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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has filed a federal lawsuit against anti-Muslim Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine for blocking an American who disagreed with his views on X, meanwhile in the Uninted Kingdom, ministers are being urged to drop the requirement for mosques to prove they have faced a hate crime before they can apply for protective security, and lastly, the Worcester Muslim Welfare Association (WMWA) in Worcester, UK was targeted by a male suspect who set fire to the building. Our recommended read of the day is by Taj Ali for Al Jazeera on how British Muslims are fearing for their safety and security amid the rise of far-right politicians and groups who are spreading Islamophobia. This and more below:
United Kingdom
Mosques attacked, children racially abused as hard right rises in UK | Recommended Read
“People here are tired, scared and feel forgotten,” says Nabila*, a Muslim mother of two in Basildon, a town in the English county of Essex. she recalls a string of incidents in recent months: Glass thrown from a residential building at Muslim children, a racist attack on the local mosque where red crosses were daubed across its walls alongside the words “Christ is King” and “This is England”, and reports of drivers accelerating as Muslim women cross the road with their children. After being racially abused while walking through her favourite park, she stopped going there altogether. Women, she said, are increasingly changing their daily routines, constantly watching over their shoulders. Racism now permeates every aspect of their lives, she added. Religious hate crimes against Muslims rose by 19 percent, with a spike following the Southport murders and subsequent riots in mid-2025, the Home Office said. The rise comes as hard-right politicians and activists, such as Reform leader Nigel Farage and the Islamophobic activist Tommy Robinson, rail against immigration. According to recent YouGov polling, if a general election were held tomorrow, Reform would lead with 24 percent. Shabna Begum, head of Runnymede Trust, a race equality think tank, said, “Mainstream political and media actors have played in normalising and enabling racist narratives that have scapegoated migrants, people seeking asylum, Muslims and people of colour generally.” read the complete article
Palestinian solidarity in Britain ‘being silenced and criminalised’
Palestinian solidarity is being “silenced, criminalised and sanctioned”, according to an advocacy group that says it has recorded more than 900 examples of repression across Britain in the last six years. People had been targeted with smears, disinformation, harassment, doxing (having private or identifying information published online), visa cancellations, financial blacklisting, loss of employment and arrest, according to the European Legal Support Center, which, along with the research group Forensic Architecture, has created the “index of repression”. The ELSC said such consequences had been justified by allegations of antisemitism or terrorism support, with the main “actors of repression” being police (220 incidents), educational institutions (192), pro-Israel advocacy groups (141), and journalists and other media actors (141). read the complete article
This Ramadan, know this: I am me, a Muslim and a Briton. I am not a headline, a threat or a stereotype
What we are dealing with is not a vague fear. It is hostility. Suspicion. Discrimination. Abuse. So, I call it what it is, anti-Muslim hatred. Not a day passes without some overt expression of it in our national life. A crime committed by one Muslim becomes an indictment of all Muslims. A cultural practice is wrenched from context and weaponised to provoke anxiety. A theological concept is distorted to imply threat. And on the streets, and increasingly online, it can turn into violence, intimidation or exclusion directed at anyone who “looks” Muslim. I have lived this contradiction personally. No one calls me the Muslim chancellor of the University of Manchester. No one describes me as the Muslim chair of the Church of England’s safeguarding panel. When I am chair of The Lowry, my faith is rarely considered relevant. But when I was chief prosecutor for north-west England, suddenly I became the “Muslim prosecutor”. When I took on grooming gangs and secured justice where others had failed, I was the “Muslim” decision-maker. I remember being introduced to the great and the good in New York by Niall Ferguson as “the Muslim prosecutor that prosecutes Muslims”. When far-right groups targeted me, my professional record did not matter. My religion did. Why is my faith incidental when I succeed in civic leadership, but central when I exercise authority? Why is it invisible when Muslims contribute, yet glaring when Muslims are accused? read the complete article
Home Office urged to make it easier for mosques to apply for protection
Ministers are being urged to drop the requirement for mosques to prove they have faced a hate crime before they can apply for protective security. Last week, the Home Office announced up to £40m in funding for security staff, CCTV, fencing, alarms and floodlights for mosques, Muslim schools and community centres through the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme. However, Akeela Ahmed, the chief executive of the British Muslim Trust, the government’s official partner in monitoring Islamophobia, says mosques have been left unprotected by the scheme because they have to prove they have been targeted, with graffiti for example, before they can access the cash. read the complete article
Muslim community center in UK targeted with 'deliberate' arson attempt
