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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the UK, Khalid Mahmood, a former Labour MP, has claimed that the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) ousted its leader because of “patriarchy”, which an MCB spokesperson described as “baseless”, meanwhile in Germany, according to investigative journalism by The New Arab, German state-owned broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) applied a clear double standard in handling Islamophobia accusations from one of its employees, and in the US, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta announced that it will scrap its fact-checking system, which some rights groups warning that this would mean “more dangerous misinformation” on the platforms. Our recommended read of the day is by Taj Ali for The New Arab on how Elon Musk and other billionaires have emerged as the new face of global far-right power and what this may mean for the rest of us. This and more below:
International
How billionaires like Elon Musk are ushering in a new era of global far-right power | Recommended Read
The Nazis first entered regional power in 1930. It was in the Eastern state of Thuringia where the Nazis first held ministerial-level posts. Three years later, Adolf Hitler became chancellor. Nearly a century on, the far-right in Germany is once again in the ascendancy. Echoing this dark history, last September, on the very date Adolf Hitler invaded Poland, a far-right party won a regional election for the first time in Germany’s post-war history. The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) won elections in Thuringia with a third of the vote. In Saxony, it received 30.6 percent, just fractionally behind the CDU winners at 31.9 percent. Its infamous leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, has twice been convicted of knowingly using Nazi slogans at political events. And last year there were mass protests over revelations that members of the AfD had attended a meeting with Austrian neo-Nazis to discuss the mass deportation of migrants, asylum seekers, and German citizens of foreign origin deemed to have failed to integrate. But these connections appear to be of little concern to US tech billionaire Elon Musk. Ahead of federal elections next month, Elon Musk took to his social media platform X to proclaim: "Only the AfD can save Germany," labelling Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, "an incompetent fool" and describing President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as an "anti-democratic tyrant." He then doubled down on his remarks with an op-ed in one of Germany’s biggest newspapers, Die Welt, claiming the AFD was "the last spark of hope for this country." And he has also announced that he will hold a live discussion this week with the AfD’s chancellor candidate Alice Weidel on X. Musk, with 200 million Twitter followers, and control of the X platform itself, is an incredibly powerful ally for the far-right. His interventions shape the news agenda and become talking points for several days. One only has to look at Musk’s business interests to understand why the multi-billionaire is so invested in Germany’s political future. read the complete article
United States
Meta eliminates social media fact-checking system, sparking fears of more online hate
Meta's announcement Tuesday that it would scrap its fact-checking system was hailed by social media users who said they were tired of being sent to "Facebook jail." But it also prompted fears that it will open the door to more online hate. The social media giant said Tuesday that it would change the way it moderates online content, replacing human fact-checkers with "community notes," similar to the system used by Elon Musk's X. Meta, which runs Facebook, Instagram and Threads, has employed fact-checkers to review content since 2016. But many people, particularly Republican politicians, have been critical of such efforts. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an online announcement that he wants complex issues — such as immigration and gender — to be handled responsibly and that Meta's new approach would "restore free expression." He also said he thought third-party fact-checkers were "too politically biased." The change comes as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump — who has criticized Meta for its fact-checking policy — prepares to take office later this month. read the complete article
Musk blowing 'every conceivable dog whistle of Islamophobia': Omar Suleiman
Omar Suleiman has called on Elon Musk to stop blowing political "dog whistles of Islamophobia" and invited the world's richest man for a conversation if Musk is unintentionally spreading anti-Muslim narrative on his social media platform. Suleiman, a globally renowned imam, theologian, human rights activist and president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, on Tuesday charged Musk of sharing "dangerous" and "dishonest" tweets about Islam. "When one of your Teslas kills someone while self-driving or explodes on fire and the media charges your vehicles as unsafe, you point out sampling bias, share all kinds of statistics, and allege that the media is either accidentally or deliberately misrepresenting statistics to promote a vindictive agenda," Suleiman wrote on his X handle, tagging Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX space tech firm and Tesla automotive company. "Yet, for the past week, you have blown every conceivable dog whistle of Islamophobia, by highlighting a select group of (horrifying) incidents supposedly in the name of Islam. Your barrage of tweets aimed at Islam have been as dangerous as they are dishonest about a faith practiced by over 2 billion people." Suleiman expressed readiness to engage with Musk if the latter "genuinely" wants a clarification. read the complete article
The Allegory of Would-Be Federal Judge Adeel Mangi
The fate of Adeel Mangi, President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, should never have been in doubt. Mangi, who is in his 40s, is a partner in the same New York City law firm at which he’s worked for nearly 25 years. He has a lot in common with the nominees of both Democratic and Republican presidents, which is to say that he graduated from Harvard Law School, and has a bio that details both his work on behalf of mega-corporations (like Johnson & Johnson), and his various pro bono experiences representing the family of an incarcerated man, the victims of religious discrimination, and others who cannot afford his hourly rate. But Mangi is also Muslim, and the tragedy of his failed nomination is a tidy object lesson in the failures of the Democratic establishment, which imagines itself as a big-tent party of diversity and inclusion, yet is rarely willing to do anything to oppose rampant Islamophobia in America beyond issuing milquetoast statements no one reads. read the complete article
