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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United Kingdom, a teenager inspired by Hitler who planned to carry out a terrorist attack at a mosque has been sentenced to 10 years in custody, meanwhile in In India, tens of thousands of Muslims and people from marginalized groups have seen their homes and businesses demolished by authorities in what the country’s Supreme Court has called “unconstitutional” and “lawless” attacks, and in the United States, the Trump Administration has said it will assess applicants for US work, study and immigration visas for “anti-Americanism” and count any such finding against them. Our recommended read of the day is by Amina Shareef for Middle East Eye on how, if unchallenged, Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza could stand as yet another model for the rest of the world on how to target, repress, and in some cases eliminate Muslims. This and more below:
International
Why the Gaza genocide risks becoming a model for targeting Muslims worldwide | Recommended Read
As many have also noted, the elimination of Muslim life in Palestine is not a recent or exceptional event. It is the structure of the settler-colonial project itself, which has long made slow death its policy: by maiming, targeting knees, femurs and vital organs with high-velocity, fragmentation or rubber-coated metal bullets; restricting the entry of calories into Gaza; and destroying water systems, waste treatment facilities, and hospitals. Over the past 22 months, Israel has only tightened its stranglehold on Gaza. What has not yet been fully reckoned with, however, is what the destruction of Palestinian life, racialised as Muslim - including its Christian population - means for the world's Muslim communities, themselves racialised as a terrorist threat to be eliminated. Palestine has long been a key site where techniques of population control and racial logics are forged and exported across the world. Together with other devastated landscapes, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Yemen, the elimination of Muslim life in Palestine reinforces a necropolitical logic that will enable mass Muslim death globally in the coming years. Occupied Palestine is one of the central sites where disciplinary and racial knowledge are produced and exported to the rest of the world under the war on terror. It is here that the elimination of Muslim life establishes the threat of extending such violence to Muslims worldwide. The scenes of elimination coming out of Palestine encode a necropolitical calculation: for Israelis to live, Palestinians must die. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Teenage neo-Nazi detained for 10 years for plotting terror attack at mosque
A teenager inspired by Hitler who planned to carry out a terrorist attack at a mosque has been sentenced to 10 years in custody. The 17-year-old had planned to set fire to a Muslim centre in Greenock, Inverclyde, after befriending the Imam and mapping out the building’s interior on his phone. In January this year, police apprehended the youth, who was carrying a camouflage military-style rucksack, as he tried to gain entry to the Inverclyde Muslim Centre on Laird Street. Inside the bag they found a German-manufactured Glock-type air pistol, ammunition, ball bearings, gas cartridges and aerosol cans, prosecutors said. He was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on Thursday after pleading guilty to two terrorism charges, the Crown Office said. Prosecutors said the teenager, who was radicalised online and idolised Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, began to plot an attack on the site in December 2024, planning to set it on fire using aerosols and lighters. read the complete article
Pro-Israel lawyers investigated over alleged legal threats to suppress support for Palestine
An organisation of pro-Israel lawyers in the UK is under investigation after a complaint that it threatened people with legal action to suppress support for Palestine. UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has been accused of sending eight letters to individuals and organisations between January 2022 and May 2025 that “demonstrate a seeming pattern of vexatious and legally baseless correspondence aimed at silencing and intimidating Palestine solidarity efforts”, according to the complainants. The complaint was lodged with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) by the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) and the European Legal Support Center. They allege “serious breaches” of the SRA’s principles and code of conduct. UKLFI was formed in 2011 to use its members’ legal skills “to combat BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] and the delegitimisation of Israel”. read the complete article
Belfast area most affected by 2024 race riots yet to receive funding for anti-Muslim hate
An area of Belfast which saw some of the worst impact of race riots in the city in 2024 is the only one yet to receive funding specifically targeted at addressing anti-Muslim hate following the violent disorder. A £600,000 fund was announced for Northern Ireland by UK Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner following the racist violence last August alongside funding for other local authorities throughout the UK. £160,000 was earmarked for four targeted areas in the north, south, east and west of the city as part of the Community Recovery Fund. In August 2024, rioting broke out following anti-immigration protests in Belfast, with migrant-owned businesses attacked by protestors. Businesses and cars were set on fire in a series of race hate incidents in south Belfast, including in the Sandy Row/Donegall Road area. The area was one of four targeted by the funding, which has been distributed via Belfast City Council to community groups in the Woodvale area of north Belfast, Greater Falls in west Belfast and Connswater in the east of the city. While the projects in three areas had the funding awarded and programmes began in June 2025, funding is still to be awarded for the Sandy Row/Donegall Road project two months later. read the complete article
