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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Australia, Muslim leaders say the Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion is a poorly constructed “knee-jerk reaction” after advocating for a broader inquiry into all forms of racism and religious discrimination, meanwhile in France, many of the tributes following the death of Brigitte Bardot have glossed over her longstanding Islamophobia, alignment with far-right politics and repeated legal judgments against her for hate speech, and in the United Kingdom, The Times columnist, Melanie Phillips, has been slammed for her racist comments, including describing the newly-established Palestinian embassy in London as a “non-embassy for a non-state for a non-people”. Our recommended read of the day is by Edward Ahmed Mitchell for Common Dreams, on how the fear-mongering campaign aimed at Somali-American daycares in Minnesota is just the latest in a long-line of racially charged moral panics that have targeted the Muslim American community over the past two decades. This and more below:
United States
Somali-American Day-Care Hysteria Is Latest Attempt To Distract Americans with Hate | Recommended Read
It happens almost every year. An overblown, exaggerated, or manufactured controversy involving people of color, immigrants, Muslims—or all three at once—suddenly consumes America’s political discourse. Remember the summer of 2010? Every media outlet spent the month of August in a frenzy over a Florida pastor’s planned burning of the Quran in Florida and the expansion of Park51, a Muslim community center falsely branded the “Ground Zero mosque.” The flames of that controversy were stoked by fringe anti-Muslim bigots who were then elevated from the dark corners of the internet to cable news shows and weaponized by politicians ahead of the 2010 midterm elections. Since 2025, much of the manufactured outrage has targeted American Muslims. Anti-Muslim conspiracy theories that died out years ago have been resurrected by the usual suspects on social media along with politicians like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). Even Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard claimed that Americans Muslims are on the verge of imposing “sharia law” on Paterson, New Jersey, of all places. Why this renewed obsession with Muslims? A poll commissioned last year by the Israeli Foreign Ministry found that the best way to restore support for Israel among Western populations upset about the Gaza genocide was to distract those populations with fear of Islam and Muslims. Hence why the Israeli government and its supporters have been whipping up anti-Muslim hysteria over the past year. read the complete article
Keller council scraps plan to denounce sharia law, reaffirms ‘constitutional governance’
Keller City Council members ceremonially reaffirmed their commitment to “constitutional governance and equal application of the law” with a resolution originally drafted to reject sharia law, the moral code that guides those who practice Islam. The seven-member council unanimously approved a resolution Jan. 6 stating that the U.S. and Texas constitutions are “the sole sources of legal authority governing municipal affairs, housing, property rights and dispute resolution within the city.” The resolution outlaws “parallel legal systems,” stating that Keller will not recognize or enforce foreign, religious or alternative systems. That legal foundation was already enshrined by the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits religious laws from superseding state or federal laws. Farah Janjua, a Keller resident for 17 years, felt disappointed but “not really surprised” after watching the council approve the resolution, especially with recent political attention focused on Islam across the state and the country. She told council members the action would not contribute to public safety but rather promote a culture of targeting neighbors based on their ethnicity or religion. read the complete article
North Fort Myers man accused of posting Islamophobic threats on YouTube
Deputies arrested a North Fort Myers man on Jan. 2 after he was accused of posting violent Islamophobic threats on YouTube after the FBI alerted the Lee County Sheriff's Office. read the complete article
United Kingdom
British columnist Melanie Phillips slammed for Palestinian 'final solution' comments
Prominent British columnist and broadcaster Melanie Phillips has been criticised for claiming the inauguration of Palestine's embassy in London is an "important moment in the UK's shameful connivance with the Palestinian Arabs' final solution". In a post on X on Tuesday, Phillips, who writes for The Times, also described the Palestinian embassy as a "non-embassy for a non-state for a non-people". Scottish historian William Dalrymple responded by saying: "Pure projection by Melanie Phillips, whose anti-Palestinian rants are growing increasingly unhinged of late." Dalrymple added: "There is only one people who are being ethnically cleansed and driven to the edge of extinction in Israel-Palestine. And it isn't the Israelis." The phrase "final solution" is a euphemism used by Nazi Germany to describe the genocide of Jews during the Holocaust. read the complete article
Senior Labour MP meets Muslim Council of Britain despite 'disengagement' policy
