Search
SearchToday in Islamophobia: In India, the country’s beef bans have been a polarizing issue — intersecting religion with culture, and politics, meanwhile in the United Kingdom, new research reveals that Muslim doctors are facing persistent discrimination based primarily on their religious identity, and in Australia, NSW police have charged a woman with intimidation offences after she allegedly verbally abused a Muslim woman who was wearing a T-shirt with a pro-Palestinian message. Our recommended read of the day is by and for NBC News on how far-right voices in Europe were quick to label the German market attack as “Islamist terrorism,” but have remained silent as it has been revealed that the perpetrator held Islamophobic and anti-immigrant views. This and more below:
International
Europe's far-right tap into fears over German market attack — despite the suspect's Islamophobic views | Recommended Read
When a Saudi Arabian national was accused of ramming a car into a German Christmas market, members of the frequently anti-Muslim European far right said it proved their point. The deadly incident in Magdeburg was another example of Islamist terrorism, they said — and a result of the mass immigration they so vehemently oppose. Except it wasn’t that simple. The suspect, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, was in fact scathingly critical of Islam and immigration, according to his past posts on X. He aligned himself with the far-right, anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is endorsed by Musk and monitored by German intelligence agencies for suspected extremism. While authorities say the motive is not yet clear, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the suspect “was obviously Islamophobic.” Al-Abdulmohsen’s complex worldview, in which he criticized the Saudi Arabian government but also Germany’s alleged failure to protect Saudi immigrants from the Middle Eastern kingdom’s repression, has muddied attempts to use his alleged killing of five people and injuring 200 others as an anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim cautionary tale. It comes at a time when immigration is the most polarizing issue in Europe, where far-right parties are surging on a wave of discontent, and immigrants are blamed for job scarcity, housing shortages and cultural changes. Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, who has backed far-right figures in Europe, wrote on X that the “legacy media lies again” when news outlets, including NBC News, reported that officials described the suspect as Islamophobic. Other figures who were quick to interpret the attack have since kept quiet. “They despise our values,” Dutch anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders posted Friday on X. “This is our land, our freedom, our life. And we’ll defend it and never surrender.” However, it later emerged that the suspect was a fan of Wilders, having previously called him “a true hero” on X. Wilders has not posted about it since, as of 7 a.m. ET Monday. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Muslims Don’t Matter: Sayeeda Warsi lacerates her former Tory colleagues
This heartbreaking book by Sayeeda Warsi tells the story of a deeply unhappy marriage. For many years, Warsi devoted her life to the UK Conservative party. When she joined it two decades ago, it seemed to embody everything she believed in: family values, decency, tolerance, fairness, the rule of law. Slowly, the UK's first female Muslim cabinet minister's eyes opened. She came to realise that it wasn’t like that at all. In Muslims Don't Matter, she records the betrayals, the bullying, the abuse, the insults. She recalls the Conservative party spy who was sent to report on her when she became a government minister. How, in 2013, polemicist Douglas Murray labelled her “the enemy at the table" in his Spectator column. How the Daily Telegraph, the Tory party bible, targeted her in an article headlined “Islamic ‘radicals’ at the heart of Whitehall”. Another paper accused her of being an “Isis sympathiser”. At the time, she was actually on the Islamic State (IS) group kill list. Of course, you expect abuse when you enter politics. But not from your own side. Worse still, as Warsi details in this clear-sighted and eye-opening work, it was not just her who was being victimised. She writes that “stigmatising and smearing Muslims in public life is no accident. It is a deliberate strategy designed to scare and silence British Muslims, to discourage them from taking their rightful place in public life, and engaging with democratic and public institutions". read the complete article
44% of Muslim doctors ‘have faced regular discrimination since medical school’
Muslim doctors in the UK are facing persistent discrimination based primarily on their religious identity, researchers have found. A survey of just over 100 Muslim doctors conducted over the summer by the British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA), whose results have just been published, examined how faith, systemic bias and religious accommodation correlate with professional and psychological outcomes for doctors in the NHS. BIMA was founded in 2013 to support Muslim health workers in the UK through networking, professional development and advocacy. More than two fifths of doctors surveyed, 44%, said they had faced regular discrimination since medical school, and 38% had experienced discrimination in their current workplace. Some 40% said their religion was the most often targeted aspect of their identity. In February 2023, the NHS reported that its workforce was at its most diverse, with 42% of doctors, dentists and consultants coming from an ethnic minority background. The health service does not collect data on religion, however, and BIMA estimates that roughly 10% of doctors identify as Muslim. Negative experiences such as those captured by the survey are “unsurprising” and “part of a pattern” within the NHS, according to Dr Hina Shahid, chair of the Muslim Doctors Association. She said the NHS should prioritise tackling Islamophobia and racism. read the complete article
