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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Australia, the country’s race discrimination commissioner warns that more Australians are facing antisemitism, anti-Arab racism, anti-Palestinian racism, and Islamophobic hate, meanwhile in the United States, new numbers show that hate crimes in the country last year hit their second-largest total since the FBI started keeping data, and in the United Kingdom, Amnesty International finds that Twitter, played a central role in the spread of false narratives and harmful content which contributed to racist violence against Muslim and migrant communities in the country. Our recommended read of the day is by Nadav Ziv for The Forward on how far-right Jews and pro-Israel voices are adopting the antisemites’ ancient playbook in their crusade against Muslims. This and more below:
International
Nazi Grok is a problem. So are the far-right Jews using AI to spread hate | Recommended Read
No matter how slick its responses may seem, AI does not think. It chews up and reconstitutes the human-produced content it was fed. Trained on everything from news articles to books to social media posts, these AI models act like a mirror and spit back the good, the bad, and the ugly, including antisemitism. But how people use AI acts as a mirror, too. And right now, that use shows individuals and groups eager to weaponize toxicity for political gain. That includes Jews and pro-Israel voices who are increasingly employing AI to spread hate, often against Muslims. AI is reflecting not only antisemitism, but also hatred coming from within the Jewish community. Far-right Jews and pro-Israel voices are adopting the antisemites’ ancient playbook in their crusade against Muslims. They are exploiting depictions of alternate realities and imagined futures to sharpen present, real-world hatred. Last year, an Israeli government-linked influence operation used ChatGPT-generated content in an unsuccessful attempt to sway Democratic lawmakers to maintain support for Israel. Extremist Israeli settlers shared an AI-generated video of Al-Aqsa Mosque burning. read the complete article
Six years after Modi stripped Kashmir’s special status, anger simmers in Muslim-majority region
On August 5, 2019, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, stripping India-administered Kashmir of its special status and limited autonomy. Kashmir is part of the wider Himalayan region that both New Delhi and Islamabad claim in full but administer in part. This change in its status resulted in the bifurcation of the then state of Jammu and Kashmir into two separate provinces, administered directly by the federal government in New Delhi. The stated reason for the constitutional move was to end the decades-long insurgency in India’s Muslim-majority region. Yet, the insurgency persists in various forms, fuelled by growing resentment among Kashmiris. Critics of the Modi government allege that New Delhi wants to change the region’s demographic balance in favour of Hindus while doing away with laws that restrict outsiders from buying properties. “New Delhi wanted to convey a message of integration by enabling outsiders to invest in Kashmir,” Sheikh Showkat, a Srinagar-based political analyst, tells TRT World. Analysts paint a grim picture of political alienation and suppressed rights in a region that has already witnessed extreme violence over the last many decades. read the complete article
United States
Hate crimes hit second largest record in 2024: FBI
Hate crimes in the United States last year hit their second-largest total since the FBI started keeping data, in a sign that bias-motivated crimes aren't subsiding, according to new numbers. The big picture: Although overall hate crimes decreased by 1.5% in 2024 from the year prior, advocates say the high numbers show Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans and LGBTQ+ residents are still targets for bias attacks. Black Americans were the most targeted group, followed by Jewish Americans, then gay men, according to the numbers. Around 17% of all hate crimes involved sexual orientations. Sikhs remain the third most-targeted religious group behind the Jewish and Muslim communities. read the complete article
On Harvard FAS Survey, Most Faculty Say There Is Not ‘Systemic Antisemitism’ on Campus
A majority of respondents to The Crimson’s annual Faculty of Arts and Sciences survey said they did not observe “systemic antisemitism” at Harvard for the second year in a row, even as the federal government uses antisemitism allegations to justify its campaign against the University. The Trump administration has frozen nearly $3 billion in federal funds and attempted to revoke Harvard’s certification to enroll international students. In both cases, the White House said its actions were prompted by Harvard’s failure to address campus antisemitism. What is clear is that antisemitism fears spiked after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and widespread student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. Meanwhile, Arab and Muslim students — as well as pro-Palestine activists — feared doxxing, blacklisting, and harassment. Nonetheless, in response to The Crimson’s survey, fewer than half of faculty members said they thought Harvard was home to systemic discrimination against either Jewish or Arab, Muslim, or Palestinian affiliates. Around 21 percent of respondents said they believe there is systemic antisemitism on campus, while 63 percent of respondents said they “somewhat” or “strongly disagree” with the claim. A larger share, at 46 percent, said that there is systemic anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, or anti-Palestinian bias on campus, with 35 percent disputing its presence. read the complete article
United Kingdom
UK: X’s design and policy choices created fertile ground for inflammatory, racist narratives targeting Muslims and migrants following Southport attack
Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, played a central role in the spread of false narratives and harmful content which contributed to racist violence against Muslim and migrant communities in the UK, following the tragic murder of three young girls in the town of Southport, Amnesty International has established in a technical explainer which was published today. A technical analysis of X’s open-source code (or publicly available software) reveals that its recommender system (or content-ranking algorithms), which drives the “For You” page, systematically prioritizes content that sparks outrage, provokes heated exchanges, reactions and engagement, without adequate safeguards to prevent or mitigate harm. On 29 July 2024, three young girls – Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe – were murdered, and 10 others injured, by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana. Within hours of the attack, misinformation and falsehoods about the perpetrator’s identity, religion, and immigration status flooded social media platforms, and were prominent on X. Amnesty International’s analysis of X’s open-source recommender algorithm uncovered systemic design choices that favour contentious engagement over safety. X’s algorithmic ranking system, revealed in X’s own source code published in March 2023, reveals that falsehoods, irrespective of their harmfulness, may be prioritised and surface more quickly in timelines than verified information. X’s “heavy ranker” model – the machine-learning system that decides which posts get promoted – prioritizes “conversation” – regardless of the nature of the content. As long as a post drives engagement, the algorithm appears to have no mechanism for assessing the potential for causing harm – at least not until enough users themselves report it. These design features provided fertile ground for inflammatory racist narratives to thrive on X in the wake of the Southport attack. read the complete article
Jewish Britons decry ban on Palestine Action as ‘illegitimate, unethical’
Leading Jewish figures in Britain have signed a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper denouncing the government’s decision to proscribe the activist group Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organisation. The delivery of the letter on Tuesday coincides with a protest organised under the slogan Proscribe Genocide, Not Protest. The rally outside Downing Street is expected to draw hundreds of participants, including figures from Britain’s Jewish community. The letter, signed by about 300 Jewish British citizens, condemns the ban as “illegitimate and unethical” and calls for urgent government action against Israel over its conduct of the war in the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip and over escalating violence engulfing the occupied West Bank. Among the signatories are human rights lawyer Geoffrey Bindman, filmmaker Mike Leigh, author Michael Rosen and writer Gillian Slovo. Jenny Manson, chairperson of Jewish Voice for Labour and one of the lead organisers, said the group was acting both as human beings and as Jews with a moral obligation to oppose genocide. “We are Jews horrified by the genocide being carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people,” Manson said in a statement. “For us, ‘Never again’ does not mean only crimes against Jews but never again by anyone to anyone.” read the complete article
Canada
We shouldn’t turn a blind eye to assaults on Muslim women
The grainy video is difficult to watch. The images capture what the police described as a group of young people creating a disturbance at a pizza shop in Oshawa, Ont., when one of them jumped over the counter to take something. A woman emerged from the back and confronted the alleged suspect. There was a struggle, and several other people allegedly swarmed and assaulted the woman. According to Amira Elghawaby, the federal special representative on combatting Islamophobia, the alleged suspects “violently” ripped off the woman’s hijab and kicked her repeatedly. Elected officials and advocates were swift to address the concerns of a shaken community at a press conference, where the victim’s distraught daughter said that her mother is lucky to be alive, having had clumps of her hair ripped from her scalp, while enduring kicks to her back and neck. Her family had seen an uptick in anti-Muslim behaviour by visitors to the restaurant prior to the attack. The National Council of Canadian Muslims reports a significant increase in hate crimes against Muslims, as does the Office of Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. Increasingly, the victims have been women who are visibly Muslim. On July 13, a Toronto woman was charged with assault after allegedly attacking a Muslim woman wearing a hijab. The police said it was a suspected hate-motivated assault, given the woman made Islamophobic comments during the attack. In March, a woman was charged after she allegedly tried to set a Muslim woman’s hijab on fire at the public library in Ajax, Ont. read the complete article
Australia
Australia at a 'critical time' to stamp out 'terrifying surge' of racism, commissioner says
More Australians are facing antisemitism, anti-Arab racism, anti-Palestinian racism, and Islamophobic hate, as the race discrimination commissioner says, "some government approaches pit communities against each other". Giridharan Sivaraman and his team at the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) have found communities in Australia have felt "dehumanised" amid conflict in the Middle East. In an address to the National Press Club on Wednesday afternoon, Sivaraman urged the government to act on several recommendations to combat racism. "Each experience of racism is unique to the victim, but the fact remains more people are being harmed in these ways than before," Sivaraman said in his speech. Sivaraman described the world as going through "febrile times". "The war in Gaza has triggered a terrifying surge of antisemitism, anti-Arab racism, anti-Palestinian racism, and Islamophobic hate," he said. "Mentioning those different forms of racism doesn't mean equating them. Mentioning one doesn't invalidate another." read the complete article