Today in Islamophobia

Today in Islamophobia: In Australia, the special envoy to combat Islamophobia condemned the alleged verbal assault targeting a 13-year old Muslim student, meanwhile in the United States, a man allegedly threatened to kill four Muslim men who were distributing copies of the Quran outside a library in Troy, Michigan, and lastly in the United Kingdom, a new initiative will set up hate crime reporting centers at four city mosques in Cambridgeshire as Police said that about 600 hate crime incidents (of all types) were recorded there between August 2025 and August 2026. Our recommended read of the day is by David Martin Davies for Texas Public Radio on how the increasing anti-Muslim rhetoric in Texas is moving beyond campaign strategy and into government policy governing schools, property, public facilities and access to state programs. This and more below:

United States

Texas policies targeting Muslim institutions raise constitutional questions | Recommended Read

The Texas political debate over Islam is moving beyond inflammatory campaign rhetoric and into government policy governing schools, property, public facilities and access to state programs. Muslim leaders and civil-rights advocates contend that the combined actions represent government hostility toward one faith. State officials say they are protecting taxpayers, preventing discrimination and confronting extremist ideologies. The State Board of Education recently approved social-studies standards requiring high school students to examine “the teachings of jihad” and the “rise of radical Islam,” including the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, the Sept. 11 attacks and ISIS. Critics say this language risks presenting Islam itself as a security threat. Supporters argue that students cannot understand modern terrorism without studying the ideologies invoked by extremist organizations. The standards are scheduled to enter classrooms beginning in the 2033–34 school year. The First Amendment requires government neutrality toward religion. Constitutional concerns could arise if classroom materials promote Christianity while portraying Islam as inherently violent or inferior. read the complete article

On 25th Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks, Condemnation of Global ‘War on Terror’ That Has Killed Millions

International human rights campaigners, United Nations experts, journalists, and anti-war activists marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US by paying tributes to the thousands of lives lost on that day while condemning what followed: an unparalleled expansion of state surveillance, crackdowns on dissent, arbitrary detention, torture, and catastrophic wars that cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives. Mourning the lasting impact of “those horrific acts of violence” perpetrated in the US a quarter-century ago, a group of more than 40 UN experts said in a joint statement on Friday that “we equally acknowledge the millions of other victims worldwide of terrorist attacks, excessive counter-terrorism responses, and conflicts in the name of countering terrorism.” The experts argued that global “wars on terror” launched by the US and other nations in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks have “have stretched foundational rules of international law beyond their breaking point,” “counterproductively fueled terrorism,” and “entrenched cycles of violence.” read the complete article

Barbara Lee was hated for her 9/11 vote. We owe her an apology.

Twenty-five years ago, 9/11 hit America like nothing before it. Once the initial shock of the terrorist attacks wore off, the country wanted justice – fast. Three days later, Congress voted on the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), a resolution letting the president wage war on whoever he decided was responsible, anywhere, with no fixed enemy and no end date. The resolution seemed entirely reasonable at the time. The country was rallying around its president, who'd pledged to "rid the world of evil." Only one member of Congress saw the danger and voted no: Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California. A quarter-century later, it's time we admitted how right she was. "This unspeakable act ... has really forced me, however, to rely on my moral compass, my conscience, and my God for direction," Lee said. She said that she was convinced military action wouldn't prevent more terrorism, and that "some of us must urge the use of restraint." Then she quoted a clergyman from a memorial service she'd attended that morning: "As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore." read the complete article

US man allegedly threatens to kill Muslim men handing out Qurans in Michigan

A man allegedly threatened to kill four Muslim men who were distributing copies of the Quran outside a library in Troy, Michigan, prompting a US Muslim civil rights group to call for hate crime charges. The four men were answering questions about Islam and handing out copies of the Quran when another man approached them and allegedly said he had a gun and threatened to kill them after learning they were Muslim. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on police to investigate the incident as a potential hate crime and review all available evidence. "This cannot be dismissed as offensive speech or a heated disagreement," said Amy V. Doukoure, lead staff attorney at CAIR-Michigan. read the complete article

Jake Lang led a protest against Mamdani and Muslims. Then the Nazis showed up to protest him.

