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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In France, nine Muslim places of worship were targeted on the morning of September 9, four alone in the city of Paris, with French authorities investigating the incident as a “public incitement to hatred”, meanwhile in the United Kingdom, a nurse has been officially terminated from employment after admitting to posting anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant statements on social media, and lastly in Austria, the country’s Integration, Family and EU Affairs Minister Claudia Plakolm announced that the government had agreed to a headscarf ban for children under 14 in schools. Our recommended read of the day is by Mansoor Adayfi for Al Jazeera, in which he reflects on the 9/11 anniversary, arguing that the US’s response to the attacks was a global campaign of revenge that involved torture, unjust wars, and the illegal imprisonment of countless Muslims, including himself. This and more below:
International
9/11 was avenged on us. On its anniversary, I refuse to forgive | Recommended Read
For many years, I have been asked whether I could forgive those who imprisoned, tortured, and dehumanised me. It is a loaded question; it is never just about personal forgiveness, but also an invitation to speak on behalf of all Guantanamo Bay prisoners. I usually reply that forgiveness is never simple, especially when justice has yet to be served. I was held in Guantanamo for nearly 15 years without charge, subjected to treatment no human being should ever endure. I was one of countless innocent people kidnapped during the global campaign of the United States of revenge and terror after September 11, 2001, which justified the illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, unleashed and legalised torture programmes in CIA black sites and at Abu Ghraib, and turned Guantanamo into a laboratory of dehumanisation. Today, on the 24th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, “Never Forget, Never Forgive” echoes once again. These words are presented as grief and as a desire to honour the memory of those lost, but they also carry darker implications. As someone directly affected by the aftermath of 9/11, I believe it is crucial to consider what those words really mean, especially when they are used as a rallying cry for revenge, retaliation, retribution, or vengeance, rather than as a thoughtful appeal for justice, accountability, and meaningful reflection. Once again, the question of revenge and forgiveness circulates in public discourse, yet rarely do commentators pause to ask what forgiveness truly entails. In cases such as CIA black sites, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and the many other atrocities committed in the name of fighting “terror”, forgiveness cannot be reduced to an individual act. The harm was inflicted on a global scale, touching tens of millions: those tortured, those killed in drone attacks, the families left behind, and entire communities in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia, to name only some. I remain unwilling to step forward and say “I forgive”, because forgiveness is not mine alone to give. For it to carry weight, it must be offered collectively, by victims, survivors, and even the dead. And the dead, of course, cannot forgive. read the complete article
Report: US “Aid” Sites in Gaza Run by Members of Vehemently Islamophobic Gang
Numerous members of a hateful anti-Islam biker gang that promotes violence against Muslims are serving as military contractors at the deadly U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, with many of them in leadership positions, a new investigation finds. At least 10 members of the Infidels Motorcycle Club are working in Gaza for contractor UG Solutions, BBC revealed. Seven of them are in leadership positions overseeing the sites, according to the report. One former contractor has estimated at least 40 of the 320 people, or one in eight, hired for GHF sites by UG Solutions are members of the gang. The Infidels are a group founded by American Iraq War veterans in 2006. Members “see themselves as modern Crusaders,” BBC wrote, apparently ready to wage a religious war against Muslims. The group’s Facebook has numerous Islamophobic posts, and one event page from the group showed it previously hosted a pig roast during Ramadan “in defiance of” Islam. Some of those involved are not only leaders at GHF sites, but also leaders of the gang, the report found. Larry “J-Rod” Jarrett reportedly leads logistics for GHF, and is the Infidels’s vice president; Bill “Saint” Siebe is a security team leader for one of the GHF sites, and is the gang’s national treasurer; and Richard “A-Tracker” Lofton is another GHF team leader, and is, BBC reports, a founding member of the gang. UG Solutions, a North Carolina-based contractor, is providing armed “security” at the GHF sites, near which over 1,300 Palestinian aid seekers have been killed in Israeli massacres. read the complete article
France
Pig heads left outside several mosques, 'a new and sad milestone in the rise of anti-Muslim hatred'
At 6:30 am on Tuesday, September 9, Najat Benali received a "horrified and frantic" call from her team: Upon arriving at the Javel mosque, where she serves as rector, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, they, along with a handful of worshipers who had come for the first morning prayer, discovered a pig's head covered in blue paint, lying on the ground, "with fresh blood dripping everywhere," she recounted. Within the following hour, Benali – who is also president of the Coordination of Muslim Associations of Paris, which brings together 15 places of worship – received three more phone calls from other mosque leaders in the capital. They, too, had found bloody pig heads at their doors. One of them had been placed inside a suitcase. According to the Paris prosecutor's office, nine Muslim places of worship were targeted on the morning of September 9, four in the French capital and five in the suburbs. "Several of the pig heads had the inscription "MACRON" written in blue ink," the prosecutor's office stated. The criminal investigation department is now handling the inquiry, which is investigating "public incitement to hatred or violence based on origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion," and "violence without incapacity," both with the same aggravating circumstances. read the complete article
Foreign nationals placed pig heads outside Paris mosques, prosecutor says
