Search
SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Australia, a woman will face court charges for assaulting two Muslim women in an alleged Islamophobic attack, meanwhile in France, Amnesty International warns a proposed bill banning wearing ‘ostensibly religious’ clothing and symbols in French sports will be used to discriminate against Muslim women, and in the U.S., despite President Trump previously saying that Guantánamo Bay Prison would only be used for “high-threat” migrants, ABC News reports that many without any criminal record are being sent there without due cause. Our recommended read of the day is by Aamna Mohdin and Chris Osuh for The Guardian on how a new report out by the research group Tell MAMA found that in 2024, there was a 73% surge in Islamophobic assaults across the UK. This and more below:
United Kingdom
UK Islamophobic assaults surged by 73% in 2024, anti-hate crime charity reports | Recommended Read
Now is the “most dangerous” time to be a Muslim in the UK, the head of a leading anti-hate crime charity has warned, as she revealed that Islamophobic assaults surged by 73% in 2024. Iman Atta, director of Tell MAMA, said the normalisation of Islamophobic rhetoric in political discourse – as well as the spread of the far-right “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory on social media – meant the UK is entering uncharted territory regarding the scale of anti-Muslim hatred. She added that rightwing extremists “share tips on how to target Muslim communities, attack mosques, evade police, avoid leaving forensic evidence – and even offer financial incentives for carrying out attacks”. Calling the current situation a “nexus point”, Atta said the intensity and regularity of incidents has shocked her team. Her comments came as new figures revealed 2024 saw the highest number of anti-Muslim hate cases recorded in the history of Tell MAMA, which monitors community safety and provides victim support. The team received 6,313 reports, a 43% increase on the previous year. A total of 5,837 cases were verified. The organisation, which shares its data with police, said its research had recorded “disproportionate” hatred directed towards Muslim politicians, with the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, the former Scottish first minister, Humza Yousaf MSP, and MP Zarah Sultana most likely to be targeted, respectively. read the complete article
Men targeted offline more than women for first time amid record anti-Muslim hate
An organisation monitoring anti-Muslim hate in the UK had a record high number of reports last year, with men targeted more than women in 2024 for the first time since it was founded. A total of 6,313 reports were made to Tell Mama (measuring anti-Muslim attacks), up from 4,406 in 2023 and 2,651 in 2022. After reports were checked by Tell Mama and verified as being “anti-Muslim” in nature, the figures were 5,837 for last year, compared with 3,767 in 2023 and 2,201 in 2022. Of last year’s total, 3,680 reports were of offline or in-person hate, up by almost three quarters (72%) since 2022, the organisation said. Its latest report noted that “for the first time since Tell Mama’s inception, offline cases of anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia in 2024 have targeted men more than women”. The organisation said there had been a “surge in rhetoric that falsely portrays Muslims as terrorists or terrorist sympathisers” since both the October 7 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel and the 2024 summer unrest in parts of the UK, sparked after the Southport murders. The report added: “The shift towards Muslim men being targeted more than women reflects the deepening impact of harmful stereotypes that fuel societal divisions and reinforces false notions about Muslim identities.” read the complete article
Top English judge slams Starmer's move against Palestinian refugees living in UK
England's most senior judge has criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for saying last week that the government would seek to prevent Palestinian refugees from living in the UK using a refugee scheme established for Ukrainians. The Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales Baroness Sue Carr said she was "deeply troubled" by Starmer's approach. His statement came after it emerged that a judge had ruled that six Palestinians from Gaza - a mother, a father and four children - could remain in Britain using the Ukraine Family Scheme, a visa programme originally established for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war following Russia's invasion. The Home Office refused an initial application by the Palestinian family in May last year, but in September an immigration tribunal ruled in their favour. Opposition Conservative Party MPs slammed the decision last week, with party leader Kemi Badenoch declaring in parliament on Wednesday that it "cannot be allowed to stand". Starmer replied: "I do not agree with the decision. She is right, it is the wrong decision." He added that "the home secretary has already got her team working on closing the loophole. We don't need to wait for that. We're getting on with that because we're taking control." The Home Office warned that the legal decision would "open the floodgates for all those in conflict zones with family in the UK" to come to Britain. read the complete article
United States
Trump said Guantanamo would hold 'high threat' migrants -- but others have ended up there
Early this month, as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration, the first flight carrying "high threat" migrants landed at Guantanamo Bay, home of the notorious U.S. prison camp that administration officials said would house the most violent "worst of the worst" migrants apprehended on American soil. ABC News, however, has spoken with the families of two migrants who say they're being held there despite having no criminal record. As more migrants have been sent to Guantanamo, immigrant advocacy groups and some relatives of those detained claim the administration has provided no evidence that those detained are "high-threat" -- and that people are being sent to the military base without access to legal counsel or the ability to communicate with relatives. "It's troubling enough that we are even sending immigrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo, but it's beyond the pale that we are holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family or the outside world," said Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. A federal lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., last week and backed by the ACLU, says this is the first time in U.S. history that the government has detained noncitizens on civil immigration charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. read the complete article
Guantánamo Is The Place Where Presidents Abuse Human Rights
