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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Australia, the country’s Muslims are “under siege” and feeling fearful for their lives amid a horrific escalation in anti-Muslim hate, says Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, elsewhere in the country, a race discrimination watchdog demanded an apology over anti-Muslim remarks by far-right One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson, and lastly in the United States, Democrats are calling for the censure or even resignation of Randy Fine, a Florida congressman known for his inflammatory rhetoric, after he wrote a particularly Islamophobic social-media post last weekend. Our recommended read of the day is by Shada Islam for The Guardian, who writes on Marco Rubio’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, which called upon the Western world to defend white, Christian civilization against supposedly contaminating racialized migrants, a dangerous allusion to the dark legacy of systemic racism in European history. This and more below:
International
The US is dragging Europe back to the days of white supremacism. Our leaders are playing along | Recommended Read
Twenty-five years ago, George W Bush persuaded European leaders to back his “war on terror”. That disastrous project cost millions of lives and caused mass displacement of people from across the Middle East. It normalised racism and hatred for Muslims, refugees and racialised minorities in the US and Europe. I fear Marco Rubio’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, with its calls to defend white, western, Christian civilisation against supposedly contaminating racialised migrants – and the standing ovation he received from European elites – may mark a chilling sequel. Rubio’s language of a shared and superior American and European civilisation differs from that of his bosses, Donald Trump and JD Vance. His tone is more emollient but his outreach is conspiratorial. Rubio talks of migration and identity and civilisational anxiety, rather than terrorism and hard security threats as Bush once did. In his Munich speech, Rubio flattered Europeans about the continent’s colonial past. He denied preaching a message of xenophobia or hate, and instead framed his call to defend national borders as entirely respectable, dutiful and a “fundamental act of sovereignty”. The message of nativist exclusion, however, remained unchanged. Having lived through and reported on the aftermath of 9/11, I am acutely aware of the racist subtext and Islamophobic dog whistles that lurk behind such white-supremacy-tinged discourse, and the fears and even violence this can unleash. The anxious debates that were triggered all those years ago on Islam’s place in Europe, about loyalty and belonging and about Muslims representing an impossible-to-integrate “other”, continue to haunt European Muslims today. read the complete article
Australia
Australian Muslims ‘under siege’ amid anti-Muslim hate spike: Faruqi
Australia’s Muslims are “under siege” and feeling fearful for their lives amid a horrific escalation in anti-Muslim hate, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi says. In December, the Islamophobia Register Australia documented a 740 per cent spike in reports after the Bondi terror attack. An analysis of reports from 2023-24 found the highest number of incidents recorded since the register was created, including physical assaults, verbal abuse, threats and vandalism. Senator Faruqi – who is a Muslim – told the ABC that this year’s holy month of Ramadan was marred by fears of racist violence towards the community. “We have seen such racism and Muslim hate spread around over the last weeks, which has really escalated,” she said on Thursday. “So, the Muslim community is feeling under siege. We are feeling really scared and fearful.” read the complete article
Australia race watchdog demands apology from right-wing lawmaker Pauline Hanson over anti-Muslim remarks
Australia's race discrimination watchdog demanded an apology on Wednesday over remarks by a hard-right lawmaker targeting Muslims. Anti-immigration One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson said on Monday that Australia should show a "tough stance" against Islam. "Their religion concerns me, because what it says in the Koran: they hate Westerners, and that's what it's all about," the senator told Sky News Australia. "You say: 'Oh, well, there's good Muslims out there'. Well, I'm sorry, how can you -- you know -- tell me there are good Muslims?" Comments that "stigmatise and devalue" people serve to increase fear and deepen division, said Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman. "To those who speak about the importance of social cohesion: you cannot build it by isolating, belittling, or casting suspicion on an entire group of Australians." read the complete article
Lakemba Mosque receives third violent threat a leaders condemn Hanson comments
