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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the Netherlands, fourteen Muslim organizations have filed a joint criminal complaint against far-right politician Geert Wilders, accusing him of inciting hatred, discrimination, and violence against Muslims, meanwhile in India, the country’s opposition parties held a protest demanding the rollback of a revision of the voter list in the eastern state of Bihar, which will disproportionally impact Muslims, and in Spain, the central government has ordered officials in the town of Jumilla to scrap a ban on religious gatherings in public sports centers, describing it as a “discriminatory” measure that breaches the right to religious freedom as it will mainly impact Muslims. Our recommended read of the day is by Barry Ellsworth for Anadolu Agency on the spike in Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism in Canada over the last two years, which has left Canadian Muslim families facing threats, vandalism, and fear—shattering the country’s multicultural image. This and more below:
Canada
‘Living in fear’: Islamophobia surge shatters Canada’s multicultural image | Recommended Read
Canada has long cultivated the image of a multicultural society as it welcomes hundreds of thousands of residents from other countries annually. But for many years, this perception has been facing a stress test, especially for the country’s Muslim community, as Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian sentiment surge over Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, where about 2 million people are facing starvation due to Israel’s blockade. In Toronto, a gesture of goodwill from the city’s mayor quickly turned sour after it was met with a wave of online hate. Olivia Chow posted a short video to Instagram last month welcoming newly arrived Palestinian refugees to the city, captioned in capital letters: “Salam Aleikum! Welcome to Toronto!” Within days, the clip drew 51,000 views and about 1,000 comments – more than half of them Islamophobic, according to the mayor’s office. Some commenters mocked the refugees’ appearance, claiming they looked well-fed and showed no visible trace of hunger. For Fareed Khan, founder of Canadians United Against Hate, the backlash was no surprise. “Since October 2023, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism has exploded across Canada to levels higher than they were after 9/11,” Khan said in an email interview. “The reason is that anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian narratives have become normalized over the past 24 years, and certainly over the past decade.” read the complete article
India
India’s opposition protests against electoral roll revision
India’s opposition parties have held a protest demanding the rollback of a revision of the voter list in the eastern state of Bihar, where elections are scheduled for its legislature in November. Hundreds of lawmakers and supporters began Monday’s protest from parliament and were confronted by police who stopped them from marching towards the Election Commission office in the capital, New Delhi. Police briefly detained dozens of lawmakers, including the leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi. India’s opposition accuses the Election Commission of rushing through a mammoth electoral roll revision in the eastern state of Bihar, saying the exercise could render vast numbers of citizens unable to vote. Gandhi last week said the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar is an “institutionalised chori [theft] to deny the poor their right to vote”. The revision affecting nearly 80 million voters involves strict documentation requirements from citizens, triggering concerns it could lead to the exclusion of vulnerable groups, especially those who are unable to produce the paperwork required to prove their citizenship. Critics and opposition leaders said they are hard to come by in Bihar, where the literacy rate is among the lowest in India. They said the exercise will impact minorities the most, including Muslims, and bar them from voting. read the complete article
India: Hindu nationalists force religious conversions
DW traveled to India's Bastar region of Chhattisgarh state and witnessed efforts by right-wing nationalist Hindus to push Christians to convert to Hinduism. DW follows BJP local leader Raja Ram Todem as he confronts a Christian who converted after receiving medical help from missionaries. The man is then subjected to a forced "reconversion" ceremony, part of a broader campaign targeting religious minorities. The crackdown includes denying burial rights to Christians, as seen in the case of another man, whose father was buried far from his ancestral land. Local pastors warn that rising sectarian tensions are eroding religious freedom and fueling fear among Christian communities. read the complete article
Spain
Spanish town ordered to scrap religious festivals ban mainly impacting Muslims
Spain’s central government has ordered officials in a Spanish town to scrap a ban on religious gatherings in public sports centres, describing it as a “discriminatory” measure that breaches the right to religious freedom as it will mainly impact Muslims. “There can be no half-measures when it comes to intolerance,” Ángel Víctor Torres, the minister for territorial policy, wrote on social media on Monday. Rightwing opposition parties, he added, “cannot decide who has freedom of worship and who does not”. Last week, it emerged that the conservative-led council in Jumilla, a town of about 27,000 residents in the region of Murcia, had backed the ban. As its Muslim residents had for years used the facilities to come together to mark Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, the motion was widely seen as targeting the town’s estimated 1,500 Muslims. read the complete article
Netherlands
Explained: How Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders continues to demonise Muslims
Fourteen Muslim organisations in the Netherlands have filed a joint criminal complaint against far-right politician Geert Wilders, accusing him of inciting hatred, discrimination, and violence against Muslims. The legal action, filed on August 11, 2025, follows a controversial post Wilders shared on the social media platform X on August 4. The image showed the left half of a young blonde woman labelled as “good” and the right half of an angry, elderly woman wearing a headscarf labelled as “bad.” Muslim Rights Watch, one of the signatory groups, said the imagery portrays Muslims as “dangerous and unwanted” and closely resembles Nazi-era propaganda that depicted Jews as “inhuman, threatening, and unwanted.” “This image is suspiciously similar to those used in Nazi Germany to dehumanise Jews,” Muslim Rights Watch said in a Facebook statement. read the complete article
United States
The Case America Forgot – And Can’t Afford to Ignore
With everything that’s happened in the world since Sept. 11, 2001, it’s understandable that many Americans remain unaware of one staggering fact: The alleged planners of the attacks have yet to be tried. In “America’s Trial: Torture and the 9/11 Case on Guantanamo Bay,” Lawdragon editor John Ryan pulls back the curtain on the case that was once expected to be “The Trial of the Century” but has instead been stuck in a never-ending grind of pretrial proceedings. Drawing on ten years of firsthand reporting, Ryan documents the military commission against the five Guantanamo detainees accused of orchestrating the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. The case has been plagued by delays, legal entanglements and the shadow of CIA torture – raising difficult questions about whether a democracy can fairly prosecute men it once subjected to severe abuse and incommunicado detention. Despite the case’s historic weight, it remains an under-reported and, at times, ignored case. Ryan, one of only two journalists in the world to report regularly from the base over the past decade, has attended every session since October 2015. Weaving in elements of journalistic memoir, “America’s Trial” offers a rare glimpse into the surreal, high-stakes and often absurd world of Guantanamo’s legal ecosystem – where a small beach town becomes the unlikely stage for a reckoning with national trauma and moral compromise. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Muslim Women Are More than Just Political Punchlines for Headlines – MCB Responds to Reform UK Gimmick
Commenting on the recent political gimmick by Reform setting up ‘Reform for Women,’ Dr Naomi Green, MCB Assistant Secretary said: “This so called “Reform for Women” conference claimed to speak for women, but it sounded more like an exercise in dusting off old tropes and dog-whistle politics. It centred on the tired narrative of “saving women and girls from the evil Muslim man” – a framing that does nothing to actually protect women, and everything to stoke division. Yes, let’s talk about violence against women and girls, but not through the lazy, dangerous lens that singles out one community and stereotypes an entire group of people. If they had spoken to Muslim women themselves, they might have learned that we are leading businesses, excelling in academia, serving in Parliament, running charities, and standing at the forefront of social change. read the complete article