Biden rushes to clinch Gitmo legacy
President JOE BIDEN’s team is touting one potential victory for his foreign policy in his final days — getting the Guantanamo Bay prison as close to empty as possible. The Biden administration released nearly a dozen detainees in its latest move, bringing the facility’s population to its lowest level ever. But it’s a complicated victory, as no one expects the prison to entirely empty out amid a thicket of thorny complicated and legal questions — even after early pledges by Biden to close the facility. Some detainees have been charged or convicted of war crimes. Biden’s own Defense secretary, LLOYD AUSTIN, even overrode plea agreements for Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack masterminds detained in Gitmo, though a court later overruled Austin. Transferring other detainees requires complex diplomatic negotiations with their home countries or other countries open to receiving them. Still, Biden has transferred 11 detainees from Gitmo to Oman to begin new lives just days before leaving office, bringing the detention center’s total population down to just 15 prisoners — from 40 when Biden took office. The latest deal came about through months of behind-the-scenes negotiations with Oman as part of the goal to reduce the prison population as much as possible before Biden leaves office, according to two administration officials. The officials were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive government deliberations. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Ousted MP Khalid Mahmood claims 'patriarchy' forced MCB leader out
Khalid Mahmood, a former Labour MP who lost his seat at the July general election to a pro-Palestinian independent, has claimed that the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) ousted its leader because of "patriarchy". MCB's secretary-general, Zara Mohammed, is leaving because her term is coming to an end, and elections to replace her will be held later this month. An MCB spokesperson told Middle East Eye on Tuesday afternoon that Mahmood's claims were "baseless". "As a former MP rejected by his electorate, his comments appear to be a desperate bid for relevance, relying on falsehoods and Islamophobic tropes," the spokesperson said. Mahmood is a senior fellow at right-wing think tank Policy Exchange, which has often been accused of promoting Islamophobia. He made the remarks on LBC on Tuesday, a day after Policy Exchange released a report accusing the MCB's leadership candidates of expressing "views which appear ominous for the integration of Muslims into Britain". The MCB has strongly rejected the accusations. read the complete article
Germany
DW employees decry double standard in handling of internal Islamophobic misconduct
German state-owned broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) applied a clear double standard in handling Islamophobia accusations from one of its employees, an investigation by The New Arab (TNA) can establish, in sharp contrast with how it handled equivalent complaints regarding alleged antisemitism. The complaint, submitted through DW’s internal whistleblowing platform by an employee of DW’s Persian-language service on 16 October 2024, accuses a colleague of “hate speech, harassment and violations of DW guidelines”. DW’s Compliance Office, which ensures that the organisation complies with the law, disagreed with the whistleblower, and closed the complaint without further action against the employee in question. This decision left many DW employees frustrated and distrustful, especially after it led to the deletion of multiple social media posts, which had been collected as evidence of the misconduct. Writing to TNA by email, the whistleblower said they wanted to expose what they viewed as an ineffective reporting mechanism within DW, which “not only fails to address the root of the problem but also discourages staff from reporting further incidents”. In their view, DW’s response is indicative of “systemic discrimination and accountability issues” within the media organisation, especially in light of DW’s dismissal of seven Arab journalists in 2022 over accusations of antisemitism on social media. read the complete article
India
Threats To Beat & Boycott, Inciting Violence Against Muslims: BJP’s Nitesh Rane, With 20 FIRs, Is Now A Maharashtra Minister
He calls Muslims Pakistani pimps, green pigs and green snakes; threatens to strip, beat them and urges Hindus to boycott them and demolish mosques. The police have filed—on court directions—20 first information reports against him, 19 over the last two years. But they have never questioned or acted against three-time Maharashtra MLA Nitesh Rane, in the process violating Supreme Court orders to act against hate speech. On 5 December 2024, the former Congressman, who once criticised Narendra Modi and mocked the RSS, was sworn in as cabinet minister, conforming to a BJP pattern of reward for anti-Muslim hate speech. read the complete article
France
French far-right figurehead Jean-Marie Le Pen dies aged 96
Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the far-right National Front party who was often accused of racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia, has died at the age of 96. His death was confirmed by his daughter Marine Le Pen's political party, National Rally. Le Pen, who had been in a care home for several weeks, died at midday (1100 GMT) Tuesday "surrounded by his loved ones", the family said in a statement. Le Pen, the co-founder of the National Front, sent shockwaves through France in 2002 when he made it to the second round of the presidential election on a staunch anti-immigration platform. Le Pen, whose political career spanned over four decades, infamously dismissed the Holocaust as a detail of history. He was tried, convicted and fined in 1996 for contesting war crimes after declaring that the Nazi gas chambers were "merely a detail" of World War Two history. read the complete article