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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In India, thousands of eateries along a route that an estimated 30 million Hindu pilgrims are traveling this week have come under pressure to display the names of their owners and staff to help customers avoid “certain food and beverage outlets”, namely those owned and operated by Indian Muslims, meanwhile in the US, discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians rose by about 70 percent in the first half of 2024 amid heightened Islamophobia due to Israel’s war in Gaza, and in Australia, the Albanese government is yet to announce its appointment of a special envoy to combat Islamophobia, with some in the Muslim community questioning the need for one at all. Our recommended read of the day is by Imran Mulla for Middle East Eye on how a far-right mob chanting anti-Muslim slogans in the UK town of Southport has smashed mosque windows and set police vehicles on fire, following a misinformation campaign spread on social media. This and more below:
United Kingdom
UK: Anti-Muslim mob attacks Southport mosque after misinformation campaign | Recommended Read
A far-right mob chanting "English till I die" clashed with police outside a mosque in the UK town of Southport on Tuesday, after a misinformation campaign claimed that the 17-year-old who killed three children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class was a Muslim. Hundreds of men covering their faces converged outside the Southport Islamic Society Mosque late on Tuesday, barely an hour after thousands gathered nearby for a vigil to remember the victims of Monday's attack. Scores of masked men could be seen hurling plant pots, bricks and empty bins at riot police, shortly before they set a police van on fire. According to the BBC, some of the mosque's windows were smashed in the process. Merseyside Police condemned the violence and said one of their officers had suffered a suspected broken nose. Photos and videos posted on social media showed several riot police officers with cuts and grazes to their faces following the clashes with the far-right mob. "At around 7.45pm, a large group of people – believed to be supporters of the English Defence League – began to throw items towards a local mosque on St Luke’s Road in Southport," the force said. Shortly after the violence began, far-right leader Tommy Robinson said the violent mob was "justified" in their actions and said they were driven by concerns over immigration. In a statement late on Tuesday, Zara Mohammed, the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, called on the government to address "the increasing rise of violent far-right extremism targeting Muslim communities". read the complete article
Far-right protesters target Southport mosque, clash with UK police
A large crowd of far-right, anti-Muslim protesters has clashed with police in Southport in the northwest of England, hours after the town held a vigil for those killed and injured in a knife attack on a Taylor Swift-themed children’s dance and yoga class. Merseyside Police said that 22 officers were injured in Tuesday night’s violence, eight of them seriously. The unrest began when several hundred people, most of them men, began targeting a Southport mosque, setting vehicles and wheelie bins on fire and attacking a local shop. Bottles and bricks were thrown at police who linked the rioters to the English Defence League, a group that has sometimes staged violent demonstrations against Islam. “There has been much speculation and hypothesis around the status of a 17-year-old male who is currently in police custody and some individuals are using this to bring violence and disorder to our streets,” Goss said. read the complete article
Muslim Women in Britain, 1850–1950: Unpacking 100 years of untold stories
British Muslim women were foundational to the early history of Islam in Britain. This is the central message of Muslim Women in Britain, 1850–1950, a ground-breaking new volume edited by Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, a sociologist of Islam, and Jamie Gilham, an independent historian. Professor Cheruvallil-Contractor is the author of Muslim Women in Britain: Demystifying the Muslimah, and Dr. Gilham has written Loyal Enemies: British Converts to Islam, 1850-1950, among other books. Muslim Women in Britain, 1850–1950 highlights the important, often hidden role played by women in the establishment of early British Muslim communities and makes a valuable contribution to the growing literature on British Muslims in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which has so far primarily focused on men. The nine contributors to this volume illuminate the lives of women from the Victorian period to the early post–Second World War era. The contributors include a café owner, an aristocrat, and a World War II spy. read the complete article
United States
US anti-Muslim incidents rose about 70% in first half of 2024 amid Gaza war
Discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians rose by about 70 percent in the US in the first half of 2024 amid heightened Islamophobia due to Israel's war in Gaza, the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group said on Tuesday. Human rights advocates have reported a global rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism since the eruption in October of the Israel-Gaza war which has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis. In the first six months of 2024, CAIR said it received 4,951 complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian incidents, a rise of nearly 70 percent compared with the same period in 2023. Most of the complaints were in the categories of immigration and asylum, employment discrimination, education discrimination and hate crimes, CAIR said. In 2023, CAIR documented 8,061 such complaints in the whole year, including about 3,600 in the last three months after the war broke out. read the complete article
Palestine Is a Core Election Issue, and We Won’t Let Our Politicians Ignore It
