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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Europe, according to a new report released by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), one in two Muslims in the EU is a victim of “racism and discrimination in everyday life”, meanwhile in the US, several professors at universities around the country are facing disciplinary actions in regard to their support for the pro-Palestine movement and their students holding protests on college campuses, and China has accused Australia of “hypocrisy” and “systemic racism” after Beijing was confronted at the United Nations over alleged abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet. Our recommended read of the day is by Katherine Hearst for Middle East Eye on how according to legal experts, anti-terrorism and anti-mafia laws in Britain are increasingly being used by authorities in the country to detain and prosecute activists and journalists, with those most impacted including Palestine activists and climate change protesters. This and more below
United Kingdom
In Britain, Palestine and climate activists face an 'unprecedented' wave of criminalisation | Recommended Read
Anti-terrorism and anti-mafia laws are increasingly being used by British authorities to detain and prosecute activists and journalists, according to those affected by the legislation and the legal experts defending them. Campaigners say there is an ongoing and unprecedented crackdown on the right to protest in the UK with those most impacted including Palestine activists and climate change protesters. The campaign group Defend Our Juries said that since July this year, more than 40 climate and pro-Palestine activists have been imprisoned - all of them either sentenced to prison after conviction or jailed on remand awaiting trial. The trend accelerated after Israel’s war on Gaza began in October, but activists and legal experts say it is part of a broader crackdown on civil disobedience dating back to 2022. On 17 October, counterterrorism police raided the home of Electronic Intifada journalist Asa Winstanley, confiscating his electronic devices as part of an investigation under the Terrorism Act into his social media activity. According to Electronic Intifada, a letter from the Counter Terrorism Command cited possible offences under sections 1 and 2 of the Terrorism Act, relating to the offence of “encouragement of terrorism”, adding that the raid had been conducted as part of an operation codenamed “Operation Incessantness”. In August, pro-Palestine journalist Sarah Wilkinson was arrested by counterterrorism police in a dawn raid on her home for allegations relating to content she had posted online. Her arrest followed that of Richard Medhurst under section 12 of the Terrorism Act allegedly in connection with his reporting on Palestine. read the complete article
United States
US professors face discipline and investigations over Palestine support
Several professors at universities around the US are facing disciplinary actions in regard to their support for the pro-Palestine movement and their students holding protests on college campuses. At Columbia University, Katherine Franke, law professor and the director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School, is currently under investigation at the school over an interview she gave early this year. Last week, she announced she had filed a complaint against a law firm she retained after it dropped her as a client. Maura Finkelstein, a tenured associate professor of anthropology at Muhlenberg College, a private liberal arts college in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was fired in May over a social media repost on Instagram that a student complained about. She has appealed her termination. Ruha Benjamin, a professor of African American studies at Princeton University, is being investigated by the university for her pro-Palestine activism at the same timethe institution touts her MacArthur genius grant. These are just three examples of professors facing consequences for supporting the student movement against Israel’s war in Gaza that roiled campuses during the last school year, and prompted scores of new university restrictions on protest. “Reports of professors being investigated and disciplined for speech about the war are disturbing. The purpose of universities is to stimulate debate, including on controversial topics,” said Ramya Krishnan, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. read the complete article
Mitch McConnell Funneled Cash to a PAC Pitting Arab and Jewish Voters Against Harris
A Super PAC allied with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., poured money into a group that has deployed inflammatory tactics designed to pit Muslim and Jewish voters against Kamala Harris. The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund gave $1.5 million to the FC PAC, formerly known as the Future Coalition PAC, which has faced criticism for its wedge tactics this election cycle. In ads targeted at Arab voters in Michigan, the PAC highlighted the Jewish faith of Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff, a move that observers decried as antisemitic. A recent Snapchat ad from the FC PAC targeting ZIP codes with large Arab populations in Michigan stated that Harris would be “a real pro-Israel president, right when we need one.” It added that her husband Doug Emhoff would be “the first Jewish presidential spouse ever!” To an untrained observer, some of the ads, such as the Snapchat spot in Michigan, might appear as if they were coming from the Harris campaign itself. But by targeting areas with large Arab populations, such as Dearborn, the goal is to depress turnout rather than rally support. It’s a cynical ploy that appears to presume that Snapchat users in those areas are disgusted by the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel, or that dubious tropes of Arab antisemitism hold true. The tell is another ad run in Pennsylvania, which has a substantial Jewish population, stating “two-faced Kamala Harris is secretly campaigning for Palestine, and trying to get away with it.” read the complete article
Donald Trump: His diplomatic legacy in Israel, Palestine and the Middle East
On 18 September 2024, former US President Donald Trump made an appearance in the Michigan city of Hamtramck and met with the town's Yemeni Muslim mayor, Amer Ghalib, and other leaders in the city. The visit, not to mention Ghalib's official endorsement of Trump for the upcoming November presidential election, would have been unheard of in the 2020 or 2016 race for the White House, when the majority of Muslims in the US voted for the Democrat Party. However, amid the Israeli war on Gaza and the Biden administration's full support of Israel's war efforts, which have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed most of Gaza's infrastructure, Trump has painted himself as the better alternative to Muslim and Arab voters outraged at the war, which is now over a year long. And even more recently, Trump has further dug into this argument after Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, received the endorsement of former Congresswoman Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney was an architect of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. "Why would Muslims support Lyin' Kamala Harris when she embraces Muslim hating Liz Cheney, a total loser, whose father brought years of war, and death, to the Middle East???" Trump said on Truth Social. But at the same time, Trump has attacked Biden and his opponent Harris by claiming that they are holding Israel back from being able to achieve its war aims in Gaza. Legal experts, rights groups, and several countries have labelled Israel's actions in its war on Gaza as a genocide. read the complete article
