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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, Valentina Gomez, who is running for Texas’ 31st District in 2026 as a Republican, has shared an extreme anti-Muslim video on X showing her burning a copy of the Quran as part of her vow to “end Islam”, elsewhere in the U.S., the Council on American-Islamic Relations has designated UC Berkeley a “hostile campus” for purportedly engaging in “negative treatment” of students with pro-Palestinian views, and lastly, far-right activist Laura Loomer on Tuesday was condemned by journalist Mehdi Hasan after she called for the firing of another Muslim State Department employee. Our recommended read of the day is by Maira Butt for Religion Media Centre on the history of Sharia and the myths being touted by the far-right on how Sharia relates to and interacts with national legal frameworks. This and more below:
International
Sharia: are fears of a parallel legal system unfounded? | Recommended Read
In the imagination of some, sharia, or Islamic law, is associated with barbarity, extremism, and inflexible ancient rulings that appear to some in the West to be out of date in modern times. But how did the legal tradition of Islam, the world’s fastest-growing religion, become so maligned? Is it incompatible with domestic law? How does it operate? What is it? Many right-wing commentators suggest that it is operating under an insidious “parallel legal system” that should terrify all free-thinking people. But that could not be further from the truth according to those who have spent years studying its complex tenets. The dictionary definition of sharia is “the body of canonical law based on the Quran that lays down certain duties and penalties for Muslims”. The word has its roots in the Arabic word for law or religion, (“Sharia law” is therefore a tautology). Like other religions, this means there are rulings relating to how Islam is practised and how social issues are handled based on the morals and ethics of Islamic doctrine. Dr Ikramul Hoque Miah, who completed his PhD in Islamic law at Oxford University, says: “At its simplest, sharia is the ethical and moral framework that guides Muslim practice. It asks, ‘In any given situation, what does God and his Messenger, the Prophet Muhammad require from me?’” Under sharia, Dr Hanif says, Muslims are bound to the nation’s laws. “The sharia code highlights the sanctity and the inviolability of the social contract or the political contract.” This means that whether Muslims live in an Islamic or non-Muslim country, they are subject to a binding contract with the government of their country “whereby the government promises them safety and they promise their government to abide by their public laws”. read the complete article
Vast majority of Israelis believe there are 'no innocents' in Gaza, says poll
A poll conducted by an Israeli organisation has revealed that the vast majority of Israeli Jews believe there are "no innocents" in the Gaza Strip. aChord, a research group linked to Hebrew University specialising in social psychology, said 76 percent of the Jewish public partially or fully agree that "there are no innocents in Gaza". The survey found that even among Israeli opposition voters, 47 percent fully supported the claim, while among Jewish opposition voters, a majority also agrees with the claim. Researcher Ron Gerlitz described the results of the survey as "difficult findings" that indicated attitudes that fed into acceptance of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza. "These findings can of course shed light on the enormous number of Palestinian civilians killed in the war in Gaza," he wrote on X. Anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab sentiment in Israel has been growing in recent years, targeting both Palestinians in the occupied territories and Palestinian citizens of Israel. read the complete article
India, Israel, Palestine
India’s stance on Israel and Palestine has shifted dramatically. Once rooted in anti-imperialist solidarity, New Delhi now balances rhetoric with growing military, economic, and ideological ties to Israel. This longread traces the historical trajectory, examines regional dynamics, and explores how Hindutva reshapes India’s foreign policy and domestic responses. After the fall of the Soviet Union and the liberalisation of the Indian economy this contradictory relationship developed into more open collaboration with Israel well before the arrival of the Modi government. However, with the advancement of neoliberal Hindutva in the last few decades even the symbolic denouncement of Israeli crimes is fast becoming a thing of the past, as the Indian and Zionist states become more ideologically aligned and economically and militarily collaborative. In what is supposed to be the world’s largest democracy, the response of civil society in India has been by comparison much more limited. This is partly due to the fear of coercion in some form—in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled states and in Delhi there have been police clampdowns when action has taken place. It is also testimony to the success of Hindu Nationalist forces (or Hindutva meaning ‘Hindu-ness’) in cultivating Islamophobia by presenting Palestine as a supposedly anti-Hindu and therefore ‘anti-national’ issue. read the complete article
