Search
SearchToday in Islamophobia: The U.S. and Israel opened this war by launching attacks across Iran on the morning of February 28, since then, at least 555 Iranians have been killed, including well over 100 people — mostly girls — at a school in Minab, while the Council on American-Islamic Relations has said that it recorded over 8,600 anti-Muslim and anti-Arab complains in 2025, making it their highest tally since they began collecting data in 1996, and in the UK, the Centre for Media Monitoring has said in a report released on Monday that of about 40,000 articles it assessed from 30 outlets, 70 percent associated Muslims or Islam with negative aspects or behaviours. Our recommended read of the day is by Areeb Ullah for The Middle East Eye on how in an effort to best define anti-Muslim racism in the country, Communities Secretary Steve Reed announced on Monday a new plan to define Islamophobia to include those perceived to be Muslim. This and more below:
United Kingdom
UK government unveils new definition of anti-Muslim hatred | Recommended Read
The UK government has introduced a new definition of anti-Muslim hate after months of consultation and controversy surrounding the process. Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Communities Secretary Steve Reed unveiled the plan to parliamentarians. "Religious hate crimes targeted at Muslims are also at record levels, with almost half of these crimes targeted towards the Muslim community and many living in fear that they will be targeted because of how they look or assumptions over where they come from," Reed said in the House of Commons. "This government has a duty to act but cannot tackle something that has not been defined. "The government is taking the historic step of adopting a non-statutory definition of anti-Muslim hostility which makes it clear what is unacceptable prejudice, discrimination and hatred directed at Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim." The new definition consists of three paragraph, alongside a longer document published on the government's website. The government's definition, however, does not include any reference to race, which Middle East Eye understands, to have been a contentious issue within the working group of experts who worked on defining anti-Muslim hatred. He added that the government planned to appoint an anti-Muslim hate tsar, similar to the antisemitism tsar already in place. read the complete article
UK media biased against Muslims, says group that analysed 40,000 articles
As anti-Muslim hate crimes rise in Britain, so too does biased coverage of Muslims in the media, a new study suggests. The Centre for Media Monitoring, a nonprofit organisation that examines how Muslims and Islam are portrayed in the media, said in a report released on Monday that of about 40,000 articles it assessed from 30 outlets, 70 percent associated Muslims or Islam with negative aspects or behaviours. “As the largest study of its kind ever conducted in the UK, this report presents deeply concerning evidence of structural bias in how Muslims are portrayed in the UK press,” said Rizwana Hamid, the group’s director. The report said almost half of the articles published about Muslims in the UK, or about 20,000, contained a “high degree of bias”. The data point to a “systemic problem within our media ecosystem”, Hamid said. “When entire communities are repeatedly framed through lenses of suspicion or threat, it inevitably shapes public attitudes, political debate and the everyday lives of British Muslims”. The organisation named The Spectator magazine and GB News television channel as the “worst across all five bias categories” – negative coverage, generalisations, misrepresentations, contextual omissions and problematic headlines – as well as newspapers such as The Telegraph, Jewish Chronicle, Daily Express, The Sun, Daily Mail and The Times. read the complete article
United States
Trump Has Made the U.S. War Machine a Spectacle—And It’s Spectacularly Unpopular
The U.S. and Israel opened this war by launching attacks across Iran on the morning of February 28. Since the beginning of the bombing campaign, at least 555 Iranians have been killed, including well over 100 people — mostly girls — at a school in Minab. Iran is now following through on the retaliation that it promised, and has launched missiles toward at least six countries. At least six U.S. troops have been killed, and with Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to continue bombing, the war is escalating and expanding. While brazen, aggressive U.S. military action in the 21st century did not begin with Donald Trump — the current president is simply bringing the unvarnished reality of U.S. militarism into the spotlight. By doing so, he has exposed the deeply unpopular and undemocratic nature of U.S. foreign policy. Trump’s predecessors were more selective in exposing the public to the machinations of the war machine. For example, former President George W. Bush’s invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, and his catastrophic “shock and awe” occupation of Iraq, were undertaken with extraordinary publicity, such as the speech that he gave under a “Mission Accomplished” banner a mere six weeks after the invasion of Iraq began. But these highly publicized attacks were also conducted alongside covert wars in Pakistan and Somalia. Bush established a surveillance and policing architecture that targeted Muslims — both in the U.S. and around the world — but many of its operations were kept invisible to most Americans. Former President Barack Obama escalated and expanded the “war on terror” through drone strikes while attempting to conceal them from the U.S. public. During his presidency, Joe Biden largely maintained this approach. read the complete article
Trump crackdown on protests and immigration led to Islamophobia, Muslim group says
Record high Islamophobia in the U.S. in 2025 was driven in part by President Donald Trump's crackdown against pro-Palestinian protests and immigration, a Muslim advocacy group said on Tuesday. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it recorded 8,683 anti-Muslim and anti-Arab complaints in 2025, the highest since it began publishing data in 1996, compared to 8,658 in 2024. Most complaints were about employment discrimination (12.7%), immigration and asylum (6.5%), hate incidents (6.4%), and travel discrimination like government watchlists and screenings (5.6%), CAIR's report noted. Over the years, advocates have attributed Islamophobia to the September 11, 2001 attacks; and more recently to anti-immigration sentiment, white supremacy and the fallout of Israel's war in Gaza. read the complete article