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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, a Republican candidate for US Congress interrupted a Muslim community day at the Texas Capitol building, shouting deeply offensive Islamophobic hate speech from a podium, meanwhile in France, Prime Minister François Bayrou on Saturday, April 26, condemned the fatal stabbing of a Muslim worshiper inside a mosque, as police searched for the suspect, and in India, a pregnant 27-year-old Muslim woman has alleged that a gynecologist in Maheshtala, Kolkata, refused to treat her due to her religious identity. Our recommended read of the day is by Middle East Eye on how the French Muslim community is reeling from the horrific murder of Aboubakar Cisse, with many stating that the mosque murder is “the result of a growing stigmatization of Muslims in France.” This and more below:
France
French Muslims find ‘Islamophobic’ violence is overlooked after mosque murder | Recommended Read
A few minutes later, surveillance footage showed the two men in the prayer room. As Cisse prostrated himself in prayer, Hadzovik pretended to imitate him before brandishing a knife and stabbing him dozens of times in the back, 57 times in total. In a video he posted on Snapchat, the killer proudly claimed responsibility for his crime. "I did it, I did it," he rejoiced. He then uttered a few incomprehensible words and added: "Your shitty Allah, your shitty Allah." For Abdallah Zekri, vice president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) and chairman of the Observatory Against Islamophobia, the characterisation of the murder should be unequivocal. "This is an Islamophobic crime, the worst of all those committed in France against our community," he told MEE. "After the desecration of graves, vandalism of Muslim places of worship and businesses, insults and physical violence, they are now killing worshippers inside mosques," he added, in reference to numerous incidents that have targeted French mosques in recent years, including arson attacks and pig heads found at their doors. According to Zekri, the mosque murder is "the result of a growing stigmatisation of Muslims in France," fuelled by the shift to the right of the political class and the growth of Islamophobic rhetoric. "From morning to night, the far-right media are bashing Muslims. You turn on the television and what do you hear? Islam, Muslims, migrants, OQTFs [deportation orders], it's only about this," he told MEE. "We [Muslims] are accused of every evil and presented as the enemies of France, while the violence we are suffering is completely ignored," he added. read the complete article
72 anti-muslim incidents reported in 2025 so far in France
French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Saturday, April 26, condemned the fatal stabbing of a Muslim worshiper inside a mosque, as police searched for the suspect who filmed the victim while he lay dying. Emily Boyle reports. read the complete article
French left divided over the term 'Islamophobia' after the murder of a Muslim in a mosque
United in condemning the murder of Aboubakar Cissé at the mosque in a small southern French village, the radical left La France Insoumise and the Socialists are split over the use of a term that reignites tensions in France. read the complete article
United States
I witnessed US cruelty as a Guantánamo lawyer. Trump’s deportations are disturbingly familiar
Guantánamo is a horror Americans have tried to forget. But the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) deportation regime resembles so many of Guantánamo’s evils that it compels comparison. That comparison reveals significant differences but frightening similarities. On 11 January 2002, the detention facility opened. The first detainees, in orange jumpsuits, hobbled along in a parade to show the press the success of the government in this battle of the “war on terror”. Despite this dramatic perp walk, there were very few actual terrorists among that group. Indeed, very few real terrorists were ever brought to Gitmo. No hearings, proceedings or reviews were held for any of these initial detainees to determine why they were included. What mattered was not the truth but the photo op. I represented four individuals detained for almost 20 years in Gitmo, so it was not surprising that I reacted viscerally to the sight of people abducted on the streets of my own country by unidentified men in civilian dress; shackled and then shoved into unmarked cars, driven to secret locations, and held incommunicado, including being cut off from families and lawyers. Gitmo was a military base outside the United States and chosen for this purpose because it seemed unlikely that the constitution reached actions involving foreigners there and because any press access could be tightly controlled. That enabled the systematic demonization of detainees, which was critical to denials of any hearing to them. Such demonization was such a success for Gitmo that the first lawyers arrived believing we were meeting monsters. Most attorneys left their first encounters with their clients believing that, while other detainees must be demons, each lawyer’s own client was the unfortunate victim of a mistaken arrest. It was only much later that it became clear that such “mistakes” were the rule, not the exception. read the complete article
Video: Republican running for congress heckles Muslim event in Texas
A Republican candidate for US Congress interrupted a Muslim community day at the Texas Capitol building, shouting deeply offensive Islamophobic hate speech from a podium. Valentina Gomez infiltrated the event by wearing a hijab, which she removed before yelling racist tropes. read the complete article
Greg Abbott threatens Texas city over resolution criticizing Israel
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claims to be all about “America First,” so why is he threatening to punish a city in his state for insufficient loyalty to Israel? The city council of San Marcos has set up a vote for next week on a largely symbolic resolution that calls for “an Immediate, Permanent, and Sustained Ceasefire in Occupied Palestine, Arms Embargo on the State of Israel, Recognition of Palestinian Sovereignty and Protection of Constitutional Rights.” The resolution specifically highlights that Palestinians of Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths are facing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and says that the council “condemns anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic, antisemitic, and all xenophobic rhetoric and attacks.” Nonetheless, in a threatening letter to San Marcos’ mayor, Abbott decried the resolution for being “antisemitic.” In the letter, Abbott wrote that “anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies” and said the proposed resolution “seems calculated to violate” a state law on boycotting Israel. The resolution notes that San Marcos residents’ tax dollars funded more than $4 million of Israel’s weapons purchases in 2024 and says that San Marcos “stands to benefit from a reallocation of local funds towards essential domestic priorities such as transportation, education, housing, healthcare, environmental protection, and public goods and services, which currently face neglect due to state and federal appropriations to Israel’s military.” read the complete article
India
Treated By Identity: The Intersectional Nature Of Communal Discrimination Against Muslims
A pregnant 27-year-old Muslim woman, alleged that a gynaecologist in Maheshtala, Kolkata, refused to treat her due to her religious identity. The doctor reportedly claimed that she would not treat ‘Mohammedan’ patients and refused to treat the woman in light of the Pahalgam terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir, where 26 individuals (majority of which were Hindu) were killed. She is reported to have known the patient by her first name for 7 months, and began refusing treatment upon learning her last name. The doctor allegedly said that people of the woman’s religion were killing people of her religion. This is not the first instance of a communal narrative affecting actions of individuals and interest groups at larger levels. The US State Department Report on International Religious Freedom enumerates how existing legal frameworks and political rhetorics act as inciting elements on social attitudes and collective perception of Muslims. They claim that this is evident via attacks on places of worship, disruption of religious gatherings, physical assaults and hate speeches at Hindu nationalist gatherings calling for violence or marginalisation of the Muslim community. They find support in their claim that the perpetrators of such action have been selectively investigated and apprehended, to be prejudiced against the Muslim minorities. India’s Ministry of External Affairs rejected the report, stating it was based on misinformation and biased sources. read the complete article