Far-right activist Jake Lang led a march last week protesting Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s presence at the 9/11 25th anniversary memorial ceremony. The protest attracted swastika-sporting men describing themselves as Nazis; they were there to counterprotest Lang, whose mother is Jewish. Around 100 demonstrators attended Lang’s march, which happened blocks away from the ceremony held at Ground Zero. Lang described the march on X as a “Great CRUSADE on Muslim SCUM Zohran Mamdani.” The “crusade” was laden with anti-Muslim messaging, including a poster reading “Deport All Muslims.” About 40 counter-protesters arrived to oppose Lang. While most were antiracist protesters, seven were neo-Nazis. One counter-protester got into a physical altercation with someone from Lang’s march. read the complete article

North Carolina Muslim Leader Responds to Attempts to Block Construction of House of Worship

In Mooresville, North Carolina, a town hall meeting regarding the Islamic Center of Lake Norman's proposed construction project drew a record crowd and sparked an intense debate over religious freedom. Although the expansion had already received official approval, residents flooded the room to speak both for and against the project. The atmosphere turned so contentious that, according to WCNC Charlotte, several comments were too hateful to air on broadcast television. Dr. Hadia Mubarak, a professor of religion at a local university, spoke powerfully about the attempts to block Muslims from building a house of worship in North Carolina. read the complete article

United Kingdom

Islamophobia is rising – and Britain’s politicians have been dangerously complacent in tackling it

Five years ago, many Muslims wondered if the prejudices they faced were set to fade away. The “war on terror” was dwindling in prominence, and new enemies such as Russia seemed to be displacing fears of Islamic terrorism. Yet Britain’s Islamophobia has only intensified since then. A poll published in July found that two out of five Britons believe Muslims cannot integrate into British society. Earlier in the summer, it was reported that more than half of Muslims in Britain had personally experienced anti-Islam prejudice in the last year, and a quarter in a public place. The evidence of a worsening climate for Muslims has been mounting since two summers ago, when racist riots erupted across the UK, targeting mosques and asylum hostels. Watching videos of those events, I was disturbed by the parents who brought their young children to watch while mobs attempted, with apparently murderous intent, to break into the buildings. It was not only hardened far-right activists but a much broader cross-section of British society that was willing to participate in racist violence directed at Muslims or asylum seekers assumed to be Muslim. To understand why Islamophobia is so pervasive, we need to grasp the deeper forces that enable it. The first is a bedrock of anti-Islam attitudes set during the 1990s when, with the cold war over, neoconservative intellectuals began to see in Islam a new enemy to replace communism. The second has to do with Palestine. The groundswell of opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza has been profoundly disconcerting to Britain’s foreign policy establishment. In turn, the hundreds of thousands of people who marched on demonstrations have been depicted as supporters of, or aligned with, Islamic extremism. That has restored a virulent atmosphere of animosity towards Muslims, who are again seen as dangerous and disloyal. read the complete article

New hate crime reporting hubs in mosques will 'remove barriers'

"As a community, we've just been told over the years, you've got to be better. You are guests in this country; you won't be treated equally," said Faisal Mahmood, a community leader from Peterborough, on growing up as a Muslim in the UK. According to Mahmood, this deep-rooted, ingrained belief explained why many victims did not report hate crimes. He said that over time, racist or Islamophobic abuse was often absorbed and accepted by victims as "the way it is", which he believed led to a significant gap in official statistics and needed to change. Cambridgeshire Police said about 600 hate crime incidents (of all types) were recorded in Peterborough between August 2025 and August 2026. But to help make reporting more accessible, it has set up hate crime reporting centres at four city mosques as part of a new initiative. Mahmood, secretary of the Joint Mosque Council, said these centres would remove barriers and make it "easier and safer for victims from the community to come forward". read the complete article

Australia

Islamophobia envoy condemns alleged verbal attack against 13-year-old girl on Sydney bus

The Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia has condemned alleged verbal abuse hurled at a 13-year-old girl, who was called an "immigrant mutt" and a "terrorist" on a Sydney bus last week. The 50-year-old man, who was charged on Tuesday, appeared in videos of the incident obtained by the ABC allegedly telling another girl, "I can't wait until they kill all of you". His comments appeared to be directed to Muslim women on the bus last Thursday. According to the 13-year-old, Janna, the incident began when she stood up for another girl in a hijab who the man was allegedly taking photos of without her knowledge. Australia's special envoy, Aftab Malik, said, "Islamophobia does not require spectacular violence to cause serious harm to people. "The spread of hateful stereotypes, the normalisation of online abuse, the offline threats, and physical attacks to individuals and institutions, all degrade Muslim Australians." read the complete article

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