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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Europe, the EU executive has pushed back against far-right criticism over the allocation of over €17 million in grants by the leading European Research Council (ERC) to Islam-related projects, insisting they won funding on scientific merit, meanwhile in the United Kingdom, a legal expert has warned that Irish novelist Sally Rooney could be arrested under the Terrorism Act after saying she intends to use proceeds from her work to support Palestine Action, and in India, an investigation by Scroll.in finds that authorities in Assam are disproportionately targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims in their crackdown on ‘foreigners.’ Our recommended read of the day is by Eric Killelea for Chron revealing that amid state-led scrutiny of the East Plano Islamic Center’s proposed “EPIC City” development, the Texas Funeral Service Commission’s chair, Kristin Tips, shared Islamophobic images, videos, and disinformation via text messages with then-executive director Scott Bingaman. This and more below:
United States
Texas Funeral Commission chair texts Anti-Islam hate speech amid EPIC City battle | Recommended Read
Earlier this year, Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn launched state and federal investigations into the East Plano Islamic Center's proposed EPIC City project meant to build about 1,000 homes and a mosque in the Dallas suburb of Josephine. The conservative Christian politicians spread unfounded claims on social media against the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), one of the largest mosques in North Texas. They accused EPIC leaders of violating housing laws and illegally operating funeral services. They even alleged, without evidence, that the project discriminated against Christians and Jews and intended to create a Muslim-only community that would impose Islamic law on residents. EPIC has denied the allegations. Muslim leaders in North Texas told Chron that they were becoming increasingly targeted by Islamaphobic threats and attacks. In June, the Department of Justice quietly announced that it had completed its civil rights probe, kickstarted by Cornyn, without filing a lawsuit or charge since it had "affirmed that all will be welcome to any future development." In a blockbuster investigation updated Monday, the Houston Chronicle reported that Texas Funeral Service Commission (TFSC) board chair Kristin Tips had frequently shared false, anti-Muslim images, YouTube videos and links to far-right article links to then-executive director Scott Bingaman amid the legislative session. The text exchanges between TFSC leaders reflect the way many conservative Texas politicians have relied on online disinformation to spread anti-Muslim messages and, in the process, appeal to far-right supporters. On Monday, Chron found that Abbott alone has posted nearly 20 EPIC-related messages on X in recent months, often receiving praise as well as encouragement to continue investigating the project. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Sally Rooney could be arrested under Terrorism Act after pledging royalties to Palestine Action
The Irish novelist Sally Rooney could be arrested under the Terrorism Act after saying she intends to use proceeds from her work to support Palestine Action, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK last month, a legal expert has warned. Meanwhile, No 10 said that supporting the group was an offence under the act, after Rooney had made her pledge. Royalties from Rooney’s books, including Normal People and Conversations with Friends, along with BBC adaptations of them, would be used to support Palestine Action, she wrote in the Irish Times over the weekend. The legal expert also said that the bestselling writer could face prosecution if she were to express her views at, for example, a UK book festival, underscoring the proscription’s “gross disproportionality”. read the complete article
Sustainably Muslim: the movement reconnecting communities with nature
A short while ago, Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” without tougher immigration policies. His words came at a time when the far right poses its most serious threat in decades, with communities still recovering a year after racist riots and protests continuing outside accommodation housing people seeking asylum. In light of this, our new series Island of Neighbours tells stories of community cohesion and of grassroots projects bridging divides. In our new series highlighting the people creating positive change in our communities, we visit a Muslim-led group in east London building grassroots climate action one garden at a time. read the complete article
China
China’s Genocide and the Eliticide of Uyghur Scholars
On the night of July 29, 2018, Chinese authorities raided the home of Dr. Abdulqadir Jalaleddin, a celebrated Uyghur poet. Police placed a black hood over his head and took him away. Jalaleddin’s arrest was part of the state campaign to erase Uyghur identity, a key aim of the genocide against the Uyghur people. In December 2017, Dr. Rahile Dawut, a renowned Uyghur ethnographer and the founder of a folklore institute at Xinjiang University, was planning to travel to the United States to visit her daughter. But before she could make the trip, Dawut disappeared. Five years later, in 2023, her family finally learned that she had been sentenced to life in prison for “endangering state security.” Seven years later, Jalaleddin and Dawut remain in incommunicado imprisonment. Their children in the United States do not know where they are, or what conditions they are being held in. At a recent Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) event, Dawut’s daughter, Akida Polat, and Jewher Ilham, daughter of leading Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, spoke movingly of the pain of having parents serving life sentences. They also acutely diagnosed the deep loss to an entire people, when Uyghur intellectuals have been brutally silenced as part of the multiyear genocide by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP). read the complete article
India
In May crackdown on ‘foreigners’, only Bengali-origin Muslims sent to Assam detention centre
On May 24, the Matia detention centre began to fill up as the Assam police launched a drive to round up alleged illegal immigrants in the state. Over the next few days, reports appeared of Bengali-origin Muslims held at the centre being taken to India’s border with Bangladesh and being forced to cross over at gunpoint. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the Assembly that 303 “foreigners” had been pushed into Bangladesh. But he did not disclose their identities. Scroll filed a Right to Information query with the office of the Inspector-General of Prisons, Assam, asking for information on the number of detainees at the Matia centre, details of their cases, and when they were admitted inside. We also asked for detailed information on those who had been released, deported or “pushed” into Bangladesh since April 2025. The Assam government’s reply to our questions was incomplete. It did not share any information about those forced to cross the border into Bangladesh. However, it gave us a list of those detained at the Matia detention centre between May 27 and July 8. All 53 of them are Muslims. Moreover, when Scroll put together an Assam government affidavit in the Supreme Court and the information from the RTI response, it became clear – in the last nearly 12 months, only Muslim declared foreigners have faced arrest and incarceration in Assam. read the complete article
International
EU Commission defends funding for Islam and Islamophobia research projects
The EU executive has pushed back against far-right criticism over the allocation of over €17 million in grants by the leading European Research Council (ERC) to Islam-related projects, insisting they won funding on scientific merit. The European Commission has countered criticism from far-right political groups for allocating EU research funds over the past years on projects focused on subject matters like Islam, the Qur’an, Sharia, and Islamophobia. The controversy began after Italian hard-right MEP Silvia Sardone questioned the value of the projects, describing them as “studies of questionable utility, all focused on Islam,” and demanding that the Commission justify the use of public funds. Similar concerns were raised by French far-right MEP Jean-Paul Garraud. Both lawmakers, who sit in the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, suggested the projects unfairly promoted Islam or exaggerated the existence of Islamophobia in Europe. In a response made public on Monday, the EU Commissioner for research, Ekaterina Zaharieva, stood by the European Research Council (ERC), the bloc’s scientific funding body, pointing out that the projects in question are “world-class scholarly undertakings that advance the frontiers of knowledge.” read the complete article