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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Australia, Aftab Malik, the special envoy appointed by the Albanese government to combat Islamophobia, has called on the prime minister to condemn the alleged attacks of two Muslim women at a shopping center in Melbourne, meanwhile in India, there’s a concerted effort by Hindu nationalists to demolish the homes of Indian Muslims, alleging that they’re built near or atop old temples, and in the U.S., a man who was reportedly hunting Palestinians was arrested over the weekend for shooting two Israelis on Miami Beach in Florida after mistaking them for Palestinians, sparking widespread outrage online. Our recommended read of the day is by Jeffrey S. Kahn for The Nation about the sordid and often overlooked history of the Guantánamo Bay prison facility’s use as a detention center for asylum seekers. This and more below:
United States
Trump’s Guantánamo Plan Will Be a Costly, Morally Bankrupt Fiasco | Recommended Read
President Donald Trump caught the Pentagon off-guard when he announced late last month that he would be expanding the migrant holding facility at Guantánamo Bay to “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.” Since then, the administration has begun to shuttle immigrants from the United States to the base aboard military planes, post photos of them in shackles arriving at Guantánamo’s airstrip, and lock them away in a facility previously used to incarcerate War on Terror detainees. Across the bay, Navy and Coast Guard forces have started erecting a tent city, presumably to hold thousands of other noncitizens the administration has promised to send to the base in the coming weeks. While shipping immigrants from the United States to Guantánamo is new, using the base to detain migrants is not. I’ve interviewed more than a hundred asylum seekers who were held at the naval station during the 1990s. I’ve walked the exterior of the Migrant Operations Center and the Mass Migration Complex that are the subject of Trump’s order to expand detention capacity at the base. From what I can see, Trump’s proposal is a bet on no-oversight immigration detention and a branding campaign designed to make immigrants appear as threatening as the War on Terror captives still held in Guantánamo’s prison complex. Despite the bluster with which the administration has rolled out the proposal, it’s a bet that’s not likely to pay off in the way the administration thinks it will. Lumping immigrant detainees in with enemy combatants by sending them to Guantánamo is clearly calculated to amplify the administration’s message that “true” US citizens, those who trace their nationality via descent, not birthright, are beset by an invading army of criminal aliens. Echoing Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has described the immigrants slated for transfer to Guantánamo as the “worst of the worst,” signaling to the American public that when it comes to immigration, we should be on the same war footing as we were after 9/11. Trump’s immigration policy architects have been repeating this battle cry for some time, and the expansion of Guantánamo as a detention site for immigrants distills the “immigration as war” messaging in a potent symbol of aggressive militarization. read the complete article
Social media erupts over Miami man who shot Israelis mistaken for Palestinians
A man who was reportedly hunting Palestinians was arrested over the weekend for shooting two Israelis on Miami Beach in Florida after mistaking them for Palestinians, sparking widespread outrage online. The man, identified as Mordechai Brafman, was detained on Saturday night and faces two counts of attempted second-degree murder, according to reports. Citing a local Instagram account that posts about Jewish life, the Miami Herald reported that the victims were an Israeli father and son. The attack started a widespread debate online about growing anti-Arab sentiment in the US, which many social media users believe has been fuelled by “anti-Palestinian hate and indoctrination” within pro-Israeli communities in the US. One user said, “If a Muslim shot two people in Miami because he thought they were Israelis, it would be called terrorism and there would be wall-to-wall media coverage,” criticising the lack of coverage of the incident within mainstream news outlets. read the complete article
Australia
Muslim women attacked amid rising Islamophobia concerns
Muslim leaders have expressed concerns of rising Islamophobia in Australia after two Muslim women were attacked in Melbourne's north. read the complete article
Islamophobia envoy demands action from PM after Epping attack
The man appointed by the Albanese government as special envoy to combat Islamophobia has called on the prime minister to condemn the alleged attacks of two Muslim women in Melbourne. Authorities are investigating reports a childcare worker, who was wearing a hijab, was slapped and punched in the head during her lunchbreak at a north Melbourne shopping centre. A second Muslim woman was also allegedly attacked in the centre in Epping on the same day. Aftab Malik, who was appointed special envoy on the issue in September, has called on authorities to take Islamophobic incidents seriously. "I urge the prime minister and other leaders to condemn these attacks and to throw the respective resources into ensuring Muslims feel safe," he said. "The majority of victims are women in public spaces, which speaks to a worrying trend that people are feeling empowered to assault women in full view of the public." "It is even more egregious if the person is targeted because of their religion or appearance. It is a disgrace," he said in a statement. "It is particularly disturbing to see reports that a pregnant woman was injured. "I hope the offender is apprehended as quickly as possible and that the victims make a full recovery." read the complete article
Leaders condemn Islamophobic attacks, PM still silent
Australian political leaders are slowly condemning an Islamophobic attack on two women, but the prime minister isn't among them amid accusations of double standards. The Muslim women wearing hijabs were assaulted in separate incidents at an Epping shopping centre, in Melbourne's north, on Thursday. An unidentified woman allegedly assaulted a 30-year-old Lalor woman inside the shopping complex about 1.10pm before she pushed a 26-year-old Wollert woman to the floor in a separate incident about 10 minutes later, police said. The victims, one of who is pregnant, were taken to hospital with bruises, scratches and potentially long-term physical injuries, the Australian National Imams Council said. Investigators are probing whether the assaults were "prejudice motivated" after the offender ran off with a man. Despite the prompt response from police and paramedics, the victims said they felt ignored and feared for their safety, the Imams Council said. read the complete article
Payman calls out Islamophobia response as commissioner warns of 'racism problem'