A senior Labour MP has held a rare meeting with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), an organisation the government has previously repeatedly refused to engage with. The MCB, the largest umbrella body representing British Muslim organisations, said in a post on X that Lotifa Begum, its public affairs manager, met MP Emily Thornberry on Wednesday. Thornberry is the chair of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which scrutinises the government's foreign policy. She has publicly backed a ban on the import of goods from Israel's illegal settlements in occupied Palestine, and urged the government to recognise a Palestinian state months before it did so in September last year. The MCB said Wednesday's meeting addressed Palestine, humanitarian needs and "the UK's responsibility in maintaining international human rights". read the complete article
Reform UK picks Muslim ex-lawyer Laila Cunningham to run for London mayor
The anti-immigration Reform UK party on Wednesday named Muslim businesswoman Laila Cunningham as its candidate to run in London's 2028 mayoral elections. Reform leader Nigel Farage announced Cunningham, a former lawyer, as the party's pick to contest the post held since 2016 by current mayor Sadiq Khan. Khan, a Labour party politician who became the UK capital's first Muslim mayor, has been fiercely criticised by the far-right over his policies, which often celebrate London's diversity and large immigrant population. He has not announced if he intends to run for a fourth term in office. Born to Egyptian immigrant parents, 48-year-old Cunningham is Reform's first local councillor in London. read the complete article
Australia
Adelaide festival dumps prominent academic Randa Abdel-Fattah over ‘cultural sensitivity’ concerns after Bondi attack
The Adelaide festival has removed prominent academic and Palestine advocate Randa Abdel-Fattah from its lineup citing concerns over “cultural sensitivity” after a review undertaken in the wake of the Bondi terror attack. The festival covers arts, music, talks and theatre and includes Adelaide’s annual Writers’ Week next month, where Abdel-Fattah was due to appear for the second time after hosting a number of panels and sessions in 2023. Within hours of the board’s announcement, Abdel-Fattah issued her own statement, accusing the festival board of “blatant and shameless” anti-Palestinian racism and censorship. She said the board’s attempt to associate her with the Bondi massacre was “despicable”. “The Adelaide Writers Festival Board has stripped me of my humanity and agency, reducing me to an object onto which others can project their racist fears and smears,” she said in the statement. “The Board’s reasoning suggests that my mere presence is ‘culturally insensitive’; that I, a Palestinian who had nothing to do with the Bondi atrocity, am somehow a trigger for those in mourning and that I should therefore be persona non grata in cultural circles because my very presence as a Palestinian is threatening and ‘unsafe’.” read the complete article
Muslim leader demands Bondi terror inquiry tackle all racism, not just anti-Semitism
Lebanese Muslim Association secretary Gamel Kheir says the Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion is a poorly constructed “knee-jerk reaction” after advocating for a broader inquiry into all forms of racism and religious discrimination. Mr Kheir said the Muslim community was wary of a potential federal royal commission into the Bondi Beach terror massacre, for fear it would marginalise them. There was broad support, however, for an inquiry tackling Islamophobia, organised hatred towards all religious groups and fraying social tensions over the Israel-Gaza conflict. “Sadly, it’s exactly what we predicted,” Mr Kheir said. “It’s a knee-jerk reaction looking at an incident that’s happened – which is a disgusting incident, and then we’re not shying away from that – but is it going to look at resolving the long-term issues that are plaguing us? I don’t think so. “It’s restrictive in its very nature, and you only get one chance at a royal commission.” “We want a royal commission that targets all forms of bigotry and racism and how we address it. Whether that be education, whether that be more interfaith dialogue, more interracial dialogue – I don’t know the answers, but I definitely know that if we don’t resolve it holistically, then we’re not going to achieve the end result that we’re all hoping for. read the complete article
France
Why was convicted racist Brigitte Bardot mourned as a Marianne?
When French cultural icon Brigitte Bardot died at the age of 91 in December 2025, official tributes poured in. President Emmanuel Macron described her as “a legend of the century” and a woman who "embodied a life of freedom”, while political figures like Marine Le Pen said she would be “greatly missed.” Yet such comments have largely glossed over a darker dimension of Bardot’s public life: her longstanding Islamophobia, alignment with far-right politics and repeated legal judgments against her for hate speech. Bardot was convicted five times by French courts for incitement to racial or religious hatred based on her comments about Islam, Muslim immigration and ritual animal slaughter practices associated with Eid al-Adha. One of the most well-known cases resulted in a €15,000 fine in 2008 after she wrote a letter denouncing Muslim ritual slaughter, stating she was fed up with the “population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its acts”. Her opposition to the Islamic practice of ritual slaughter of sheep during Eid al-Adha frequently manifested at the intersection of her animal activism and her prejudice against Muslims. Bardot framed her objections in cultural and civilisational terms rather than solely on animal-welfare grounds, linking the practice to her anxieties about the “rise” of Islam in France. Bardot called the ritual slaughter a barbaric practice that “stains the soil of France.” However, this stance was consistently presented not merely as an ethical objection to a method of killing animals, but as part of a broader denunciation of Islam’s presence in French society. read the complete article