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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, analysts are saying that the Trump Administration’s approach to combating drug trafficking is “repurposing the ‘war on terror”’, elsewhere in the country, a leading teachers association in California expressed concern about a potential new state mandate (AB 715), which appears to elevate one form of discrimination over another, and in lastly, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is concerned by the Indian government’s expulsion of Rohingya Muslim refugees, an escalating crackdown that sets a “dangerous precedent for religious freedom in India”. Our recommended read of the day is by the Muslim Public Affairs Council for Counterpunch on how America’s “witch hunt” against Muslims and pro-Palestinian advocates strongly echoes the communist scare of the McCarthy era. This and more below.
United States
McCarthyism 2.0: America’s New Witch Hunt Against Muslims and Pro-Palestinian Advocates | Recommended Read
McCarthyism never really ended in America; it metastasized. The ideological purges that once targeted “communists” now target Muslims/Arab-Americans, and anyone sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. The stage may have changed, but the playbook is the same: weaponize fear, silence dissent, and punish expertise. In the 1970s, the label “Arabist” was turned into a slur. To be an Arabist in the State Department once meant a career diplomat with deep knowledge of Middle Eastern culture and politics. But as U.S. policy increasingly aligned with Israel, journalists like Joseph Kraft recast Arabists as anti-Semitic and even anti-American, accusing the State Department of harboring a “basic bias” against Israel. In doing so, he shifted public and political perception: Arabists were no longer experts, but potential saboteurs. This was McCarthyism transposed onto Middle East policy—turning expertise itself into a mark of suspicion. Today, the role of Joseph Kraft is played by once-fringe influencers like Laura Loomer, who boast direct access to the president. Loomer has proudly claimed credit for the dismissal of Muslim employees at the State Department, branding them “Islamists” simply for being Muslims. In August 2025, she bragged that Secretary of State Marco Rubio terminated a visa program for Gaza children needing medical care—victims of U.S.-supplied bombs—after she campaigned against it. Like McCarthy’s witch hunts, this is done under the guise of “national security.” In truth, it replaces experts with operatives and policymaking with paranoia. The consequences are catastrophic. read the complete article
In boat strike, Trump repurposes ‘war on terror’ for Latin American crime
In the days following its deadly attack on a vessel allegedly transporting Venezuelan drug smugglers through international waters, the administration of US President Donald Trump sent a unified message: The United States will not hesitate to strike so-called “narco terrorists”. “Instead of interdicting [the vessel], on the president’s orders, we blew it up,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday. “And it’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now,” he said. Analysts say this new strategy represents a major escalation in how the US approaches Latin American criminal organisations, one that relies on the public signalling and dubious legal practices that undergirded US attacks across the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia as part of the so-called “Global War on Terror“. With little indication that the Republican-dominated US Congress will be willing to check Trump’s approach, observers warn that Tuesday’s “kinetic strike” that killed 11 alleged members of Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang could open a new phase and theatre for extrajudicial military killings. “They are repurposing the ‘war on terror’ for entirely new sets of supposed enemies in a way that is radically inappropriate,” Brian Finucane, a senior adviser for the US programme at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. “Now the supposed terrorists are in our own backyard in the Caribbean, and now they say they’re drug smugglers.” read the complete article
Trump's Drug Boat Drone Strike Shows How 'Terrorism' Makes Everyone Killable
Vice President J.D. Vance was almost incredulous when a reporter asked him what "legal authority" the Trump administration used to blow up an alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela with a drone on Tuesday. "There are people who are bringing—literal terrorists—who are bringing deadly drugs into our country," Vance said. Why are they "literal terrorists"? Because the administration said so. President Donald Trump declared just after taking office that he would be designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations. One of them was Tren de Aragua, the organization accused of sending out the drug boat. (The administration tends to play fast and loose with labeling things Tren de Aragua; for all its criminal activities, the gang is not known to smuggle cocaine.) After the drone strike, multiple cabinet officials made sure to use the phrase "narco-terrorist organization." What is a terrorist? According to U.S. law, it's any "subnational groups" or "clandestine agents" who use "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets." Of course, that can describe almost any rebel group, including ones that the U.S. backs, or almost any intelligence agency, including ones in the U.S. government. In practice, that means that a "terrorist" is whoever the executive branch decides to label one. Legal authorities that were born out of the Oklahoma City bombing and matured during the long war against Al Qaeda are now being used to blow up suspicious boats in the Caribbean. read the complete article
Antisemitism has no place in schools, but this California bill won’t help
A leading teachers association is worried about losing academic freedom with new state mandates for “balanced” instruction about Israel and Palestine — a standard that doesn’t apply to any other conflict in the world. Nonetheless, AB 715 seeks to include both antisemitism and Islamophobia in the existing prohibition against teaching materials that could lead to discrimination based on religion. But there is no symmetry of addressing discrimination faced by these two faiths equally in the bill. AB 715 contains a lengthy and problematic description of what constitutes an antisemetic learning environment. Prohibited, for example, are materials that “do not use accurate, balanced and objective language and content, do not distinguish between opinion and fact or do not respect the historical, cultural or religious significance of Israel to the Jewish people.” Balance is inherently subjective to achieve. Is it fair for teachers and schools to face challenges of imbalanced instruction when it defies any legislative description? AB 715 makes no similar attempt to describe an Islamophobic learning environment, a misguided legislative way of elevating one form of discrimination to be more important than another.. Most problematic of all is AB 715’s proposal to create an “Office of the Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator” inside the State Board of Education. Missing, again, is a fellow coordinator to prevent Islamophobia. However, upon contemplating such offices, a much larger problem with AB 715’s approach becomes evident. This whole notion of creating a bureaucracy to combat a single type of religious discrimination is misguided.. How many such offices would California need, out of fairness and equity, to prevent discrimination for every permutation of discrimination? The State Board of Education should be staffed to take all forms of discrimination equally seriously. Any other approach risks more division and more hatred. read the complete article
International
India Expels Rohingya Refugees and Muslim Citizens
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is concerned by the Indian government’s expulsion of Rohingya refugees back to Burma. This effort to deport Rohingya refugees, who are predominately Muslim, also comes during a campaign to expel hundreds of Bengali-speaking Muslims to Bangladesh in recent weeks, marking a concerning implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The escalating crackdown and characterization of Bengali-speaking Muslims and Rohingya as non-citizens sets a dangerous precedent for religious freedom in India. read the complete article