Today in Islamophobia

Today in Islamophobia: In the United States, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has found that despite the heightened levels of Islamophobia in the country, the number of American Muslims in public office has reached “record breaking” levels, meanwhile in Minneapolis, far-right anti-Muslim activist Jake Lang has been arrested on suspicion of rioting in the city after a vehicle he was in drove onto a sidewalk in front of Minneapolis City Hall and towards a crowd of people, and lastly in the United Kingdom, five Palestine Action activists who were under legal scrutiny for protesting against a British bank’s shareholdings in the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems will not be sentenced under terrorism laws. Our recommended read of the day is by Abdullahi Ahmed for Portland Press Herald, who notes that the real test for Americans isn’t whether Muslims can participate in society as workers and professionals, but whether they’ll be trusted as equal citizens to hold political power. This and more below:

United States

Why are Muslims trusted to serve but questioned when they lead?

The same person is trusted to heal as a doctor, and questioned when he leads because he is a Muslim. There is a striking contradiction in the way Muslim citizens are treated in contemporary Western societies, particularly in the U.S. Muslims are deeply embedded in the professions and institutions that keep these societies functioning. They are doctors, nurses, pharmacists, engineers, teachers, professors, lawyers, scientists, entrepreneurs, social workers and public servants. They work in hospitals, universities, schools, transportation, businesses and government agencies. They pay taxes, raise families, create jobs and serve their neighbors. Yet, for Muslims, a strange boundary appears when they move from professional service to political leadership. They may be trusted with people’s health, education, transportation, businesses and even lives, but when they seek elected office, their identity can suddenly become a subject of suspicion. read the complete article

US sees 'record breaking' numbers of Muslims in US public office despite rising Islamophobia

The number of Muslims in public office in the US has reached "record breaking" levels, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said on Thursday, as it launched its 2026 Directory of Elected Muslim Officials. The group, which is the US's largest Muslim civil rights group, said it had identified 255 Muslim elected officials across 26 states, at almost every level of government. CAIR hailed the "record breaking" figures as a demonstration that American Muslims would not be intimidated away from taking public office, despite the current climate of Islamophobia. “Anti-Muslim extremists are attempting to tell American Muslims that we do not belong in the halls of power, these 228 public servants are proving otherwise every single day," CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement to The New Arab. "Muslim Americans are not standing on the sidelines. We are serving our neighbors, strengthening our communities, and helping shape the future of our nation. We will not allow hate, intimidation, or political attacks to silence our voices or diminish our rightful place in American civic life." read the complete article

A mosque in Ohio was attacked for the third time. Members doubt Trump’s FBI will call it a hate crime

Nashid Shakir describes how assailants used wire cutters to break into the Westwood Islamic Community Center in the early hours of 3 August. “They cut the wire and broke the window to get in. They broke into the office, too. It was total disarray,” says Shakir, a board member, and member, at the community center since the 1960s. Just as troubling is the smashed glass – still evident – on two posters containing lines in Arabic from the Quran hanging on one of the center’s walls. He shows where valuables including a surveillance camera and television monitors were stolen and where swear words including the word “die” and other profanity were written on a whiteboard. The leaders of the center, which houses a mosque and food pantry and is situated in an underserved, majority-Black neighborhood in west Cincinnati, and local Muslim community members have called the incident a hate crime. It’s the third time the center has been broken into in the past seven years, with the previous incident seeing racist comments graffitied on the center’s walls. “The police came out and they checked the boxes for making a report. But we haven’t had any follow-through,” says Shakir. The attack happened against the backdrop of a rise in Arab and Muslim American politicians running for political office in the US, and a series of shocking Islamophobic comments that have followed from Republican politicians and far-right figures. read the complete article

El-Sayed’s win triggered wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric online, Post analysis shows

Hours after Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan this month, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) called the man who could be the first Muslim senator a “TERRORIST” and “RADICAL ISLAMIST” on social media. Tuberville’s post previewed a deluge of attacks on El-Sayed’s Muslim identity from influential and high-profile conservatives. By mid-August, 15 days after the primary, religion had become the dominant topic of conservative conversation online about El-Sayed — overtaking mentions of socialism and communism that once dogged the progressive candidate, according to a Washington Post analysis of thousands of right- and left-wing posts and public statements. Nearly 1 in 3 posts about El-Sayed from right-wing figures mentioned Islam, Muslims or sharia by Aug. 18, according to The Post’s analysis of conservative commentary across social media, newsletters and podcasts. The fixation on El-Sayed’s faith is part of a growing embrace of open Islamophobia by some Republicans this year, coinciding with a war on Iran and increased hostilities in the Middle East. Politically, those barbs have triggered few penalties within the party. Some Republican lawmakers like Tuberville, whose office declined to comment for this article, have used anti-Muslim messages to mobilize their most ardent supporters. read the complete article

