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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In United Kingdom, the UK government has published more details about a working group set up to advise it on a possible definition of Islamophobia, which would also protect the right to “insult” religious beliefs and practices, meanwhile in Canada, a hijab-wearing woman who was nearly set on fire at an Ontario library over the weekend is speaking out about the “absolute horror” of what police have said was an unprovoked attack, and in France, hundreds of thousands of people swept through the streets of over 200 locations across France on Saturday in a massive national demonstration against racism and the far right. Our recommended read of the day is by Jonathan Cook for Middle East Eye on how “fascism is stepping out of the shadows in the US and Europe as Israel ostentatiously commits a genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza, armed and given diplomatic cover by its western patrons.” This and more below:
International
The new fascism: Israel is the template for Trump and Europe’s war on freedom | Recommended Read
Early indicators are everywhere that fascism - an ideology that espouses racist hierarchies of human value, of who should have rights and who must not - is reasserting itself in the United States and across large parts of Europe. There is an intensifying distrust and fear of foreigners. Immigrants are seen as destroying the West from within - irreconcilable with, and antagonistic to, a “superior” civilisation and culture. In the US, a permanent resident - apparently the first of many - has been disappeared into the US prison system, pending his deportation. Political speech in opposition to western governments and their crimes is being stigmatised and crushed with old laws and new. Supposedly liberal academic institutions are rolling over as they are menaced with legal and financial sanctions. There is little reason to assume that judicial systems will provide any meaningful check on executive power. The West is taking the first formal steps down a different political path - one whose final destination we know from our own relatively recent history. The far right is now setting the agenda with the same Cheshire Cat grin, whether it’s billionaire TV star Donald Trump in the US, or Westminster’s glorified used-car salesman Nigel Farage in the UK. There are fascist-leaning parties inside the governments of Italy, Hungary, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands and Croatia. Openly far-right parties are jostling for power in France, Germany, Austria, Sweden and, for the first time, Britain. That trend was reflected in a surge of ultra-nationalist delegates elected to the European Parliament last year. The only available bulwarks are bloodless technocrats like Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Britain, President Emmanuel Macron in France, and former Vice President Kamala Harris in the US, offering more of the same failed policies that opened the door to the fascists in the first place. These developments have not come out of the blue. They have been decades in the making. This should come as no surprise, because the main repository for the West’s fascist ideas since the Second World War has been hiding in plain sight: Israel. The West’s undisguised crackdown on the most fundamental of rights, such as political speech and academic freedom, is being carried out in the name of protecting Israel and those western Jews who cheerlead its crimes. Fascism is stepping out of the shadows in the US and Europe as Israel ostentatiously commits a genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza, armed and given diplomatic cover by its western patrons. read the complete article
United States
A Palestinian American medical student objected to working alongside IDF soldiers. The university suspended her
Emory University put Umaymah Mohammad through ‘one of the most dehumanizing’ experiences of her life as a new front opens in the silencing of pro-Palestinian voices. Four years into her studies, 7 October happened. After watching Israel’s deadly retaliation on Gaza in horror from afar, in January 2024, Mohammad sent an email to the entire medical school with the subject: “Palestinian blood stains your hands, Emory University and School of Medicine.” She railed against her fellow students and the school’s faculty for being “silent about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians”. The next day, she gave an interview on the Democracy Now! news program in which she spoke of the climate on campus for protesters. She also talked about an Emory medical school professor who had recently returned from volunteering as a medic in the Israeli military. This would lead, seven months later, to her suspension from medical school for a year, after she was found to have violated the medical school’s standard of “professional conduct”. Mohammad’s case has become a tense showdown over expression, mirroring the conflict playing out in institutions across the US over Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. It is also emblematic of a specific concern: professors and students beginning to object to the presence of Israelis on campus who are fresh off military service. read the complete article
Reading King Lear at Columbia in the Wake of Mahmoud Khalil’s Kidnapping
