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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Canada, college Professors and public figures across the country are sounding the alarm on how the censorship of those speaking out against Israel’s war in Gaza is having a “chilling effect” on free expression nationwide, meanwhile in Spain, the Spanish government condemned a ban enacted by a city in southeastern Spain on religious celebrations from civic sports facilities, calling the move “an absolutely racist notion,” and in the United States, an Emory University student is filing a lawsuit against the university after she was suspended from medical school following comments she made critical of Israel’s war in Gaza. Our recommended read of the day is by Areeb Ullah for Middle East Eye on a newly published community-led report on the 2022 anti-immigrant riots in Leicester and how the testimony of 500 Muslim residents indicates that systemic Islamophobia, policy failures, and the rise of Hindutva extremism played a central role in the violence. This and more below:
United Kingdom
Leicester Muslims blame Hindutva extremism and police failures for 2022 unrest | Recommended Read
A new community-led report into the 2022 unrest in Leicester has concluded that rising Hindutva extremism, policy failures and systemic Islamophobia played a central role in the violence that rocked one of Britain’s most diverse cities. The report, co-authored by the UK Indian Muslim Council and the Community Policy Forum, is the first independent inquiry into the unrest in Leicester in August and September 2022. It draws on testimony from nearly 500 Muslim residents in the city, given between 2023 and 2024. It challenges the prevailing narrative that framed the unrest as a clash between two equal sides and instead highlights the asymmetric nature of the provocation and violence. The report finds that the violence - largely involving groups of Hindu and Muslim youths - was not spontaneous, but the culmination of rising tensions over several years. Respondents attributed this escalation to the spread of imported Hindutva ideology and deliberate acts of provocation by a fringe of extremists. “We were blamed for our own trauma,” said one respondent. “Even local leaders wanted us to stay quiet to preserve the illusion of harmony.” “Our kids were afraid to go outside,” said another participant. “Women were being harassed, but when we spoke out, we were told not to make it worse.” read the complete article
Racist sticker attack: Islamophobia ‘now part of everyday life’
ISLAMOPHOBIC stickers were plastered on a Muslim community centre in Finsbury Park last week, in a show of racism that residents say has become part of their daily lives. The stickers, targeting Muslim and Palestinian people, were put up on the outer walls of the Muslim Welfare House in Seven Sisters Road last Thursday evening. This isn’t the first time the Muslim Welfare House has been targeted, said director Toufik Kacimi, who told the Tribune he has images of two women committing the crime. He said: “Usually we call the police to take the stickers off because sometimes they put razors in the back, so when you try to take them off you injure yourself. “I can show you the pictures of the two women who did it, the perpetrators. Do I think these two women will be arrested? No. I don’t want to blame the police – they are under-resourced, there is so much crime everywhere, and just this little crime, they don’t have time to deal with.” read the complete article
Canada
Muslims leaders say anti-Palestinian racism is casting a chill on free speech
Public and private institutions are violating the speech rights of those speaking out against Israel’s war in Gaza, say Muslim leaders who are calling for official government recognition of anti-Palestinian racism. York University professor Nadia Hasan says schools and employers are linking Palestinian culture with terrorism and retaliating against people already traumatized by the war in Gaza. Hasan, who runs the Islamophobia Research Hub, says there has not been enough prosecution or public pushback in response to incidents of anti-Muslim hate, which further emboldens those committing violence. Her group has released a report that says corporations were quick to issue statements of support for Jewish Canadians after the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023, but have not spoken out about Israeli policies causing mass death and hunger. Amira Elghawaby, Ottawa’s special representative on combating Islamophobia, says students are being bullied or officially punished for wearing a traditional scarf called a kaffiyeh, or for posting a Palestinian flag on social media. The report urges all levels of government to officially recognize anti-Palestinian racism and calls on Ottawa to crack down on foreign interference that targets Muslims in Canada. read the complete article
Canada sees surge in anti-Muslim hate crimes since start of Gaza war
Canada has seen a dramatic surge in hate crimes targeting Muslim and Palestinian communities since the start of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023, a new report released Wednesday revealed, with the number of incidents rising by as much as 1,800 percent in some areas. Documenting the Palestine Exception, a report led by York University's Islamophobia Research Hub, outlines a wave of Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian backlash amid Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza, from spikes in hate-motivated attacks to widespread media biases, and the suppression of pro-Palestine voices. Drawing on data from the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), the report documents a 1,300 percent increase in Islamophobia-related incidents in the month after 7 October, and a staggering 1,800 percent rise over the following year. The Legal Centre for Palestine (LCPal) reported a 600 percent rise in the number of cases of anti-Palestinian racism during the first eight months of the war. read the complete article
United States
US medical student suspended for Gaza remarks sues university for ‘intentional discrimination’
Umaymah Mohammad, perhaps the only student in the US to be suspended from medical school for remarks about Israel and Gaza, has filed a federal lawsuit against Atlanta’s Emory University, alleging discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, as well as additional complaints under state law. The lawsuit, filed on Monday morning in federal district court on Mohammad’s behalf by the Council on Islamic-American Relations in Georgia (Cair-Ga), centers on Emory’s alleged “intentional discrimination and retaliation” during disciplinary proceedings against the medical-sociology dual degree student last year. It names the university, its board of trustees and John William Eley, a dean at the medical school, as defendants. It has been filed in pursuit of “accountability and justice … [and] has potential repercussions for how student activists have been treated over the last two years in this country”, said Azka Mahmood, executive director of Cair-Ga. read the complete article
Poland
New podcast on one of Europe's oldest Muslim communities
For over six centuries, the Tatars have been part of Poland’s social and cultural fabric. In this 8-episode series, released weekly, professor Maurits Berger and assistant professor Ewa Górska explore how this Muslim minority has maintained its identity across generations, how Islam is practiced in a Polish context, and what this tells us about the broader place of Muslims in Europe. read the complete article
Spain
Spanish Officials Condemn City’s Ban on Religious Events as ‘Racist’
The Spanish government on Thursday condemned a ban enacted by a city in southeastern Spain on religious celebrations from civic sports facilities, which critics have called an indirect effort to block Muslims from gathering there for religious holidays. The ban was codified as a local law on July 28 by conservative leaders in Jumilla, a city with about 27,000 residents. As it gained attention this week, it quickly became a national point of contention — touching on issues that have consumed countries around Europe, like immigration and nationalism. Far-right demonstrators and police officers clashed for days in another town in the same Spanish region last month, leading to the arrest of the leader of an anti-immigrant group. Officials in the national government have denounced the ban, with Elma Saiz, Spain’s minister of inclusion, social security and migration, calling it “an absolutely racist motion.” Supporters of the Vox party, however, have embraced it in explicitly anti-Muslim terms. “The first measure in Spain banning Islamic celebrations in public spaces has been approved,” the regional branch of the hard-right party wrote on X on Wednesday. “Spain is and always will be a land of Christian roots!” read the complete article