In the days after October 7, 2023, the U.S. mainstream media and political establishment — both the Republicans and Democrats — launched once again into anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic rhetoric. Ignoring the conditions of siege, occupation and settler colonialism under which Palestinians in Gaza already lived, Joe Biden’s administration offered full diplomatic, military and financial backing to Israel. Meanwhile politicians smeared Palestine solidarity protests, as university administrators, congressmembers and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis all attempted to ban Students for Justice in Palestine chapters on U.S. college campuses. Nonetheless, the Palestine solidarity movement pushed forward. In this exclusive interview for Truthout, Shireen Akram-Boshar speaks with Sa’ed Atshan — Palestinian American professor and anthropologist at Swarthmore College, and author of the book Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique (2020) — about the demonization of Palestinians, election season and what the coming months could mean for the Palestine solidarity movement. read the complete article
Uncommitted Democratic delegates say they aren’t a threat to democracy — they’re trying to save it
Abbas Alawieh is one of two uncommitted delegates among the 138 from Michigan. In February Michigan held its presidential primary that Biden won, which netted him the majority of the state’s delegates. Progressives and pro-Palestinian activists organized a movement to vote “uncommitted” in the primary to protest Biden’s support for Israel in its war with Hamas. That resulted in two uncommitted delegates. , There also are 21 unpledged delegates who are primarily elected officials and are not bound to support Harris. He told the Advance last week that he and the other 35 uncommitted delegates nationwide would love to see more unity in the Democratic Party, but unity has to be for the benefit of all Democrats, including Palestinian Americans and Arab Americans. “I think it’s important to note that in this moment, where people in the Arab-American community here in Michigan are experiencing a deep level of pain, it has felt like too many statewide elected officials and other elected officials have just tried to pretend like that pain isn’t there. … The outreach to our community needs to be a lot stronger from the Democratic Party,” Alawieh said. Alawieh and a handful of other delegates were explaining on the call why they can’t support Harris without meaningful change in the foreign policy towards Gaza. Alawieh said someone interrupted and said, “Shut up, asshole.” No one on the call promptly pushed back or chastised the person, Alawieh said, which was hurtful considering he is bound to represent the more than 100,000 Michiganders who voted uncommitted in the Democratic presidential primary. “For no one to push back on the call felt consistent with the culture of dehumanizing Palestinians and being okay with anti-Palestinian racism,” Alawieh said. “I hope we can be better about that as a party.” read the complete article
Australia
An Islamophobia envoy hasn't been appointed yet. Some Muslim leaders say it isn't necessary
The Albanese government is yet to announce its appointment of a special envoy to combat Islamophobia, but some in the Muslim community question the need for one at all. In early July, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced two envoy roles to tackle the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the wake of the ongoing war in Gaza. Despite the government unveiling Jewish lawyer and business leader Jillian Segal as the nation's first anti-Semitism envoy, there has been an almost month-long delay for her counterpart. The ABC understands several Muslim leaders such as prominent Queensland Muslim leader Ali Kadri and Sydney doctor and Lebanese community leader Jamal Rifi have discussed the envoy role with the government. Other community leaders, however, are not convinced a special envoy will help combat racism against the Muslim community. Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni said the Albanese government was facing a crisis among the Muslim community over its response to the war in Gaza. Mr Mashni said several people he knew had refused to engage with the government for the Islamophobia envoy role. He also said the surge in Islamophobia was underpinned by anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism. read the complete article
India
Hindu pilgrimage sparks anti-Muslim discrimination in India
Ahmad then called it “Vakeel Sahab Tea Stall.” Also spelled saheb, the term translates to a version of “sir” in Hindi but is a loan word from Arabic. It was not clear enough, he was told. He had to rename it “Vakeel Ahmad Tea Stall,” Ahmad told Religion News Service, using his last name “to make clear of my Muslim identity.” Like Ahmad’s, thousands of eateries along a route that an estimated 30 million Hindu pilgrims are traveling this week have come under pressure to display the names of their owners and staff to help customers avoid certain food and beverage outlets. The order from the local administration sparked widespread outrage for its “bigoted nature,” said Nadeem Khan, the national secretary of the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights, a human rights group. Khan and other critics of the government called the order another step toward “apartheid” and the continued persecution of caste- and religion-based minorities in India. “The Kanwar Yatra used to be the time for our business,” said Ahmad, who took over the small business after his father’s death six years ago. “Now, the administration has completely given up on us, saying, ‘If the pilgrims attack you, it is on you — and you will have to deal with it.’” read the complete article
New Zealand
First baseline study of Muslims in NZ shows more than half experienced discrimination
Over 85 percent of Muslims living in Aotearoa believe Islamophobia exists in this country, and more than half have experienced discrimination, according to the first baseline study of Muslims in New Zealand. The study was conducted in 2023 by researchers from Massey University and funded by the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand and the New Zealand Islamic Think Tank. It followed several discussions between government and Muslim organisations following the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks. The study sought to understand discrimination, including experiences of exclusion, Islamophobia, feelings of heightened vigilance, reporting to the authorities and feelings of safety and wellbeing. read the complete article