A Muslim community building next to a mosque in Worcester faced a 'deliberate act of arson,' A Muslim welfare association said in a statement on Thursday. Community building, next to a new mosque, belonging to Worcester Muslim Welfare Association (WMWA) in Worcester, West Midlands of England, was targeted by a male suspect early hours on Thursday. WMWA said in a statement that the building was the Unity House Community Hub on Stanley Road, Worcester, which was subjected to a "deliberate act of arson." Video clips circulating on social media show a man setting a fire near the building before running away as flames grow. The group said the matter has been reported to West Mercia Police, adding that the incident has caused "enormous distress across our community." "We cannot and will not view it in isolation," said the statement, recalling that this came during the holy month of Ramadan, shortly after the deeply disturbing attack on a mosque in Manchester. read the complete article
International
Except on the Other Side of the Fence
During more than two years of war in the Gaza Strip, many members of the liberal centrist bloc (who in Israel are called leftists, for some reason) admitted that something inside them had calcified. Their feelings had been blunted, their empathy for the Palestinians reduced, their sensitivity destroyed. The Arabic language had become chilling to their ears, and Arab citizens of Israel who, just yesterday, had been their colleagues, neighbors or friends had become objects of suspicion. After the national trauma of October 7, 2023, and after many Israelis supported genocide and the destruction of Gaza, or at least remained silent, it has become clear that part of the liberal bloc now feels a need to repair its self-image. The heat of vengeance has died down and the people who "sobered up" after October 7 have sobered up again. So now it's time to embrace the narrative that "we don't hate Arabs," "Israeli Arabs are a model of coexistence" and "no to racism in our schools." For liberals, a public embrace of Arab citizens of Israel could become a kind of certificate of moral integrity. True, we supported the annihilation of Arabs, but not all Arabs. How could it be that some people are shocked by displays of racism in television studios or in the streets but are indifferent to in the best case, or enthusiastic about in the worst, destruction, killing and the violent routine of the occupation? How can the same lips that denounce a crude statement be capable of justifying the destruction of entire neighborhoods? read the complete article
'Israel is promised only to the Jewish people' | In search of Palestine: episode 2
In the second episode of a new series, reporter Matthew Cassel travels across the West Bank to document what daily life looks like under deepening Israeli occupation. In this episode he travels from Bethlehem to Nablus, to ask those living there if a Palestinian state is possible amidst an increasingly entrenched settler network. read the complete article
Who is really safe in India and Israel?
The prominence of Hindutva’s signature colour was difficult to ignore and suggested a clear ease with, and affirmation of, the ideological framework underpinning Modi’s politics. The ideological partnership between Netanyahu and Modi rests on a belief that both leaders stand as a bulwark against what they consider an existential civilisational struggle against Islam and Islamism. Bibi’s Israel is meant to serve as a haven for all Jews, while Modi’s India is meant to keep Hindus safe. But it is worth asking, whose safety is really guaranteed in Israel and India? The genocide in Gaza and the ongoing settler violence and annexation of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank are only the latest reminders that Palestinians cannot expect to be safe in the Holy Land. Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about 19 percent of the population, face various forms of institutionalised discrimination and are, in fact, as Amnesty International put it, “lesser citizens” of Israel. But not all Jewish citizens of Israel are “safe” either. Racial discrimination against Mizrahi Jews has been a matter of official policy, written into the very foundations of the state of Israel. Racial discrimination is not a matter of the past, and this white supremacy is ever more evident in the structural and everyday racism faced by Ethiopian Jews. Though accounting for only 2 percent of the population, more than half of Ethiopian Jewish citizens live below the poverty line. India is no different. Structural and everyday discrimination faced by the country’s minority Muslim population is well documented across legal, political and social spheres. Critics and oppositional voices remain under threat. But are all Hindus safe under a Hindu nationalist leadership? Caste-based discrimination, while not an invention of this government, remains a central feature of Indian society and has intensified under Modi’s rule. read the complete article
United States
Civil rights group sues anti-Muslim Congressman Randy Fine for blocking US citizen on X
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said on Wednesday that it has filed a federal lawsuit against anti-Muslim Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine for blocking an American who disagreed with his views on X. The ADC worked in conjunction with Muslim Legal to file the suit. "Fine, one of the most bigoted and racist members ever elected to federal office, is being sued for violating the First Amendment Rights of plaintiff Amjad Masad. After going on a racist tirade on his official X (formerly Twitter) account, Fine blocked Mr Masad for mocking his anti-Muslim post," the ADC said in a statement. "The lawsuit challenges Fine’s blatant viewpoint discrimination by using an official public forum to speak about government business, then silencing critics who respond to his rhetoric," the group added. "ADC’s complaint alleges that Fine posted inflammatory, anti-Muslim rhetoric and then blocked Masad for pushing back, cutting him off from participating in public discussion threads Fine has opened to everyone else." Earlier this month, Fine caused outrage by writing on X: "If they force us to choose the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one." read the complete article