International
Islamophobia on the rise in the EU. One in two Muslims are victims of discrimination in daily life
The European Union is increasingly intolerant. Not only the surge of antisemitic incidents after October 7, 2023 but also the slower and more gradual rise of Islamophobia: according to the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), today, one in two Muslims in the EU is a victim of “racism and discrimination in everyday life.” A noticeable increase since the last survey in 2016: Muslims experiencing racial discrimination increased from 39 percent to 47 percent. Potentially, we are talking about over 13 million people: Muslims represent the second largest religious group in the EU. According to the Pew Research Center, there were 26 million in 2016. Between October 2021 and October 2022, the EU Agency surveyed 9,604 Muslims in 13 EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. The report reveals significant differences in the 13 member states surveyed: Austria is the most Islamophobic, with 71 percent of Muslims targeted, followed by Germany and Finland. The rate of racial discrimination drops steeply in Spain and Italy, the countries with the lowest levels. In general, the most affected are young Muslims and women who wear religious clothing. Intertwined in the Islamophobic behavior of EU citizens are not only religious elements but also the skin color and ethnic or immigrant background of the European Muslim population. “A phenomenon fueled by the conflicts in the Middle East and made worse by the dehumanizing anti-Muslim rhetoric we see across the continent,” said the director of the EU Agency, Sirpa Rautio. read the complete article
EU rights agency reports 'sharp rise' in islamophobia even before 7 October attacks
Muslims in Europe are facing "ever more racism and discrimination", the EU rights agency said Thursday, noting a "sharp rise" even before the 7 October attacks caused "a spike in anti-Muslim hatred". Several EU nations have reported a rise in islamophobia, as well as antisemitic acts since 7 October according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). "We are aware of reports from several EU countries, highlighting a spike in anti-Muslim hatred -- as well as anti-Semitism, after the Hamas attacks," FRA spokeswoman Nicole Romain told AFP. But even before then, a new FRA report shows "it was getting more difficult to be a Muslim in the EU". Nearly one in two Muslims in the EU face racism and discrimination in their daily life, "a sharp rise" from 39 percent FRA found in the last edition of its survey in 2016. read the complete article
The Take: Uncovering Meta’s censorship policies on Palestine
Current and former Meta employees blow the whistle on the company’s mishandling of pro-Palestinian content and retaliation against staff members who speak out. An AJ+ documentary uncovers internal struggles, with testimonies of routine deletion of Palestine-related posts and a deep-seated pro-Israel bias. How do these policies shape public perception of the Gaza conflict? read the complete article
China accuses Australia of ‘hypocrisy’ and ‘systemic racism’ after Uyghur abuses raised at UN
China has accused Australia of “hypocrisy” and “systemic racism” after Beijing was confronted at the United Nations over alleged abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet. The Chinese envoy to the UN also blasted Australia for ignoring the “living hell” in Gaza where Israel has conducted an onslaught of air and ground attacks since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack. Australia, the US and the UK were among 15 countries that issued a joint statement at the UN on 22 October against the alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet. The statement cited a UN assessment from two years ago that there had been human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. The August 2022 report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded there had been “crimes against humanity” against Uyghurs in the western region of Xinjiang as well as other Muslims by Chinese authorities. read the complete article
India
‘Where will I go?’: Hindu man dead, Muslims in India’s Bahraich face attack
At about 10:30am on October 14, Mohammad Kaleem received a frantic call from a friend, urging him to flee with his family. A day earlier, a 22-year-old Hindu man, Ram Gopal Mishra, was allegedly shot dead by a Muslim man while a Hindu religious procession was passing through the Muslim-dominated neighbourhood of Maharajganj, 5km (3.1 miles) from Kaleem’s home in Kapurpur village in Bahraich district of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Religious processions – of all faiths – have for centuries been a part of India’s diverse social fabric, where different communities have lived cheek by jowl. But in recent years, as Hindu far-right groups have grown increasingly assertive under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), many processions have taken on a darker hue. Hindu groups now often march through Muslim localities while playing Islamophobic songs on loudspeakers and raising hate-filled slogans. “This has been happening at every Hindu procession that has passed the village in the last three to four years,” Dawood Ahmed, 32, who owns a shop in Maharajganj, told Al Jazeera. Meanwhile, Mishra’s killing sparked communal tensions in Bahraich, a district bordering Nepal. On October 14, thousands of outraged Hindus gathered in Maharajganj for Mishra’s last rites. Once done with the rituals, the crowd turned violent and went on a rampage, targeting Muslim properties within a radius of about 10km (6.2 miles), ransacking and burning them down. read the complete article
Austria
After the far-right victory: what's next for the Austrian government?
Elections in Austria are over. The Austrian far-right celebrated a historical victory by winning the most votes following a similar success in the European Parliamentary elections in July this year for the first time ever. But what came as a huge electoral success does not translate into power-sharing as it happened in 2017, when the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) became a coalition partner of the centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). Usually, the federal president gives the mandate to form a government to the strongest political party. While this is not enshrined in the constitution, it has been the political norm since 1945. Not so in 2024, when FPÖ made a historic win to become the strongest party. This time around, Austrian president Alexander Van der Bellen opted to invite the second strongest party, the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), to start negotiations as every single party ruled out going into coalition with the FPÖ. For many conservatives, this was an “irresponsible” move. This would only further the resentment against the “system,” as the FPÖ calls the rest of the established political opponents. Some conservatives might even prefer a coalition with the far-right, with whom they rather share many of its economic as well as anti-immigration and anti-Islam views. But if the ÖVP opts to govern with the FPÖ, it would hardly be able to claim the chancellery. read the complete article