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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Australia, a tweet by Pauline Hanson, the One Nation party leader and Queensland Senator, who’s at the centre of a long-running racial vilification case was “not just garden-variety racism” but Islamophobic, an appeal court has heard, meanwhile in the United Kingdom, a secretive Home Office department funded a little-known boyband to travel around Muslim areas of the UK and sing songs with anti-radicalization themes, and in the Netherlands, local media reported yesterday that the Dutch Cabinet has pushed back its proposal to prohibit law enforcement officers from wearing visible religious symbols after the Council of State warned against the plan. Our recommended read of the day is by Oliver Towfigh Nia for Anadolu Agency on recent German government data showing 469 Islamophobic crimes were reported to the Federal Criminal Police Office in the first quarter of 2025 alone, with more than thirty attacks reported on Mosques. This and more below:
Germany
930 Islamophobic crimes committed in Germany from January to September: Government | Recommended Read
The German government said Monday that 930 Islamophobic crimes were reported in the country from January to September. Responding to a parliamentary inquiry from the Left Party on anti-Muslim hate crimes, the government said 469 Islamophobic crimes were reported to the Federal Criminal Police Office in the first quarter of 2025, 316 in the second quarter, and 145 in the third. Furthermore, 283 suspects were identified in the first quarter, 172 in the second quarter, and 85 in the third quarter. A total of five people were detained, but no arrest warrants were issued for them. From January to September, 31 attacks on mosques were carried out as 37 people were injured in these criminal acts, one of them seriously. The government said the Islamophobic crimes included public incitement, insults, threats, the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations, damage to property, and injury, with the majority of crimes committed by far-right extremists. read the complete article
United Kingdom
‘Islamophobia is escalating while action stalls’
November marks Islamophobia Awareness Month. This year it coincided with Zohran Mamdani’s historic election as New York’s first Muslim mayor. It was a campaign scarred by bigotry, hate and hostility; targeted with over a million posts on social media containing Islamophobic slurs. Just as with the election of Sadiq Khan in London, Muslims in both New York and London know that representation at the top does not mean safety or equality for those below. Muslim communities are facing an avalanche of hate on both sides of the Atlantic. We cannot wait for another tragedy before Islamophobia is taken seriously. It is sad to say, but the Muslim community in Britain feels strongly that our lives aren’t seen to matter. Anti-Muslim hate is escalating. Threats to our safety are normalised both online and on our streets. Yet the Government has no strategy to protect us. Earlier this month, a group of MPs wrote to the new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, urging him to adopt a definition of Islamophobia. Despite a working group led by former Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve being formed in February, no plans have materialised. Indeed, some news outlets report that its work has been paused. read the complete article
The Home Office Secretly Funded A Boyband To Sing Songs About 7/7 In Muslim Areas
Exclusive: A secretive Home Office department funded a little-known boyband to travel around Muslim areas of the UK and sing songs with anti-radicalisation themes during the height of ISIS terror attacks, PoliticsHome can reveal. Mr Meanor, a pop trio featuring singers from Essex and LA, visited around a dozen schools in the north of England in 2016 as part of a covert Home Office initiative to deter potential Islamist extremists. As part of the tour, schools in Burnley, south Manchester, Leeds and Blackburn were visited. One school, Parrs Wood High School in Manchester, had a student travel and join ISIS a couple of years previously. Financial records disclosed the charity received £400,000 in funding from Prevent shortly before the tour, which accounts labelled ‘Panther [programme]’. read the complete article
Australia
'Not just garden-variety racism': Pauline Hanson under fire in court battle
A tweet by Pauline Hanson that is at the centre of a long-running racial vilification case was “not just garden-variety racism” but Islamophobic, an appeal court has heard. The One Nation leader and Queensland senator is seeking to overturn a Federal Court ruling last year that she breached the Racial Discrimination Act in a post on Twitter, now X, telling Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan”. In a decision in November last year, Justice Angus Stewart found the post was a variant of the racist trope “go back to where you came from”. He ordered Hanson to delete the post and to pay Faruqi’s legal costs, likely in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Stewart also found the tweet suggested Faruqi, an Australian citizen and Muslim who migrated from Pakistan in 1992, was a “second-class citizen”, as well as conveying anti-Muslim and Islamophobic sentiment. On Tuesday, Faruqi’s barrister, Jessie Taylor, submitted that the One Nation founder’s identity was central to how the post should be interpreted. read the complete article
Netherlands
Netherlands delays plan to ban religious symbols for law enforcement
The Dutch Cabinet has pushed back its proposal to prohibit law enforcement officers from wearing visible religious symbols after the Council of State warned against the plan, local media reported Monday. The government put on hold the move to implement a ban on religious symbols, including headscarves, for special investigating officers, known as BOAs, as Justice Minister Foort van Oosten now intends to pursue a formal law before moving forward, Dutch broadcaster NOS reported. BOAs are law enforcement officers but not regular police officers, as they have limited policing powers. The delay follows an advisory opinion from the Council of State, which said that restricting the expression of religious belief - protected under Article 6 of the Constitution - requires more than an administrative order. read the complete article
International
Israel-backed flights move Palestinians out of Gaza under the guise of ‘helping Muslims’: report
An Israeli-run entity is behind the mysterious flights transporting Palestinians from Gaza abroad through Ramon Airport, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. On Thursday, South Africa granted a 90-day visa exemption for 153 Palestinians who arrived from Kenya to seek asylum in the country, although they were initially denied entry due to a lack of travel documents and customary departure stamps in their passports. According to Israeli daily Haaretz, an association run by a man holding dual Israeli-Estonian citizenship sells Palestinians in Gaza seats on chartered flights heading to far-off countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Africa for around $2,000. Meanwhile, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that an organisation called “Al-Majd,” headquartered in occupied Jerusalem, was responsible for carrying more than 150 Palestinians out of the enclave. The daily added that the institution, founded in 2010, works to relocate Palestinians from Gaza under the pretext of “assistance” and claims to “help Muslim communities in conflict areas.” The media report added that the secrecy surrounding the flight raised concerns among human rights organisations, which warned it could be part of an Israeli effort to engineer the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. read the complete article