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SearchToday in Islamophobia: As Germany’s Muslims demand protection amid increased threats, a group with family in Iran becomes latest to sue the Trump administration over the Muslim Ban. The mail bombing suspect’s attorneys argues he was radicalized by a daily dosage of conservative media. Our recommended read of the day is a Brookings report by George Hawley on Trump’s supporters’ attitudes towards American Muslims and Islam. This, and more, below:
United States
Ambivalent nativism: Trump supporters’ attitudes toward Islam and Muslim immigration | Recommended Read
Despite representing a little more than one percent of the total U.S. population, American Muslims have long been viewed with suspicion by their fellow citizens. This has been true since the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis in the late 1970s, but American attitudes toward Islam turned especially negative following the September 11 terrorist attacks, which many American commentators blamed directly on Islamic religious doctrines. read the complete article
Toms River school board member must quit over Facebook posts, Muslim group says
Toms River Regional school board member Daniel Leonard likely faces an ethics investigation for sharing posts disparaging Muslims on his personal Facebook page, including one that reads, "my life would be complete if she/they die" over a photograph of a U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan who is Muslim. read the complete article
Fox News And Trump’s Tweets Helped Radicalize The Mail Bombing Suspect, His Attorneys Said
The Florida man who sent a series of explosive packages to prominent Democrats and critics of the president last year became radicalized off of daily consumption of Fox News, Donald Trump’s Twitter feed, and conspiracy theories on the internet, his attorneys said. read the complete article
Group With Family In Iran Latest To Sue Trump Administration Over Travel Ban
Dozens of American citizens and legal residents with family members in Iran sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over the president’s controversial travel ban, with some saying they’ve waited years to be reunited with their spouses or relatives to no avail. read the complete article
Myanmar
Satellite images reveal scale of Myanmar's Rohingya crisis
Despite repeated assurances by the Myanmar government that it would repatriate the 700,000 Rohingya who fled over the border from Rakhine state after a military-led violent crackdown in August 2017 – violence described by the UN as having “genocidal intent” – the preparations for their return have been “minimal”, a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has found. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Op-ed | Why is Sajid Javid so rattled by Cage?
Last Friday, UK's former Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who was appointed on Wednesday as chancellor in Boris Johnson's new cabinet, delivered a speech at a London community centre in which he attacked several Muslim organisations using the “extremism” label. read the complete article
Is Boris Johnson, Britain’s new prime minister, anti-immigrant, a homophobe, a bigot – or just politically expedient?
Over three decades in public life, Johnson has shifted between social liberalism and right-wing provocation. As London mayor for two terms between 2008 and 2016, he spoke of his pro-immigrant beliefs and presented the British capital as a tolerant, multicultural melting pot. read the complete article
Netherlands
“The biggest problem in the Netherlands”: Understanding the Party for Freedom’s politicization of Islam
When Geert Wilders, founder and front man of the Party for Freedom (PVV), explained his “Plan for the Netherlands” in the build-up to the Dutch general election of 2017, he declared that “the biggest problem in this country is Islamization.” This process, Wilders claimed, constitutes an “existential threat” to “our identity, our freedom. Who we are. Everything.” read the complete article
Germany
Right-wing populism in Germany: Muslims and minorities after the 2015 refugee crisis
It was first in 2005 that the Germany government formally recognized that Germany had become an immigration country. A new legal migration framework was introduced and amended chiefly in 2007 and 2008. As German citizenship law moved away from “blood” citizenship rights, a new approach—at least on a legal basis—to integration would be attempted. read the complete article
Germany's Muslims demand better protection amid increased threats
In July alone, bomb threats have been made on mosques in the cities of Iserlohn, Villingen-Schwenningen and Munich, along with Cologne's Central Mosque — the largest Muslim place of worship in Germany. In recent days, similar threats have been made on mosques in Duisburg, Mannheim and Mainz. read the complete article
Denmark
Islam as a “floating signifier”: Right-wing populism and perceptions of Muslims in Denmark
According to Kjærsgaard, “Islam, with the fundamentalist pathways we have witnessed, should be resolutely fought against.” Kjærsgaard’s statements against Islam were triggered by the Islamophobic atmosphere characterizing the terror attacks’ aftermath. However, arguments about the “clash of civilizations” and the incompatibility of Islam with the West also reflected views already circulating in the party programs and documents, disseminated through the party paper Dansk Folkeblad, and voiced by DF politicians since at least the 1990s. read the complete article
Italy
Muslims in the West and the rise of the new populists: The case of Italy
This paper aims to illustrate the characteristics and the evolution of right and left-wing populism through the prism of its relationship with Islam and Muslims in Italy. The Italian case offers unique insight into populism in Europe as it reveals how both right-wing and left-wing populism have become increasingly successful in recent years, even to the point of gaining national power. read the complete article
International
Is Boris Johnson really Britain’s answer to Donald Trump?
Just how similar are Trump and Johnson? Here’s a variety of topics that they might agree on or downright clash over, judging from their past comments and behavior. read the complete article
Hungary
Anti-Muslim populism in Hungary: From the margins to the mainstream
Since 2010, Hungary has gradually become a competitive authoritarian state or “hybrid regime,” where democratic institutions exist in theory, but the rule of law and civil liberties are severely limited in practice. read the complete article
Poland
Imaginary Muslims: How Poland’s populists frame Islam
Poland has almost no Muslims. At less than 0.1 percent, it has the smallest number of Muslims out of the countries covered in the Brookings project on Islam and populism, even less than Hungary. Yet, the question of Islam and Muslims and what it means for Polish society and for Poland’s place in Europe has increasingly featured in the country’s political debates. read the complete article