Search
SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United Kingdom, Reform UK says it is investigating social media posts made by one of its candidates, Daniel Devaney, who said he wanted to “blast [Muslims] all of the face of the earth [sic]”, meanwhile in Canada, a Muslim woman wearing a hijab was the victim of a verbal and physical Islamophobic attack on a Durham Region bus, and lastly in China, a chilling order made by the state to instruct Xinjiang regional authorities to meet strict quotas for the detention of Uyghur residents has perpetuated a climate of fear and intimidation. Our recommended read of the day is by Yasmine El-Sabawi for Middle East Eye, on how attacks on Muslim-American individuals and institutions are at a 15-month high under the Trump administration. This and more below:
United States
Attacks on US Muslims rose eleven-fold this year alone, advocacy group says | Recommended Read
Attacks on Muslim-American individuals and institutions are at a 15-month high under the Trump administration, the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (Mpac) revealed on Thursday. The group documented an eleven-fold increase in targeted incidents in the first three months of this year alone. At least nine of the attacks occurred in March, ranging from vandalism and bomb threats at mosques to sexual assaults against Muslim women, according to Mpac's policy paper entitled, "The Pitfalls of Operation Epic Fury: How the Undeclared War Against Iran Hurts Americans’ Interests Abroad and at Home." "The one factor we can identify in March is that at the end of February, the war in Iran started, and that is what we think is the delineation between what we saw before in 2025 versus what we're seeing here," Khuram Zaman, the founding director of the Center for Security, Technology and Policy at Mpac, told Middle East Eye. "It's become so mainstream to talk about Muslims," he added. "The talk of burning a mosque down, or doing an IED at a mosque, that's not stuff that you would normally see on social media. And all of a sudden, since the war in Iran, it's becoming acceptable for people [to] use that kind of terminology." read the complete article
Inside Texas Republicans’ Effort to Make the Midterms About Islamophobia
On a cold spring morning in this tony Dallas suburb, dozens of activists had heard the call. They had read the posts; they understood the stakes: America was in crisis, facing a threat from within. It was time for action, and time to take a 5 a.m. bus to the state capital to protest Sharia law. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the group that organized the trip, the True Texas Project, part of the “antidemocratic hard right.” Its leaders have expressed fears of white genocide; the woman who funded the trip runs a right-wing-themed cell phone company called Patriot Mobile. This handful of activists, composed of a range of people — from retirees to Texans in their 30s — is part of a statewide campaign against Islam. In primaries and now the runoffs for the midterms, the Texas GOP placed a bet on using rhetoric about the supposed threat posed by Islam as a means to scare and motivate voters. It’s paid off. Almost 95 percent voted in favor of a proposition on the Texas GOP primary ballot telling the state to “ban Sharia law.” The prospect of being weak on Islam has become the subject of intra-Republican Party attacks, and, increasingly, inspired repression by state officials. Now, some argue that the party can take that strategy to the national level, making it a theme for the midterm elections in the fall. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Reform candidate wants to ‘blast’ all Muslims ‘off the face of the earth’
Reform’s local elections campaign in Bradford is off to a bad start. Although party leaders said they have the best vetting procedures in Britain, HOPE not hate today exposes one of their candidates for extreme anti-Muslim comments. Daniel Devaney, who is Reform’s candidate in the Bradford ward of Clayton & Fairweather Green, said he wanted to “blast [Muslims] all of the face of the earth [sic]”. Writing on Facebook in September 2024, he further described Muslims as “pure scum”, adding: “We’re being invaded by potential terrorists day in day out.” Devaney said Britain is being “invaded by people from a Muslim country that wants to change us”. He also joked about Muslims being paedophiles. “New Muslim valentine card,” he wrote in a post in 2024. “Roses are red violets are blue my girlfriend is 11 and I’m 52.” read the complete article
Reform UK candidate probed over Facebook posts
Reform UK says it is investigating social media posts made by one of its candidates standing in next month's local elections in East Sussex. Ricky Hodges, who runs Sentry Scaffolding and is a former Coldstream guard, is vying to become a councillor in the Tressell ward on Hastings Borough Council on 7 May. In Facebook posts over a period of years, Hodges claimed Muslims "milk our benefits system" to fund mosques, called for the Mayor of London to be "put into a coma", and said he would punch a "squirming little leftie" in the throat. Reform UK's leader, Nigel Farage, told BBC South East his party would "investigate" the comments but would not confirm what action could be taken against Hodges. Last year, on the 20th anniversary of the London 7/7 bombings, Hodges posted images of a bus destroyed in the attacks alongside Southport killer Axel Rudakubana. An excerpt from the post reads: "We have an open border with 1000s of Islamic extremists coming in unchallenged! "We have seen sexual crimes go up 200% in the last ten years alone! Majority of crimes, especially rapes, are committed by foreign nationals from Muslim countries." read the complete article
International
Book: The Church, the Far Right and the Claim to Christianity
This important and helpful book is a response to the rise of the Far Right in Europe, including Britain, and particularly to the growth of specifically Christian justifications for Far Right activity. It is the result of conversations between a number of academics about a 2020 publication, The Claim to Christianity, by Hannah Strømmen and Ulrich Schmiedel. Both books concentrate heavily on the Far Right's use of Muslims and Islam (rather than ethnicity or other targets of Far Right concern) as the focus of their anger and disapproval. Many church-going Christians are among those who see Muslims as a growing threat to British or European identity. Strømmen and Schmiedel take issue with those who say that those who use Christian beliefs to defend Far Right activity are only posing as Christians and are to be distinguished from 'real' Christians who reject Far Right views. They suggest that the Christian Churches have to take responsibility for the fact that some of our theology and practices have long been connected with prejudice against the 'other', and particularly against Jewish and Muslim people. read the complete article
Canada
Hijab-wearing woman verbally, physically assaulted on bus in Scarborough, Muslim rights group says
A Muslim woman wearing a hijab was the victim of a verbal and physical Islamophobic attack on a Durham Region bus in Scarborough, a rights group says. The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), which posted a video of the incident on social media, said it was “outraged” by the behaviour of another passenger on the bus. read the complete article