Search
SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Canada, family and friends of a Muslim man from the city of St. Albert are “traumatized” after he was physically assaulted last week while outside of his local mosque, meanwhile in the United States, the new book Irregular Army by Matt Kennard uncovers how the US military, desperate to fill its ranks during the War on Terror, systematically looked the other way on things such as neo-Nazi tattoos, gang affiliations, and mental illness, and lastly, the Trump Administration has announced a new counterterrorism strategy, which claims for the first time that the Muslim Brotherhood is the originator of both Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State extremist group. Our recommended read of the day is by Yu-Ru Lin for The Conversation on how new research shows that powerful stories keep members of hate groups galvanized, either by repeating the story over and over or by constantly adding fresh accusations and interpretations to it. This and more below
United States
Online hate groups sustain their messages by repeating powerful stories or routinely adding new allegations | Recommended Read
Hate communities often flourish online for years, raising the question of how they persist. My research team has found that powerful stories keep members of a hate group galvanized, either by repeating the story over and over or by constantly adding fresh accusations and interpretations to it. I’m a computational social scientist who studies social and political networks. My colleagues and I uncovered these trends by examining 10 years of posts, reactions and participation patterns in Facebook groups that shared antisemitic and Islamophobic content. Our findings have been accepted at the 2026 International Conference on Web and Social Media. When we put these pieces together, we discovered some clear patterns. Messages posted by a few very active people were strongly associated with higher site engagement in the form of likes and shares in the near term. And repetition – espousing the same ideas again and again – was an effective tactic. We also found that when many users kept adding fresh accusations, conspiracy theories and explanations, a group tended to persist. Very uniform content that used the same framing led to less engagement over time. read the complete article
Did the US military turn a blind eye to recruiting neo-Nazis? | Matt Kennard
"He said to me: My commanders liked the fact I was a Nazi. They saw it as making me a better warrior." Matt Kennard is a British investigative journalist who co-founded Declassified UK, and is also the author of Irregular Army. It’s a book that uncovers how the US military, desperate to fill its ranks during the War on Terror, began looking the other way on things that would once have disqualified soldiers from serving, such as neo-Nazi tattoos, gang affiliations, and mental illness. In this conversation on Real Talk, Kennard speaks with Mohamed Hashem about the openly neo-Nazi veterans he met and interviewed, the moral waiver programme that opened the door to convicted felons, and the Rumsfeld Doctrine that was the catalyst. read the complete article
US 'counterterrorism' strategy links Muslim Brotherhood to Al-Qaeda, IS for first time
The US has announced a new counterterrorism strategy, which claims for the first time ever that the Muslim Brotherhood is the originator of both Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State extremist group. The strategy was announced on Tuesday by Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s counterterrorism director, who has a history of making Islamophobic statements. In January 2026, the US State Department designated the Muslim Brotherhood’s Lebanese, Egyptian, and Jordanian branches as “terrorist organisations” for the first time. The strategy document claims that the Muslim Brotherhood is “the root of all modern Islamist terrorism predicated on recreating the Muslim Caliphate and killing or enslaving non-Muslims”. “President Trump knows that all modern Jihadi groups, from al Qaeda to ISIS to Hamas, can trace their roots back to one organization: the Muslim Brotherhood,” it adds. read the complete article
James Yee – Muslim Chaplain at Guantanamo
Captain James Yee volunteered after 9/11 to be the US Army Muslim Chaplain at Guantanamo Bay prison. But then he was accused of spying, espionage, and aiding the alleged Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo. He was held in solitary confinement for 76 days. read the complete article
Online hate groups sustain their messages by repeating powerful stories or routinely adding new allegations
Hate communities often flourish online for years, raising the question of how they persist. My research team has found that powerful stories keep members of a hate group galvanized, either by repeating the story over and over or by constantly adding fresh accusations and interpretations to it. I’m a computational social scientist who studies social and political networks. My colleagues and I uncovered these trends by examining 10 years of posts, reactions and participation patterns in Facebook groups that shared antisemitic and Islamophobic content. Our findings have been accepted at the 2026 International Conference on Web and Social Media. When we put these pieces together, we discovered some clear patterns. Messages posted by a few very active people were strongly associated with higher site engagement in the form of likes and shares in the near term. And repetition – espousing the same ideas again and again – was an effective tactic. We also found that when many users kept adding fresh accusations, conspiracy theories and explanations, a group tended to persist. Very uniform content that used the same framing led to less engagement over time. read the complete article
OK Muslims have religious rights despite efforts to erase them | Opinion
“As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.” Proverbs 26:11 aptly describes the recent resurrection of efforts to erase a disfavored religious minority from Oklahoma. Agree or disagree with Muslims, the protection of free exercise of religion is a duty the Constitution imposes on federal, state and local government. Islam is an American religion. Muslims arrived in North America in numbers during the colonial-era in the holds of slave ships, in chains, with no religious or individual liberty. Islam has been in Oklahoma for at least 50 years. The Islamic Society of Tulsa was founded in 1977. The Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City (ISGOC) was established in 1997. There were 16 mosques reported in Oklahoma in the 2020 American Mosque Survey. Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study for 2023-24 says Muslims are less than 1% of Oklahoma’s population. In recent months, some public figures in the state have tried to tell others that American freedoms come with their conditions. Oklahomans must look, speak, think and worship in their approved ways, or these others do not belong. read the complete article
Canada
‘Looking over their shoulders’: Advocates call for anti-Islamophobia supports as man charged in St. Albert assault
The family and friends of a Muslim man are “traumatized” after he was physically attacked in St. Albert last week. Ryan Richard Lacasse, a 40-year-old St. Albert resident, was charged Thursday with aggravated assault, uttering threats and two Traffic Safety Act offences. He’s accused of assaulting Ali Wahad Noor on a road outside a mosque in St. Albert on May 1. Noor, 56, was leaving the Muslim Association of St. Albert with his wife around 2:30 p.m. when someone drove up to them and cut off their car, says spokesperson Ahmed Abdul Kadir. “(He) gets out of the car, cursing them, calling them names, calling them apes, the n-word, moron, and then goes and insults (Noor’s) religion,” Kadir told CTV News Edmonton. “F–king Muslims, anything like that. And then he said, ‘I’m going to kill you.’” Kadir believes Noor was punched unconscious. Noor was taken to hospital and treated for lacerations and a chipped tooth. read the complete article