Shakespeare’s King Lear. On Saturday, March 8, as his wife watched, anonymous federal agents abducted Khalil from the lobby of his apartment building. For 36 hours, not even his lawyer could locate him. The thing about teaching a first-year literature seminar, like I do in Columbia’s Core Curriculum, is that it habituates you to a mode of reading that always looks to find purchase on the world around you and your students: Whatever book you are reading in a given week becomes the lens for everything you experience, and whatever you are experiencing cracks open a new facet of the book. As I stood with dozens of colleagues behind the professors, community members, and rabbis who took turns condemning Khalil’s detention and the assault on universities in the cynical name of Jewish safety, new facets of Lear swam into view. By now, everyone has heard Troy Edgar, the deputy secretary of Homeland Security, struggle on NPR to name something specific that Khalil is accused of. What may be less clear to outsiders is how thoroughly the groundwork for the attempted deportation of Khalil has been laid over the last year by anti-Palestinian and anti-protest activists who have, on social media and in private group chats, perfected the art of doxing and denouncing anyone they deem associated with protest. Such actors have taken credit for Khalil’s detention and, in the days since, issued new lists of noncitizen Columbians they want Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to deport. When we read Lear, I ask my students to think about what it would take to get them to believe the worst about someone. Is it easier if they look different from you? If they are from a certain background? If you already know—or think—you disagree with them or don’t like them for other reasons? Watching people around the country believe the worst and most baseless claims about my friend Khalil, I thought over and over of Shakespeare’s interest in this question. And I thought of all the work that anti-Palestinian culture in this country has invested, for decades, in preparing people of all kinds, but especially my fellow Jews, to believe the worst of any Palestinian or Arab. read the complete article
What Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Says About White Christian Nationalism and The Politics of Repression
Mahmoud Khalil’s harrowing and unlawful detention on March 8th captured widespread attention after plain-clothes ICE agents handcuffed and forced the permanent resident and recent graduate of Columbia University into an unmarked vehicle. The events of that night have resonated deeply in public discourse ever since. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who ordered the deportation citing an obscure federal statute, insists Khalil poses a foreign policy threat to the United States while the Trump administration argues that all pro-Palestinian activism, including Khalil’s, is antisemitic. According to critics, these allegations are a thinly-veiled pretext for undermining the First Amendment. These critics include Jewish groups and protesters demanding his release, some of whom disagree with Khalil’s politics. Analysts warn this incident endangers higher education, immigrants, free speech, freedom of the press—and reveals the inherent injustice at work in the immigration enforcement system. But less attention has been paid to the role that white Christian nationalism has played in fostering the twin roots of Khalil’s arrest: McCarthyism and the historical intolerance for dissent. Khalil’s arrest was not an anomaly, it was an inflection point; a moment encapsulating America’s current expressions of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hostility. But this moment is not without precedent. Contemporary allegations of “antisemitism” chill free speech and political dissent just as McCarthy-era accusations of communism did, fusing state repression with the imperatives of white Christian nationalism. read the complete article
Canada
Muslim community speaks out after hijab-wearing woman was attacked at Ajax library
Members of the Muslim community are calling for more action to combat Islamophobia and hate following a shocking unprovoked attack against a Muslim woman inside a public library in Ajax over the weekend. “The female began yelling profanities at the victim and throwing objects at her head,” police said in a release on Sunday. “The suspect then tried to remove the victim’s hijab, while pouring an unknown liquid on it. The suspect then grabbed a lighter and attempted to light the hijab on fire.” Security personnel at the library heard the victim’s screams for help and managed to intervene, according to police. On Monday, the National Council of Canadian Muslims(NCCM), along with the mayor of Ajax and members of council, came together to condemn the horrific act that unfolded during Ramadan – the most sacred time of the year for the Muslim community. The NCCM’s chief operating officer, Omar Khamissa, told reporters he’s upset that these types of attacks are still happening. “Canada is the leading country among G7 nations when it comes to Islamophobia-related deaths. What happened on Saturday could have easily increased that number,” Khamissa said. “It is an emergency issue, not just for our community, but for all of those who want to live in Canada without hate.” read the complete article
Victim speaks out after woman allegedly tried to light her hijab on fire inside Ajax library
A hijab-wearing woman who was nearly set on fire at an Ontario library over the weekend is speaking out about the "absolute horror" of what police have said was an unprovoked attack. The victim's statement was read aloud by a member of the advocacy group National Council of Canadian Muslims at a news conference on Monday afternoon. "I never imagined that a visit to my favourite, quiet corner of the library would turn into one of the most terrifying moments of my life," said the victim's statement read by senior advocacy officer Fatema Abdalla. Durham Regional Police say a woman was studying at the Ajax Public Library at noon on Saturday, when she was approached by an unknown woman yelling profanities at her and throwing objects at her head. Police say the 25-year-old suspect then tried to remove the woman's hijab while pouring an unknown liquid onto it. "I can't stop thinking, 'What if the lighter had worked? What if my hijab had caught on fire?'" said the victim's statement. Police said the suspect fled the library, but was arrested a few hours later and charged with two counts of assault with a weapon and three counts of failing to comply with probation order. NCCM CEO Stephen Brown said the organization is strongly urging police to investigate the incident as a hate crime. "It is an outrage that this kind of violence has become a regular occurrence in our community. Incidents of Islamophobia have increased exponentially in recent years. It is time for our elected leaders to step up and address this issue collaboratively." read the complete article
India
Erasing Aurangzeb to Marginalize Muslims: India’s ‘Grave’ Concern