United States
CAIR-Chicago Denounces Dangerous Islamophobic Misinformation Campaign Targeting Peaceful Arbaeen Procession
The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, strongly denounces a series of inflammatory and Islamophobic social media posts being circulated by RAIR Foundation USA that mischaracterize and vilify a peaceful Arbaeen observance held in downtown Chicago. Arbaeen is a religious tradition observed by millions of Shia Muslims around the world to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The observance promotes values of justice, compassion, and peaceful resistance to oppression. Participants engage in prayer, poetry, and charitable giving — often using the occasion to collect donations for humanitarian causes. The recent social media posts by RAIR Foundation’s Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Amy “Mek”, falsely portray the Chicago Arbaeen procession as an “Islamic military procession” and irresponsibly claim that attendees were calling for violence, overthrow of government, and enforcement of Sharia rule. These harmful accusations are not only false, but they recklessly fuel anti-Muslim conspiracy theories at a time when Islamophobia and hate crimes are on the rise nationwide. read the complete article
Why New York seems fit for a Muslim mayor
This coming November, or soon after New York City commemorates the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, voters in America’s largest city might elect their first Muslim mayor. Zohran Mamdani, who easily won the Democratic primary in June, is ahead in most polls for the general election. While he has faced some anti-Muslim rhetoric during the campaign, the Big Apple’s negative concerns about Islam and Muslims, common in the years after 9/11, have generally become a Big Meh. Mr. Mamdani’s appeal to many of the city’s young and Democratic voters lies mainly in his socialist promises, such as government-run food stores. Identity politics, namely the desire for a leader of one’s own likeness or the fear of “the other,” matter less. His popularity “reflects the emerging power of civic and grassroots/working-class mobilization,” wrote Sangay Mishra, a political science professor at Drew University, in Religion News Service. American attitudes toward Muslims began to shift upward after the 2011 Arab Spring, according to polls, but dipped last year. The high for holding favorable views was 78% in 2022 but, according to polling by the University of Maryland, that declined to 64% last year, returning to 2016 levels. Yet a majority of young Democrats in the U.S. (56%) now say Muslims actually strengthen American society. That reversal of a post-9/11 stereotype might explain why Mr. Mamdani is favored to be mayor of New York. His religion is not really an issue. read the complete article
Trump administration to vet immigration applications for 'anti-Americanism'
President Donald Trump's administration has said it will assess applicants for US work, study and immigration visas for "anti-Americanism" and count any such finding against them, sparking concern about implications for free speech. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a "policy alert" dated Tuesday that it gave immigration officers new guidance on how to exercise discretion in cases where foreign applicants "support or promote anti-American ideologies or activities" as well as "antisemitic terrorism." Trump has labeled a range of voices as anti-American, including historians and museums documenting US slavery and pro-Palestinian protesters opposing US ally Israel's military assault on Gaza. "Anti-American activity will be an overwhelmingly negative factor in any discretionary analysis," USCIS said. "America's benefits should not be given to those who despise the country and promote anti-American ideologies." read the complete article
Groups urge US colleges to end campus surveillance to protect protesters
A coalition of more than 30 privacy and civil rights groups called on U.S. universities Thursday to dismantle campus surveillance and data collection, to protect student protesters and others from government retaliation. The demands, issued in a letter sent to leaders of 60 major universities and colleges, come as President Donald Trump has pressed schools to crack down on alleged antisemitism and take a harder line on demonstrations. But the groups said it is essential that universities resist that pressure, including threats to millions of dollars in federal research grants, to preserve the academic freedom and rights to expression of their students, faculty and others. “We are open-eyed to the financial pressure that all campuses are under,” said Golnaz Fakhimi, legal director for Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group that has counseled students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests and which joined in signing the letter. “But we think this is the moment for all campuses to hunker down” and hold the line against government interference. read the complete article
India
Are India’s bulldozer demolitions delivering justice or targeting Muslims?
101 East investigates allegations of widespread bulldozing of Muslim homes and businesses in India. In India, tens of thousands of Muslims and people from marginalised groups have seen their homes and businesses demolished by authorities in what the country’s Supreme Court has called “unconstitutional” and “lawless” attacks. Representatives of the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, say the demolitions are in response to illegal encroachment. But critics say the demolitions target Muslims and other minorities, a claim the BJP denies. 101 East investigates if India’s bulldozers are delivering justice – or demolishing it. read the complete article