New Berlin mayor under fire for anti-Muslim Facebook posts

Mayor of New Berlin Dave Ament is facing criticism after sharing anti-Muslim posts on Facebook. The posts contain phrases such as “America needs to shut down all Mosques and ban Islam,” as well as referring to Muslims as “traitors” and “unloyal Americans,” with some reposts as recent as August. Ament has now made his Facebook account private. The Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance is calling for his resignation, saying his behavior is “harmful and Islamophobic,” as well as “dangerous and hateful.” The group is circulating a petition that also demands an apology. Ament is currently serving his fourth term as the mayor of New Berlin. read the complete article

Anti-Muslim activist Jake Lang arrested on suspicion of rioting in Minneapolis

Far-right agitator Jake Lang was arrested Saturday after the vehicle he was in drove onto a sidewalk in front of Minneapolis City Hall and towards a crowd of people as Lang raised a large sign with the N-word on it. Minneapolis police intervened and later arrested all occupants following the incident, which occurred around 11:50 a.m., police said. Police say everyone in the two vehicles that drove towards the crowd was arrested on “probable cause riot.” Lang arrived in Minneapolis on Saturday to advocate for a Rochester woman who called a Black autistic child a racial slur, according to a profane-ridden post on his X account. In a post on X earlier this week, Mayor Jacob Frey told people to stay away from the rally. “Let this lame-ass racist rally fall flat and fade into irrelevance,” he wrote. read the complete article

‘I hate Democrats, but I love Abdul’: voters who left over Gaza return for progressive push

Two years ago, Zainab Bibi Ahmed thought she had turned her back on the Democrats for good. Now, she is volunteering for the party’s US Senate nominee in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed. Ahmed was one of 100,000 people to vote uncommitted in the February 2024 Democratic Michigan primary, in a bid to send a message to then US president Joe Biden about his support for Israel, as people watched what Amnesty International later called a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza on their screens. “I did not think I would come back to the Democratic party after 2024. I really didn’t. But then when I saw [New York City mayor] Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed, of course, and Shereef Akeel and Amir Makled,” Ahmed said, referencing two university regent candidates in the state, “I was like, OK, I cannot not support these gentlemen just because they’re Democrats.” A wave of progressive victories since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025 has ruptured the Democratic party, from the unlikely victory last year of Mamdani to Peggy Flanagan’s nomination for Senate in Minnesota last week. read the complete article

Texas seeks federal probe of airport washing facilities, Muslim group denounces move

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Aug 21 sought a federal probe into airport facilities for ritual washing before Islamic prayers, a move that a Muslim advocacy group called an “anti-Muslim political stunt”. In a letter to the Department of Justice, Abbott called on the department to immediately review the ablution facilities at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport, casting them as discriminatory. “These are not ‘Muslim-only’ spaces any more than a nursing room or an interfaith prayer room is ‘Christian-only’ or ‘mothers-only’,” said the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group. “They are accommodations, open to any traveller, that happen to be used mostly by the Muslim community. That is not discrimination. “That is what accessible public infrastructure looks like,” CAIR-Texas said in a statement. read the complete article

United Kingdom

Palestine Action activists will not be sentenced as terrorists, judge rules

Five Palestine Action activists in the United Kingdom will not be sentenced under terrorism laws, a judge has ruled. The activists were protesting against the bank’s shareholdings in the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. On Friday at Preston Crown Court, as Judge Robert Altham announced his ruling, scores of their supporters gathered outside erupted into cheers and pro-Palestine chants. Malik’s mother, Dove Malik, told Al Jazeera, “It’s a victory for us, it’s a victory for Palestine, it’s a victory for protesting … We are on the right side of history.” In a joint statement, the activists said they were “extremely relieved that the court has seen sense and decided not to sentence us as terrorists”. read the complete article

Muslim Charity in Britain Faces Scrutiny for Possible Links to Hamas

The British Department for Education is investigating a Muslim charity that operates several schools in Britain, after a man affiliated with the group was accused by the F.B.I. of financing terrorism by funding Hamas. The man, Mohammad Yousef Hasna of Turkey, identified himself on LinkedIn as global director for the charity, Al-Khair Foundation, and his arrest last month in Britain at the behest of American prosecutors has cast a shadow over it. The foundation, which runs several schools and raises funds for humanitarian campaigns around the world, said Mr. Hasna was not an employee but “works for one of our many implementing partners overseas.” The charity was not charged in the complaint that federal prosecutors unsealed last month in New York, in which Mr. Hasna was accused of providing material support to Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization. read the complete article

International

Muslim 'Danger', Israeli 'Shared Humanity'? Why Google AI Is Facing 'Islamophobia' Backlash

Google’s AI Overview is facing intense backlash following allegations of Islamophobic bias, after some users highlighted stark inconsistencies in how the system handles identical searches involving Muslims and Israelis. The controversy erupted on social media after screenshots began circulating online showing the search tool generating safety warnings for queries involving Muslims while offering neutral or empathetic responses when asked the exact same question regarding Israelis. read the complete article

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