On March 17, violent clashes erupted in Nagpur in the western Indian state of Maharashtra between Hindus and Muslims. While rumors about the alleged desecration of a copy of the Quran reportedly triggered the rioting, communal tensions were being built up for weeks by Hindu right-wing groups over the tomb of the 17th-century Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, fraternal organizations of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had staged agitations and threatened to demolish Aurangzeb’s tomb. “We’ve already planned and decided [how and when the demolition will be carried out] and it will surely happen,” a BJP minister in the Maharashtra government said. Aurangzeb (1618-1707) was the longest-serving ruler of one of the most powerful empires in the world. Of all the Mughal rulers, he is the most controversial, variably known as a tyrant or religious bigot. He was likely the most unpopular Mughal ruler. Aurangzeb emerged as a villain in India’s early nationalist discourse of the 1880s and 1890s for actions like imposing the jizya tax on non-Muslims, destroying Hindu temples, and launching brutal expansionist wars amidst an agrarian crisis plaguing the country. The immediate trigger for the latest anti-Aurangzeb agitation was the recently released Hindi movie, “Chaava,” based on the life of Sambhaji, son of Maratha empire founder Shivaji, who epitomizes Marathi nationalist pride. The film depicts the Mughal emperor as a villain. Critics have accused the makers of the film of misrepresenting history. It is among a chain of Bollywood movies in recent years that have promoted Hindu right-wing narratives and hyper-nationalism. However, drawing Muslim rulers into socio-political discussions is not new. read the complete article
How India’s $14bn Muslim endowments are being plundered, even by government
In January this year in Ujjain, a city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, authorities bulldozed nearly 250 properties, including homes, shops and a century-old mosque, to clear a sprawling 2.1 hectares (5.27 acres) of land. The land belonged to the Madhya Pradesh Waqf Board. Derived from Arabic, “waqf” refers to moveable or immoveable properties – mosques, schools, graveyards, orphanages, hospitals and even vacant plots – donated by Muslims for religious or charitable purposes to God, thereby making such property transfers irrevocable and prohibiting sale and other uses. But the Ujjain waqf land was cleared for a so-called Mahakal Corridor, a $1bn government project surrounding the city’s famous Mahakaleshwar Temple. India, home to more than 200 million Muslims, has the largest number of waqf assets in the world – more than 872,000 properties, spanning nearly 405,000 hectares (1 million acres), with an estimated value of about $14.22bn. They are managed by waqf boards in every state and federally-run territory. The Indian parliament is expected to discuss – possibly this week – amendments to the decades-old Waqf Act that has governed these waqf boards, and which has, over the years, entrenched more and more power in their hands. The amendment bill, proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), could give the government unprecedented control over what happens with waqf properties. read the complete article
United Kingdom
UK Islamophobia definition to protect right to 'insult religions'
The UK government has published more details about a working group set up to advise it on a possible definition of Islamophobia which would also protect the right to "insult" religious beliefs and practices. The membership of the working group appears to signal that the government is engaging with the recently launched British Muslim Network (BMN), but not the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) - the largest umbrella body claiming to represent British Muslims. Dominic Grieve, a former Conservative attorney general, has been appointed chair of the group with BMN co-chair Akeela Ahmed among its four other members. Earlier this year it emerged that the government was planning to create a working group to draw up an official definition for anti-Muslim discrimination. This suggested it was rowing back plans to adopt the definition proposed in 2018 by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Muslims. The new working group's terms of reference, published on Monday, include giving advice on "the merits of government adopting a non-statutory definition of unacceptable treatment of Muslims and anyone perceived to be Muslim, including what a proposed definition should be". This establishes that the government has not yet decided that it will adopt any definition of Islamophobia. In apparent reference to widespread criticism, the terms say that any proposed definition "must be compatible with the unchanging right of British citizens to exercise freedom of speech and expression - which includes the right to criticise, express dislike of, or insult religions and/or the beliefs and practices of adherents." read the complete article
France
France stands up to racism and far-right hate
Hundreds of thousands of people swept through the streets of over 200 locations across France on Saturday, March 22, in a massive national demonstration against racism and the far right. The mobilization, launched by nearly 600 organizations – including trade unions, associations, informal collectives, and left political parties – was a collective response to racism, Islamophobia, and other forms of systemic discrimination and the escalation of hate-driven rhetoric promoted by the right. The demonstrations were taken up by participants as a show of unity, standing in stark contrast to what many speakers at the demonstrations described as attempts by the government and far-right forces to divide the public. “To unite the people, we need to eradicate all forms of division, all poisons – starting with the poison of racism,” said Danièle Obono, a parliamentarian from France Unbowed. An estimated 1.2 million people in France experience at least one racist incident every year, ranging from threats and discrimination to physical violence – even murder. Yet only a fraction of these incidents are reported, and even fewer are investigated and prosecuted. This reflects not only a deep-seated mistrust of the institutions meant to fight racism, but their own bias against groups that are constantly exposed to violence. read the complete article