It is not like the U.S. actually needs Guantánamo. There is a naval base there, but it serves no strategic purpose. The former commander in chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command, Jack Sheehan, acknowledged that “Guantánamo serves no military purpose, affords no strategic advantage.” But because Guantánamo is entirely cut off from Cuba and from the United States, it provides a convenient place for presidents to operate in a legal no man’s land, and multiple presidents have used it as a storage unit for populations they don’t want inside the U.S. but either can’t or don’t want to expel entirely. George W. Bush (Bush II) was not the first to use the site as a dumping ground for unwanted people. His father, George H.W. Bush (Bush I), sent thousands of Haitian refugees there. Goldstein notes that the Clinton administration actually successfully eliminated a court precedent that recognized some legal rights for Guantánamo detainees, believing that a president needed “maximum flexibility” when it came to the use of the facility. That “flexibility” became useful when George W. Bush decided to use the facility to house hundreds of people it suspected of terrorism but did not wish to actually prosecute in U.S. courts, either because it did not have enough evidence or because it had physically abused them during their custody. (Or even because the administration knew they were innocent!) The Bush II administration’s use of Guantanamo was a flagrant effort to avoid granting basic due process of law to criminal suspects. The administration used the facility as a torture chamber, subjecting prisoners to extreme cruelty. (A detainee has drawn pictures of the torture he endured.) Some of them were entirely innocent of any wrongdoing. It was a hideous violation of both domestic and international law, for which nobody has ever been held accountable. (The Obama administration famously said it wanted to “look forward,” not backward, as an explanation for not prosecuting torturers.) Bush II claimed the right to hold prisoners forever, without ever charging them with a crime or presenting any evidence against them in a court of law. Guantanamo has, as Jonathan Hansen writes in his excellent Guantánamo: An American History, long “provided the laboratory and staging area where U.S. imperial ambition could be implemented beyond the scrutiny of the American public and the constraint of U.S. law.” read the complete article
Australia
PM praises Khawaja as a ‘great Australian’ but rejects suggestion he is ignoring Islamophobia
The prime minister has condemned a suspected Islamophobic attack on two women at a suburban shopping centre, almost a week after the assaults. An unidentified woman allegedly assaulted a 30-year-old woman inside the shopping complex before she pushed a 26-year-old woman to the floor in a separate incident about 10 minutes later, Victoria police said. Australian cricket star Usman Khawaja on Tuesday accused Albanese of being silent over Islamophobic attacks and favouring other faiths. The “atrocious” attacks would be “swept under the rug like all attacks against the Islamic community”, Khawaja said in an Instagram post. “Prime minister and definitely not the opposition leader will mention it. It’s amazing how one-sided the [world] is.” Khawaja called for a summit to tackle not just antisemitism but Islamophobia too. At a press conference on Wednesday, Albanese said: “I have every respect for Usman Khawaja, he’s a great Australian … my view is that any attack on people on the basis of their faith or who they are is reprehensible. And I certainly hope that the perpetrators get tracked down and face the full force of the law.” Asked again about the perception from some Muslim leaders that his government did not take Islamophobia seriously, Albanese responded: “I take all attacks on people on their basis of their faith seriously, and they should all face the full force of the law." read the complete article
Melbourne woman charged over two alleged Islamophobic attacks at shopping centre
A woman will face court charged over allegedly Islamophobic attacks on two women at a shopping centre, as one of the victims says she remains terrified. The 31-year-old Pascoe Vale woman is accused of assaulting a pregnant 30-year-old Muslim woman inside an Epping shopping complex in Melbourne’s north on Thursday, before allegedly attacking 26-year-old Ealaf Al-Easawi about 10 minutes later. On Wednesday, Victoria police charged a woman with intentionally and recklessly causing injury, unlawful assault and aggravated assault. It will be alleged the victims were targeted because of their head coverings. Investigators are also investigating a separate report of online threats being made against one of the victims. read the complete article
France
France: Lawmakers must reject 'discriminatory' bill to ban hijabs in all sports
Proposed bill would ban wearing ‘ostensibly religious’ clothing and symbols in French sports Senate to debate and vote the bill this week. New law would exacerbate the blatant religious, racial and gender discrimination already experienced by Muslim women in France. ‘The sports hijab bans in France are yet another measure underpinned by Islamophobia and a patriarchal attempt to control what Muslim women wear’ – Anna Błuś French lawmakers must reject a discriminatory bill that would ban the wearing of “ostensibly religious” clothing and symbols during competitions in all French sports, Amnesty International said ahead of this week’s Senate debate and vote. The ban which would apply to competitions organised by sports federations, their decentralised bodies, professional leagues and affiliated associations as well as swimming pools, is being debated today and tomorrow ahead of an expected vote. read the complete article
International
Bookstore raids in Kashmir by police prompt widespread criticism
Police in Indian-administered Kashmir raided bookstores and seized 668 books linked to a major Islamic organisation in the disputed region, where strict controls on the press have escalated in recent years. The raids began on Friday in Srinagar, the region’s main city. Police said they acted “based on credible intelligence regarding the clandestine sale and distribution of literature promoting the ideology of a banned organisation”. According to booksellers, the seized books were mostly published by New Delhi-based Markazi Maktaba Islami Publishers, which is affiliated with the Indian branch of one of the largest Islamic and political organisations in the Indian subcontinent, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. Indian authorities banned Jamaat-e-Islami in Kashmir as an “unlawful association” in February 2019, months before New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomy. In New Delhi’s effort to shape what it calls “Naya Kashmir”, or “new Kashmir”, the territory’s people have since been largely silenced as India has shown no tolerance for any form of dissent. read the complete article