![[Farid Hafez]](https://bridge.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-04-at-10.45.01-AM.jpeg "Farid Hafez")
The Bridge Initiative is a multi-year research project on Islamophobia housed in Georgetown University.
The Bridge Initiative aims to disseminate original and accessible research, offers engaging analysis and commentary on contemporary issues, and hosts a wide repository of educational resources to inform the general public about Islamophobia.
Research & Resources
Macron’s policies will further stigmatize French Muslims
Under the banner of protecting the state from “Islamic terrorism,” French authorities launched a crackdown on the country’s nearly six million Muslims. On Monday, October 19th, the government carried out raids targeting Muslim civil society, marking 231 people for deportation, arresting dozens of others, and classifying more than 50 Muslim associations for dissolution. In response…
Institutionalizing the Surveillance of Muslim Activism in Austria
Austria is cementing its authoritarian policy of demonizing Muslims at an alarming rate. The ruling centrist-right, Christian-democratic Austrian Peoples Party (ÖVP) attempted to close mosques in 2018 and implemented a school headscarf ban in 2019, and now plans to institutionalize suspicion of Islamic activism through government monitoring and surveillance. To justify these policies, ÖVP uses…
Facebook’s failure to tackle hate speech online has real world consequences
An August 14th article in the Wall Street Journal revealed that top Facebook policy executives in India failed to remove hate speech promoted by Hindu nationalists despite the content being “flagged internally for promoting violence.” Ankhi Das, Facebook’s top policy executive in India, ignored the call to remove the posts, citing concerns that such action…