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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, multiple rewards are being offered as Montgomery County police investigate a hate-bias incident involving graffiti at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, meanwhile in Canada, organizers at Thursday’s National Day of Remembrance event at the Manitoba Legislature said the commemoration is “especially important” amid recent hate-related graffiti incidents in Winnipeg, and lastly in India, research out on the use of the UAPA from January 2005 to February 2025 in Karnataka shows the extent to which the legislation has disproportionately targeted Indian Muslims. Our recommended read of the day is by Li Yuan for The New York Times on Ma Ruilin, a Hui Muslim, and his journey from Chinese Communist Party cadre to critic. This and more below:
China
‘I’m Free’: A Muslim Official Who Lost Faith in China Gains a Voice | Recommended Read
In the final years of his career as a Chinese Communist Party official, Ma Ruilin lived two lives. During the day, he carried out policies that were used to control Muslims. In the evening, he visited a mosque to pray. To hide his identity from surveillance cameras, he wore a motorcycle helmet when he entered. Mr. Ma knew exactly how China’s surveillance systems worked — he helped design them. “By day, my face looked exactly like one of my colleagues,” he said. “At night, I knelt on the prayer mat and became a different human being.” For two decades, Mr. Ma was a midlevel party cadre in China’s religious affairs bureaucracy. A technocrat, he managed policies for Muslim communities and led hajj delegations to Mecca. About 10 years ago, when the party intensified a crackdown on Islam, Mr. Ma, a member of China’s Hui Muslim minority, found it increasingly difficult to reconcile his conflicting identities. Now 50 and living in New York, Mr. Ma is determined to tell his life’s story despite the risks to himself and his family. read the complete article
United States
Multiple cash rewards offered after islamophobic graffiti found at Maryland high school
Multiple rewards are being offered as Montgomery County police investigate a hate-bias incident involving graffiti at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. According to the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD), an officer assigned to the school was notified on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, that graffiti had been spray-painted outside the school building. Investigators said the messages targeted the Muslim community and included anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian language. Detectives are treating the incident as a hate-bias crime and continue to search for those responsible. read the complete article
Texas Matters: CAIR refutes Texas claim of pushing Sharia law and terrorism
Preventing Sharia law from taking over Texas is one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s concerns and one of his top priorities for Texas senators. The good news for Patrick is Sharia law is not a threat to the state, according to Edward Ahmed Mitchell, a civil rights attorney and National Deputy Director of CAIR — Council on American Islamic Relations. Speaking to Texas Public Radio’s "Texas Matters" on Friday Mitchell said concerns about Sharia law in Texas is “nonsense.” “It's so nonsensical. It's so crazy. So you'll hear people claim that Texas Muslims are somehow imposing Sharia law on the state of Texas. This is nonsense,” Mitchell said. Mitchell said even if Muslims wanted to enforce Sharia law in Texas, which they don’t, it would be impossible to accomplish. “Texas Muslims are a small percentage of the population. So, the idea they're going to somehow impose their religion on everyone else defies logic,” he said. There are approximately 400,000 Muslims in Texas, constituting roughly 1% to 1.7% of the state's total population, according to the Texas Almanac. Mitchell added that Muslims are not trying to force Sharia law in Texas. “This is America, the Jewish community, the Christian community, the Muslim community. We cannot force our religion on other people, nor do we want to do that,” he said. “Obviously, that would be illegal. So, this is all made up. It's nonsense,” Mitchell said. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Ulez bomber: the retired electrician who turned bomb-making extremist
Behind the lace curtains, Kevin Rees was much more abrasive, at least online. Under the user name the “Exterminator” he ranted about London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, and the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) which in 2023 was expanded to the capital’s outer borough, including Bexley. This week, at Woolwich crown court, Rees was found guilty of blowing up a Ulez camera with a homemade bomb. The explosion, a jury agreed, was likely to endanger life. Borella also criticised Conservative-led Bexley council for failing to condemn Rees’s attack at the time. He said: “If you don’t condemn it, people will think it’s OK. If this is had been an Islamist attack, there would have been protests and condemnation.” The anti-racist group Hope Not Hate is also alarmed by how Rees was radicalised. Georgie Laming, its director of campaigns, said: “The anti-Ulez movement has for some time now been co-opted by the far right. Local residents join groups to protest traffic measures and are suddenly confronted with conspiracy theories, disinformation, and Islamophobia. read the complete article
‘It’s about ego’: Matt Goodwin’s journey from far-right expert to firebrand Reform candidate