United States
MAGA candidate sparks backlash after burning Quran and promising to ‘end Islam’ in Texas
There has been a furious reaction to an anti-Islamic campaign ad posted by a far-right MAGA congressional candidate in which she sets fire to the Quran with a flamethrower. Valentina Gomez, who is running for Texas’ 31st District in 2026 as a Republican, shared the extreme video on X as part of her vow to “end Islam” in the Lone Star State. Approximately one percent of Texas’s population is Muslim. Gomez has a history of posting violent stunts and using hateful rhetoric against Muslims, the LGBT+ community, Black people, and immigrants, in an attempt to gain notoriety to further a flailing attempt at a political career that has so far gone nowhere. “This isn’t politics. It’s incitement,” podcaster Brian Allen wrote on X. “When the mosques start burning, remember: this was the match and the Texas GOP handed her the lighter.” Another X user added, “She will literally do anything for clout. Anything. Why is this person allowed to incite hate and murder?” read the complete article
UC Berkeley designated as 'hostile campus' by Muslim civil rights group: Here's why
UC Berkeley has long been known as the home of the free speech movement. It's a campus that prides itself on its diversity and has a history of free speech protests and academic freedom. But now, it's being called into question. "It too has demonstrated a pattern of hostility toward Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and other members of its community," said Jeff Wang, CAIR SFBA Civil Rights Managing Attorney. On Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a prominent Muslim civil rights group, designated UC Berkeley a "hostile campus." In the past, CAIR has also designated Stanford University as a hostile campus. CAIR says that's because of reported negative treatment of students with Pro-Palestinian views. "The school has also repeatedly subjected students who protest genocide to censorship and disciplinary measures--- up to and including arrest or suspension," said Wang. read the complete article
Mehdi Hasan slams Laura Loomer as far-right activist takes aim at Muslims in US government
Far-right activist Laura Loomer on Tuesday was condemned by veteran journalist Mehdi Hasan after she called for the firing of another Muslim State Department employee. Ms Loomer accused Wardah Khalid of holding views inconsistent with President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda. Ms Khalid is the latest in a string of State Department employees Ms Loomer has accused of being Islamic extremists. "She must immediately be terminated from her job," the self-described "proud Islamophobe" said in a post on X, tagging Secretary of State Marco Rubio. According to her LinkedIn account, which has been closed down but which Ms Loomer used a screenshot of in an article, Ms Khalid is a foreign affairs officer with the State Department. Her biography page on the Asian American Journalists Association website says she previously served as a senior policy adviser at the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the US Department of Health and Human Services. Mr Hasan, veteran journalist and chief executive of Zeteo, called Ms Loomer's attacks "shameful". "Watching Loomer harass and demonise individual Muslim government employees simply for being Muslims while the Democrats and 'liberal media' say nothing is a reminder of how mainstreamed and normalised anti-Muslim bigotry is in the US, across the political spectrum," he wrote on X. A day earlier, Ms Loomer made a similar call to oust Mariya Ilyas, a career foreign service officer who previously served in a leadership position with state employee organisation American Muslims and Friends at State. read the complete article
India
Sharjeel Imam interview: ‘As an educated Muslim, it is my duty to enter the political domain’
Sharjeel Imam was arrested in January 2020 for delivering controversial speeches during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens. Delhi Police subsequently made him an accused in its conspiracy case about the North East Delhi riots as well. The activist has spent over five years in prison so far. Last month, Imam decided to contest the upcoming Assembly Elections in Bihar from the Bahadurganj seat. Scroll reached out to him through his lawyer and asked why he is entering the electoral fray. Imam shared a 13-page handwritten note in response to the questions. Here is the full exchange. Why do you want to contest the Bihar elections? The most important reason for contesting elections is to bring to the fore our narrative on positive politics, that is, constructive conversation on minority rights and structural changes which are necessary to ensure dignified life for minorities in the face of majoritarian tyranny. The mainstream “secular consensus” led by Congress in Indian politics says that there is no “Muslim issue”. In systemic terms, they argue, everything is perfect – all we need to do is to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party. This secular consensus is not only a lie, but also a trap in which the Muslims have found themselves since 1947. read the complete article