A police investigation showed foreign nationals placed the pig heads that were found outside at least nine mosques in and around Paris on Tuesday, the Paris Prosecutor's office said on Wednesday. The probe established that the pig heads "had been placed there by foreign nationals who immediately left the country, with the clear intention of causing unrest within the nation," the statement said. "A farmer from Normandy came forward to tell investigators that two people had come to buy a dozen pig heads from him, and described their vehicle, which had Serbian number plates," it added. CCTV footage showed these same individuals had arrived in Paris in the same vehicle during the night of Monday, September 8, to Tuesday, September 9. The images also showed two men leaving the heads in front of a number of mosques. They are likely to have used a Croatian telephone line, which was traced to having crossed the French-Belgian border on Tuesday morning, after the crimes were committed. read the complete article
Australia
Muslim community leaders alarmed by a rise in Islamophobia amid recent incidents in south-east Queensland
Muslim community leaders across southern Queensland say they're alarmed by a rise in Islamophobia in recent weeks, including bomb threats and abuse directed at children. A mosque on the Gold Coast was allegedly targeted in a bomb hoax at the weekend, while last week a bomb threat forced the evacuation of 1,700 students from the Islamic College of Brisbane. It's part of a growing national trend. The Islamophobia Register of Australia — an organisation set up to monitor incidents — recorded 366 cases of online abuse between January 2023 and November 2024, according to its latest report. From September 2014 to December 2021, there were 415 cases. There were 309 in-person incidents recorded between January 2023 and November 2024, while 515 in-person incidents were recorded between September 2014 and December 2021. Islamic College of Brisbane CEO Ali Kadri said the school was evacuated on Friday after receiving a threatening email. "The email had profanities directed towards Muslims, Islamophobic language used … and photos of a bomb placed at our school with the date," he said. "Police established the email that had been used to send the email was known to be hacked." read the complete article
Austria to ban headscarves for students under 14 starting this autumn
Austria’s Integration, Family and EU Affairs Minister Claudia Plakolm announced on Wednesday that the government had agreed to a headscarf ban for children under 14 in schools. Plakolm said after a Cabinet meeting that the ban will take effect in the autumn. She noted that it would cover public and private schools, underlining that non-compliance would lead to a meeting with the family, followed by fines of $175 (€150) to $1,170 (€1,000) for parents. Asked why pupils can wear a cross but not a headscarf, Plakolm argued the headscarf is a “symbol of oppression.” She said the state’s duty is to ensure girls grow up free to make their own choices, stressing that schools must be safe spaces for development where nothing should hinder that. The Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IGGO) criticised the decision, noting that all efforts beforehand to work towards a constitutional solution were ignored. "Headscarf ban is symbolic politics at the expense of children and democracy," it said in a statement. read the complete article
United States
Mamdani Reflects on Life After 9/11 as a Muslim in New York City
It was the second day of classes at the Bank Street School for Children in Manhattan when the planes hit the World Trade Center. Zohran Mamdani can recall his father picking him up early to walk him home, the streets in a state of unease. He was 9 years old at the time, having moved to New York City two years earlier from South Africa. His memories of the attack and the days that followed have grown hazy with time. But he can clearly remember what it was like growing up in its aftermath, in a city transformed by tragedy, and the Islamophobia that lingered. “It became a fact of life,” Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral nominee, said in an interview this week. “It was this horrific day that was also for many New Yorkers the moment at which they were marked an ‘other.’” Now 24 years later, Mr. Mamdani is on the precipice of becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor, a potential milestone for the hundreds of thousands of Muslims who live here, and a signpost of broader acceptance, even as Mr. Mamdani has faced attacks because of his faith. After a recent prayer service at the Islamic Center at New York University, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, 33, an author and entrepreneur, said that Mr. Mamdani reflected the hopes of younger generations. “We are facing the height of Islamophobia today, but at the same time we’re witnessing an unprecedented popularity with this brown Muslim candidate for the country’s biggest city,” she said. “It feels like now those Muslim 9/11 kids are having the moment where we can show that this city is our home and that we belong here,” she said. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Nurse struck off for ‘no place for Muslims’ Facebook post after Southport attack
Simon Watts was employed by Mitie, a medical care provider, to work at Norfolk and Suffolk Police Constabulary when he wrote on social media that “this country has so many nasty immigrants wanting to spread hatred and violence”, according to a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) tribunal panel judgment. On his private Facebook account, Mr Watts wrote that the UK was "not a Muslim country" and that he believed "this country is finished due to lack of immigration control". The post was made on August 2 last year, a few days after the Southport killings and included comments "specifically relating" to the attack, the ruling noted. Disorder spread across the UK in the wake of the murders amid false rumours posted online that the killer was a Muslim immigrant. Mr Watts wrote: "Deport Deport Depot before more bloodshed occurs. "This is not a Muslim country and there should be no place for them." "I don’t care what colour or creed you are but I do really get the bump when violence occurs and there is so much PC b******t surrounding it. "So I’m not embarrassed and believe this country is finished due to the lack of immigration control." Mr Watts admitted to writing the posts, accepted he should never have written them and acknowledged they could have a negative impact on colleagues and patients, according to the ruling. read the complete article