Senator Fatima Payman has criticised the media and politicians over their responses to Islamophobia, while Australia's race discrimination commissioner has warned the nation has "a problem with racism", following reports two Muslim women were assaulted in broad daylight. Two women wearing headscarves were allegedly attacked in Melbourne's north last week in what police are treating as "prejudice-motivated attacks". An unidentified woman allegedly assaulted a 30-year-old Lalor woman inside a shopping complex at about 1.10 pm on Thursday, before then pushing a 26-year-old Wollert woman to the floor roughly 10 minutes later, police said. The victims, one of who is pregnant, were taken to hospital with bruises, scratches and potentially long-term physical injuries, the Australian National Imams Council said. Race discrimination commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman said the incidents showed that Islamophobia was a significant concern in Australia and that it often manifested in violence towards visibly Muslim women. "It was shocking to hear about these attacks — they were violent, unprovoked, distressing," he told SBS News. read the complete article
International
Unchilding Palestine’s children
On February 7, 10-year-old Saddam Rajab died in a hospital in the occupied West Bank after being shot by an Israeli soldier days earlier. Saddam was standing in the street in front of his home when Israeli soldiers invaded his village near Tulkarem and started firing. Saddam is one of 13 Palestinian children that the Israeli army has killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year. The death toll of children murdered by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank has shockingly exceeded 220 since January 2023. Saddam’s story – like the stories of other Palestinian child victims – never made international headlines. There was no reaction from the international community to his murder. That is because Palestinian children experience relentless dehumanisation. While the story of Hind’s brutal death made international headlines – a rare case among the more than 17,000 children killed in Gaza – there were still attempts to dehumanise her and deny her the status of a child victim. For example, when reporting on the Columbia University student encampment that named a building after her, CNN explained “Hind’s Hall” was a reference to a “woman” who was killed in Gaza. Another particularly egregious example of denying the child status of a Palestinian child is a January 2024 report by Sky News, in which a broadcaster claimed that: “accidentally, a stray bullet found its way into the van ahead, and that killed a three- or four-year-old young lady”. This “young lady” was a Palestinian child named Ruqaya Ahmad Odeh Jahalin, who was shot in the back by Israeli soldiers while sitting in a taxi with her family in the West Bank. These examples illustrate what Palestinian academic Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian has called “unchilding”. She coined the term to expose the dehumanisation that accompanies violence against children in a colonial context. In occupied and colonised Palestine, Palestinian children are stripped of their childhood in order to justify the brutality that is inflicted upon them. read the complete article
Are Muslims perceived as a threat to LGBTQ+ rights?
In recent years, political narratives in western countries have increasingly portrayed Muslim communities as a threat to liberal values, such as gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights. These rhetorical strategies, often penned “homonationalism” and “femonationalism”, are instances of instrumental liberalism where illiberal actors use liberal issues as a tool to justify anti-immigrant sentiment and Islamophobic stereotypes. But how widespread are these views among everyday citizens? In a new study, we provide a unique insight into whether these stereotypes are truly held by the public, examining responses from four western countries: Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the United States. Across all four countries surveyed, a majority of respondents expressed agreement with the stereotypical view that Muslims are a threat to LGBTQ+ individuals. As shown in Figure 1, the prevalence of this stereotypical view is comfortably above the 50% of citizens in all countries. In Germany and the Netherlands, where far-right groups have a longer history of leveraging homonationalist rhetoric, approximately two-thirds of participants endorsed this view, indicating that these countries might have a particularly receptive environment for anti-Muslim messaging under the banner of protecting LGBTQ+ rights. While the proportions reported in the US and the UK are smaller, they nonetheless remain majority positions. The widespread endorsement of this stereotype has several concerning implications. For one, it signals a barrier to social inclusion for Muslims in western countries, where they are often already marginalised. If large segments of the western population view Muslims as inherently hostile to LGBTQ+ rights (an increasingly nationalised indicator of liberal norms), this is likely to fuel further prejudice and discrimination against these communities, hindering efforts to build inclusive societies. Moreover, the breadth of this stereotype presents a potential strategic electoral advantage for far-right political parties that often rely on Muslims-as-threatening tropes to rally supporters to their nativist cause. read the complete article
India
Bulldozer raj rolls on
On January 16, Mohammad Mateen, 40, a driver from Khaggu Sarai of Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on charges of “disturbing peace.” His family, however, alleges that the arrest is part of an ongoing effort to force them out of their home following the “discovery” of a purported centuries-old temple adjacent to their house. Mateen bought the property in 2002 with his own earnings and has all the necessary ownership documents. He even secured a bank loan by mortgaging the house. Despite this, the administration now sees his home as an obstacle to Hindu devotees who wish to perform parikrama around the temple. With Mateen’s arrest and mounting pressure to vacate, the family fears they may be forced out entirely. Speaking to a news website, Mateen’s wife, Uzama Parveen, claimed that the district administration has been pressuring them ever since the temple was identified. “First, they told us to demolish our balcony, saying it was encroaching on the temple. Out of fear, we complied. But that was not the end of it,” she said. Soon after, Sambhal Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Vandana Mishra allegedly asked the family to demolish a wall of their house. “When we refused, she threatened that we might have to bring down the entire house,” Parveen added. According to Saad Usmani, a Sambhal-based journalist, tensions in the district have been high since November last year. “Many temples, like the one in Khaggu Sarai, have been ‘rediscovered’ and reopened across UP—all of them located in Muslim neighbourhoods,” he told Frontline. “God only knows where they’ll find the next one and who will be asked to leave their own home next,” Usmani added. Under the ruling regime, punitive demolitions often follow a familiar script—escalating communal tensions, a religious procession, or an outbreak of violence frequently precede the bulldozing of minority homes. This orchestrated sequence has played out repeatedly, turning demolition into a tool of intimidation and collective punishment. read the complete article