It was the autumn of 2011 and Dr Matt Goodwin was documenting the potential reach of the racist far-right in Tameside, a borough in east Manchester that is part of the parliamentary constituency of Gorton and Denton. “The underlying logic is that citizens turn to the far right as part of an instrumental attempt to ‘defend’ their neighbourhood from threatening groups nearby, and to maintain its characteristics and demographic composition,” the paper advised, according to a copy seen by the Guardian. Fifteen years later, Goodwin’s attentions have returned to Tameside, having been announced on Tuesday as the Reform candidate in Gorton and Denton’s upcoming byelection. It is Goodwin though, according to his political opponents, who is the extremist at the gate now. A recent post on his Substack screamed: “Trump is right – Europe is facing ‘civilisational erasure’ Having spent much time recently in Paris, Brussels, and London, I for one can say these are not the cities I once knew – they are becoming something else entirely.” Few of those who knew Goodwin early in his academic career would have predicted his metamorphosis from ambitious centre-right academic to apparent proponent of ethno-nationalism. A Reform source said he was simply highlighting the consequences of a “policy of mass uncontrolled immigration which nobody voted for”. But were there straws in the wind for this rightward shift? read the complete article
India
Vande Mataram: From an anti-colonial song to a Hindu nationalists' weapon
Once an anti-colonial anthem, ‘Vande Mataram’ is now being used by Hindu nationalists as a form of political coercion against Muslims in India who refuse to recite it. read the complete article
India’s Terrorism Law Weaponised Against Muslims Under BJP In Karnataka, New Research Shows
The UAPA was originally enacted to criminalise “unlawful activities,” defined as any action taken by an individual or association that supports any claim to bring about the secession of any part of the territory of India from the union, disrupting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, or causing disaffection against India. In 2004, the UAPA was amended to include provisions that punished acts of terror in addition to criminalising unlawful activities, following global trends to combat international terrorism. The UAPA is a law that functions as a stand-in for arresting, detaining, and imprisoning anyone. Vague definitions in its language on what constitutes a terrorist act or unlawful activity create an ambiguous cloud of criminality over any person. Our data on the use of UAPA from January 2005 to February 2025 in Karnataka, researched and produced at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, over three years, show the extent to which the UAPA has disproportionately targeted Muslims. Of the 925 persons, 783 (84.6%) were Muslim. Of the 925 persons, 20.16% were accused under Section 18 for conspiring to commit a terrorist act, 16.4% under Section 16 for punishment for terrorist acts, 15% under Section 20 for being a member of a terrorist group or organisation, and 13.4% for unlawful activities, and 6.33% for being a member of unlawful associations. As our data show, despite charges of conspiracy often being made on thin to no evidence, even when fabricated, it remains the section most commonly invoked by investigating agencies. read the complete article
Canada
Community gathers for national day of remembrance and action against Islamophobia
The federal government designated Jan. 29 as a national day of remembrance and action against Islamophobia in 2021. Organizers at Thursday's event at the Manitoba Legislature said it's especially important amid recent hate-related graffiti incidents in Winnipeg and stressed that confronting Islamophobia is a responsibility shared by everyone. read the complete article
Australia
I was born in Australia. I look Indian. Since Bondi, that makes me a target
When news broke of the horrific attack in Bondi, my first thought was for the innocent victims, and for all my Jewish and Bondi friends traumatised by that sickening atrocity. Then fear. Not just about terrorism, but that, just as with the rise of Pauline Hanson, and after 9/11, the Bali bombing, and the Lindt Cafe atrocity, I – and people who look like me – would be targeted: not only by racists, but authorities, just for looking like the attackers. I was born in Australia. My first language is English. But to many people, I just look “Indian.” Despite being Hindu, I look Muslim. And for some, that means I look like a terrorist – just as Sikh people did after 9/11, suffering terrible violence. For years afterwards, that meant increased scrutiny at airports and suspicious looks – if not outright hostility – in public. In the aftermath of Bondi, I and many South Asian, Arab, Sikh and Muslim people are anxious about the repercussions. read the complete article
International
How Western officials, media coverage pushed to discredit Gaza death toll
In the first 18 days of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military killed more than 7,000 Palestinians, including nearly 3,000 children, despite growing calls from around the world for a ceasefire. But in the United States, Israel’s top ally, then-President Joe Biden cast doubt over the suffering and death count of Palestinians, as provided by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, to push back against calls for ending the brutal Israeli assault. More than two years later, as the Palestinian death toll grew tenfold, the Israeli military acknowledged that it killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, confirming the Health Ministry’s data. Rights advocates say Western officials and media outlets helped the Israeli denial of the scope of atrocities in Gaza, contributing to the dehumanisation of Palestinians. Abed Ayoub, executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), said the US government attempted to “gaslight” the world and discredit the Health Ministry numbers. “This government played a role in that, and the Biden administration played a role in that,” he told Al Jazeera. “They laid the groundwork for the Israeli officials to do the same thing. But ultimately, at the end, you cannot keep lying about what the world has been watching and witnessing with our own eyes,” Ayoub said. read the complete article