Today in Islamophobia

Today in Islamophobia: In Germany, authorities have used immigration law against some pro-Palestinian activists and supporters, including through deportation orders, residency restrictions and other measures, meanwhile, in the UK, Muslim organizations are looking to Andy Burnham’s devolution plans as a way to give local communities more influence in tackling anti-Muslim hate, and lastly, in Egypt, authorities arrested six people accused of producing and spreading false news through the Matsda2sh media platform, which the Interior Ministry said was linked to a Muslim Brotherhood media network operating from abroad. Our recommended read of the day is by Emran Feroz and Murtaza Hussain for Drop Site News, examining documents revealing how the UAE funded a campaign aimed at damaging the reputations of leading American Muslim organizations with allegations of links to the Muslim Brotherhood. This and more below:

International

How the UAE Financed a Plan to Smear American Muslims | Recommended Read

A private intelligence firm working for the United Arab Emirates commissioned a report on American Muslim organizations from a U.S. researcher as part of a campaign aimed at damaging their reputations with allegations of links to the Muslim Brotherhood, according to an archive of leaked documents obtained by Drop Site News. The commission from the Geneva-based firm Alp Services resulted in a 2018 report produced by Lorenzo Vidino, the author of several books on the Muslim Brotherhood and head of the George Washington Program on Extremism at George Washington University. That report and other documents included in the archive lay out a proposed campaign against Muslim organizations in the United States, aspects of which appear to be ongoing. Titled “The MB in the US,” Vidino’s report lists the names of dozens of Muslim Americans and civil society groups that he claims are part of a vast and secretive extremist network in the U.S.—including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the Muslim American Society (MAS), the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, the charity Islamic Relief USA, along with several organizations, mosques, and individually named activists and religious leaders. The report does not provide evidence to substantiate Vidino’s allegations. But it effectively created a blacklist of Muslim American organizations and individuals that could be used to damage their reputations with allegations of association with the Muslim Brotherhood, amid an ongoing effort pushed forward in part by the UAE to have the U.S. designate the group as a terrorist organization. read the complete article

United Kingdom

Jewish human rights barrister, 94, arrested for supporting Palestine Action

Margaret Owen, a 94-year-old Jewish human rights barrister, has been trying to get arrested for months. She has attended about a dozen protests wearing a sign reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” in London and has had a placard with those words attached to a window at her home since the group was proscribed under the Terrorism Act in the UK in July 2025. But unlike thousands of others who have been detained for showing support for Palestine Action, officers had not – until Sunday – hauled her into a police van. “I’ve been trying to get arrested for quite some time,” she told Al Jazeera. “I’m rather proud and glad to have finally joined the club.” In her pursuit, Owen had also written to the Metropolitan Police, sharing photos and confessing, but “they’ve never done anything about it”. “I think they never wanted to arrest me because that would be quite a story for the media, this ancient veteran human rights lawyer, aged 94, you know, it’s too much of a story.” read the complete article

UK Muslims look to Labour's Burnham devolution to tackle hate

Muslim organisations have welcomed Labour's change in rhetoric at this year's party conference but warned that concrete action is needed to tackle rising Islamophobia in the UK, with Prime Minister Andy Burnham's devolution agenda seen as a potential way to strengthen Muslim communities' sense of belonging and safety. Speaking to The New Arab on the sidelines of the conference, Zia Salik, interim director of Islamic Relief, said Labour had been actively engaging with Muslim communities on Islamophobia. "I think we've had good engagement and I think people are starting to understand the issues," he said, adding, "but of course, until there is practical implementation we're not going to see the change that we need to see, which is ultimately the outcomes for British Muslims." Salik warned that an increasingly Islamophobic political climate was fuelling feelings of exclusion among British Muslims, pointing to a recent survey of 5,000 British Muslims commissioned in partnership with Muslim Census and the National Zakat Foundation. Asked what was driving this sense of alienation, Salik said the survey had identified Islamophobia as the leading concern. read the complete article

Thomas Kerr accused of 'weaponising' Muslim women over burqa ban

THOMAS Kerr has been accused of "weaponising" Islamic dress and fuelling Islamophobia after singling out the burqa in his call for a ban on face coverings. Mariam Ahmed, chief executive of Amina – the Muslim Women's Resource Centre, hit out at the Reform UK MSP over his calls for further restrictions as the matter prepares to be discussed in the Scottish Parliament. "Muslim women don't need to be rescued from their choices," she told The National. "We're not in the business of policing what women wear, and we shouldn't be policing what women wear. "Thomas Kerr is weaponising Muslim women's garments. It is rooted in a lot of Islamophobia that's already out there, and he's playing into that narrative." read the complete article

Germany

How Germany Weaponizes Immigration Law to Crack Down on Palestinian Activists and Their Supporters

Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman is in Berlin, Germany, this week, where the crackdown on pro-Palestine speech is shaped by the German policy of Staatsräson, or "reason of state." The concept refers to Germany's commitment to the existence of the Israeli state in light of the Holocaust. Since the start of Israel's war on Gaza in 2023, Staatsräson has manifested itself as German military aid to Israel and heavy policing of Palestine activism inside Germany. "Germany's guilt regarding the Holocaust" has been "abused to justify the support of the genocidal war of Israel against the population in Gaza," says Berlin-based lawyer Alexander Gorski, who recently represented the "Berlin Four," three European Union citizens and one United States citizen whom Germany attempted to deport for participating in pro-Palestine campus protest. Gorski, who also represented the British Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah and the leftist Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis when they were denied entry into Germany ahead of a pro-Palestine conference in Berlin, discusses Germany's use of immigration law to crack down on anti-Zionist activism, which he says the state wholly conflates with antisemitism. "Germany has a historic responsibility for challenging antisemitism, but at the same time, what we should learn — especially as Germans — from the Holocaust, that 'never again' means never again for anyone," says Gorski. read the complete article

India

‘Free the Temple’, ‘Defend the Faith’, ‘Take Up Weapons’: How festivals became vehicles for anti-Muslim hate in September

Religion is not merely invoked in these episodes as a matter of faith. It is repeatedly deployed as a political marker of belonging. Hindu religious symbols, places of worship, historical grievances and claims about the Hindu population are placed alongside assertions about Muslims, producing a familiar binary: the Hindu community as a threatened collective and Muslims as the alleged source of that threat. The incidents documented this month of September range from demands linked to the Mathura temple-mosque dispute and provocative religious sloganeering outside a mosque to warnings against alleged “infiltrators”, claims of Hindu demographic decline and repeated exhortations to acquire weapons. While the speakers and settings differ, the rhetoric follows recognisable patterns of exclusion and otherisation. read the complete article

Egypt

Egypt Arrests 6 Journalists Accused of Spreading Disinformation

The Egyptian police have arrested six journalists from a fact-checking news outlet, accusing the platform of spreading disinformation on behalf of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The Interior Ministry on Thursday accused the outlet, Matsaddash, a disinformation monitor and investigative journalism platform, of working with the Brotherhood to spread fabrications. Egypt has designated the group as a terrorist organization. Matsaddash, which means “Don’t Believe It” in Arabic, has denied the accusations and published a fact-check to debunk each of the government’s claims. The journalists, who make up the platform’s entire reporting team, were arrested on Monday and Tuesday, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which said it was providing them with legal assistance. read the complete article

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