Sydney’s largest mosque has received a violent message containing a call to kill Muslims on the eve of the city’s Ramadan celebrations – the third graphic threat directed at Lakemba Mosque in less than a month. The message, delivered by post, included a reference to the Christchurch massacre and was reported to police on Wednesday as political leaders dealt with the fallout from One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s anti-Muslim remarks. Hanson used an interview on Wednesday to single out Lakemba in Sydney’s south-west as a suburb where she felt unsafe and unwelcome after suggesting on Monday there were no “good Muslims”. The Lebanese Muslim Association, the mosque’s custodian body, has called for more CCTV coverage and formal guarantees of extra police protection for thousands of worshippers set to gather in Lakemba, which also hosts the popular Ramadan night markets. read the complete article
United States
Congressman’s Odious Islamophobia Gets a Pass From GOP
Democrats are calling for the censure or even resignation of Randy Fine, a Florida congressman known for his inflammatory rhetoric, after he wrote a particularly Islamophobic social-media post last weekend. But other than one retiring Republican congressman, the GOP has largely been silent on the matter. On Sunday, Fine wrote a post on X indicating that he prefers dogs to Muslims. “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” he said. New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Fine’s comment “genuinely one of the most disgusting statements I have ever seen issued by an American official.” “It should not stop shocking us that the Republican Party openly embraces this. Fine should be censured & stripped of committees. To ignore this is to accept and normalize it,” she said on social media. Fine, who is Jewish, has become infamous for his antagonistic social-media presence, appearing to actively court controversy through his incendiary rhetoric and frequent Islamophobic remarks. He came under fire last year for posts referring to Muslim Democratic politicians like Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar, Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib, and New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani as terrorists. But Speaker Johnson has yet to say anything at all about Fine’s recent post, and neither have any other House GOP leaders. The closest an elected Republican has come to condemning fine was when Don Bacon, a retiring moderate Nebraska congressman, told Axios he did not agree with his colleague’s sentiment: “I appreciate Randy Fine for many things, but I don’t agree with this. We should be respectful to others.” read the complete article
Even Megyn Kelly comes for Randy Fine in the wake of his anti-Muslim social media post
Megyn Kelly has joined the outcry against Florida Republican Rep. Randy Fine over his Islamophobic social media post, calling him a “pathetic sweaty man” who had gone “full bigot.” Fine caused uproar on X (Twitter) Sunday when he responded to pro-Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani – who had jokingly claimed that the amount of dog excrement in New York proved the animals are “unclean” and should not live in cities – by declaring: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.” Fine, who goes by the nickname “The Hebrew Hammer,” subsequently attempted to firefight the controversy by posting meme variations on the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, but was inundated with vitriol. read the complete article
With immigration losing its edge, Republicans find a new boogeyman: ‘Radical Islam’
Imagine if a candidate for, say, the California Assembly appeared at a political event and delivered the following remarks: “No to kosher meat. No to yarmulkes. No to celebrating Easter. No, no, no.” He, or she, would be roundly — and rightly — criticized for their bigotry and raw prejudice. Recently, at a candidates forum outside Dallas, Larry Brock expressed the following sentiments as part of a lengthy disquisition on the Muslim faith. “We should ban the burqa, the hijab, the abaya, the niqab,” said the candidate for state representative, referring to the coverings worn by some Muslim women. “No to halal meat. No to celebrating Ramadan. No, no, no.” For many Texas Republicans running in the March 3 primary, Islamophobia has become a central portion of their election plank, as a longtime political lance — illegal immigration — has grown dull around its edges. There hasn’t been such a concentrated, sulfurous political assault on Muslims since the angst-ridden days following the Sept. 11 attacks. For years, Republicans capitalized on the issues of illegal immigration and lax enforcement along the U.S. -Mexico border. With illegal crossings slowed to a trickle under Trump, “Republicans can’t run on the border issue the way [they] have in the past,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. “Republicans need to find something else that taps into those cultural-identity issues” and unifies and animates the GOP base, said Henson. In short, the fearmongers need a new scapegoat. read the complete article