India
The politics behind India's beef bans
"Beef is my favorite red meat," says Caleb, who lives in the city of Bongaigaon in India's northeastern state of Assam. But now he has to contend with his state government's mandate banning the consumption of beef in public places, including restaurants and events. In 2021, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Assam had already banned the sale of beef and beef products in areas predominantly inhabited by non-beef-eating communities or near temples. "The government is depriving me of my freedom to choose what I eat," Caleb says. "And it deliberately attacks my dietary rights, which is not constitutional at all." While people like Caleb can still buy beef and eat it at home, for many who are unable to consume it at home, beef is off the menu. In India, beef is a contentious subject because cows are sacred to the majority Hindus. Yet, at the same time, it is a part of the diets of Muslims, Christians, some Indigenous communities, and Dalits, a historically marginalized group from the lowest level of India's centuries-old discriminatory caste hierarchy. At present, 20 out of India's 28 states have various laws regulating cow slaughter, including prohibitions on the slaughter or sale of cow meat. India's beef bans have been a polarizing issue — intersecting religion with culture, and politics. The recent ban in Assam, framed as part of a larger narrative of cow protection, has reignited debates on the implications of such laws on India's multicultural identity, freedom of choice and economy. read the complete article
United States
Report: Trump Pick for Top State Department Role Penned Essays Promoting White Nationalism, Islamophobia & Conspiracy Theories
A new analysis from Accountable.US, first reported by USA Today, found that Michael Anton, President-elect Trump’s nominee for Director of Policy Planning at the Department of State, has a troubling history of authoring inflammatory essays riddled with white nationalism, islamophobia, and conspiracy theories. Most notably, in 2016, Anton published a 6,000-word essay under a pen name titled “Toward A Sensible, Coherent Trumpism,” in which he railed against racial diversity, Islam, and immigration from regions he deemed culturally undesirable to the United States. Among the deluge of inflammatory rhetoric, Anton wrote: “‘Diversity’ is not ‘our strength’; it’s a source of weakness, tension and disunion.” “The burden is forced on Americans to prove that Muhammed is a terrorist or Jose is a criminal, and if we can’t, we must let them in.” “Not all Muslims are terrorists, blah, blah, blah, etc. Even so, what good has Muslim immigration done for the United States and the American people?” “Michael Anton hid behind a pseudonym to spread hate and deride diversity as a source of American weakness. But he’d surely wear his extremism on his sleeve if appointed to a top State Department post,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “Anton’s rhetoric against people he deems culturally undesirable may be music to the ears of President-elect Trump, father of the kids-in-cages policy who threatens to end birthright citizenship. But is Marco Rubio willing to stand by Anton’s extremist views if he’s confirmed Secretary of State?” read the complete article
Australia
Police charge person accused of verbally abusing woman wearing pro-Palestinian shirt in Kmart
NSW police have charged a woman with intimidation offences after she allegedly verbally abused a Muslim woman who was wearing a T-shirt with a pro-Palestinian message. The incident allegedly occurred at a Kmart store in Bankstown in Sydney's south-west on Friday. In footage of the alleged incident that has been widely shared online, a woman is seen walking towards the camera and showing the middle finger, before asking: "Are you proud of wearing 'From the river to the sea?'" Those words were written on the back of the T-shirt of the person filming the incident, who has been identified as Mariam. The phrase is considered by some Jewish communities as a call for the destruction of Israel, while Palestinians consider it a call for freedom. The woman then says, "You are, get f---d Allah (God in Arabic). Every f---ing day. F--k off," before she walks away. Mariam said she had reported the incident to Bankstown police, who told her they would send officers to the store. She said three hours later, they had not arrived, and she had not received a phone call from them for 24 hours. In a statement late on Sunday, police said they launched an investigation after reports a woman was allegedly "verbally abused and intimidated at a shopping centre in Bankstown". read the complete article
Germany
Germany concerned over anti-Muslim attacks after Christmas market ramming
Germany's Anti-Racism Commissioner Reem Alabali-Radovan expressed concern Monday following reports of anti-Muslim attacks in the aftermath of a car ramming last week on a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg that killed five people and left more than 200 injured. “Since the weekend, our anti-racism counseling centers in Magdeburg and the surrounding area have reported an increasingly hostile atmosphere and violent attacks against migrants and Muslims,” the press quoted Alabali-Radovan as saying in Berlin. “Unfortunately, this act is now being used as an outlet to allow racism to run its course. We must not accept that under any circumstances. We must oppose any attempt to exploit this act politically,” she added. Alabali-Radovan stressed that “terror always aims to destroy social cohesion, divide people and spread fear.” Earlier in the day, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck had warned his fellow citizens against fueling hatred against Muslims and foreigners in the wake of the attack. “Don’t believe what propagandists on the internet want you to believe. The lie is faster than the truth,” he said in a video message posted on social media. read the complete article