Islam or of China. This is despite the continuous presence of Islam in China since the Tang period (618–907 CE), which makes China’s engagement with Islam nearly as old as Islam itself. Admittedly, it would take several centuries after the first transmission of Islam into China for a distinct Chinese-speaking Muslim community to coalesce. In Muslim Transnationalism in Modern China: Debates on Hui Identity and Islamic Reform (2025), historian Hale Eroğlu writes that it was during the Ming period (1368–1644 CE) that “linguistically diverse Muslim communities of multiple foreign origins in China became fused and acculturated” so that Islam emerged as the primary marker of distinction between Chinese Muslims and their non-Muslim neighbors. read the complete article

Australia

Pauline Hanson’s no ‘good Muslims’ comment don’t breach hate speech laws, Australian federal police finds

The Australian federal police has determined One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s comments about Muslim Australians “do not meet the threshold” of breaching hate laws. The AFP said it received several complaints about Hanson’s remarks to Sky News on 16 February. As Hanson discussed attempts by Islamic State-linked Australian women and their children to return home from Syria, she said: “I’ve got no time for radical Islam. Their religion concerns me because of what it says in the Qur’an. They hate Westerners. That’s what it’s all about.” “You say, ‘Well, there’s good Muslims out there’ – how can you tell me there are good Muslims?” Several days after Hanson’s appearance on Sky News, Guardian Australia reported that federal police claimed they had “received reports of a crime” in relation to the comments. read the complete article

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