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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, Florida Congressman Randy Fine continued his anti-Muslim remarks, most recently saying, “We’re going to stand strong against the Islamification of America”, while New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin said that the legislature’s ethics committee will expedite its inquiry into Islamophobic remarks made by City Councilmember Vickie Paladino, and in India, new research out by the group India Hate Lab shows how existing social media systems function as a “core infrastructure for organized hate”. Our recommended read of the day is by Ali Mamouri and Fethi Mansouri for The Conversation on how Pauline Hanson’s no ‘good’ Muslims comment shows how normalized Islamophobia has become in Australia. This and more below:
Australia
Pauline Hanson’s no ‘good’ Muslims comment shows how normalised Islamophobia has become in Australia | Recommended Read
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson made headlines last week following an interview with Sky News in which she suggested there are no “good” Muslims. The comment was outrageous by any measure, but the response relatively muted, reflecting a broader shift in political discourse. For Australian Muslims, the political atmosphere in the wake of the Bondi terrorist attack is febrile. Mosques are receiving threats during Ramadan. Muslim men performing their prayers, during a protest, are being roughly handled by NSW police in public without serious consequences. Islamophobic incidents routinely spike in response to events thousands of kilometres away. The question is no longer whether Islamophobia exists in Australia. The question is whether it has become normalised, tolerated in ways other forms of discrimination are not, and what this means for the country’s commitment to multiculturalism and liberal democracy. read the complete article
United States
Fine doubles down on anti-Muslim comments, Florida leaders speak out on religious hate
After a week of posting incendiary remarks toward Islam on the platform “X,” U.S. Rep. Randy Fine is still doubling down. On Monday, Fine, the Florida Congressional District 6 Republican, held a telephone town hall meeting ahead of President Donald Trump’s upcoming State of the Union speech. “We’re going to stand strong against the Islamification of America,” Fine said. He said his guest to the State of the Union would be his father, who Fine said is legally blind, and a seeing-eye dog named Sadie. The move is a nod toward the legislation Fine filed last week, “Protect Puppies from Sharia.” It would “prohibit federal funds from being provided to any state or local government that bans dogs as pets,” according to a press release from Fine’s office. Fine filed the legislation after a flurry of posts on “X” went viral last week. His posts contained several anti-muslim statements, which some Central Florida experts have called “divisive” and “racist.” “It's creating a single group of individuals and saying they are all unworthy of being equal with us,” said Thomas Bryer, a University of Central Florida professor of civic prosperity. read the complete article
Menin speeds up ethics review as Paladino doubles down on anti-Muslim posts
City Council Speaker Julie Menin said Tuesday that the legislature’s ethics committee will expedite its inquiry into Islamophobic remarks made by City Councilmember Vickie Paladino, after the Queens Republican posted a fresh round of controversial comments online this week. The Council’s Committee on Rules, Privileges, Elections, Standards and Ethics will soon wrap up its process questioning a December social media post made on Paladino’s personal account in which she called for the “expulsion of Muslims from Western nations,” the speaker said ahead of Tuesday’s Council meeting. Menin’s orders came days after Paladino doubled down on the remarks, sending out a series of posts appearing to claim that Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, was orchestrating an Islamic takeover of the city. Paladino also reposted a number of messages claiming that Islam was an inherently violent religion. read the complete article
Wyandotte school board member called to step-down after racist Facebook post
Growing calls for a Downriver school board member’s job on Tuesday night after she made an anti-Muslim post on Facebook. Now, while she has apologized, many say it's not enough. An emergency meeting of the Wyandotte School Board denounced the anti-Muslim post and called for the board member who wrote it to step down. But she was not at the meeting. The post on Facebook was a meme with the statement: "dogs or Muslims…you can only keep one." Wyandotte School Board Trustee Cindy Kinney answered the post saying "dogs." That comment drew swift backlash from parents, community members and others on the School Board. read the complete article
India
India’s Hate Speech Crisis and the Myth of Neutral Platforms
While India just wrapped the India AI Impact Summit 2026 under the banner of “Safe and Trusted AI,” the India Hate Lab’s findings show how, in practice, existing social media systems—with their recommendation engines, live-streaming tools, and group features—continue to function as a core infrastructure for organized hate. In India, as in other nations, what we see emerging is just not a content moderation problem but a systematic risk. The accounts mobilizing hate speech in India are real, verified, and often tied to prominent political figures and organizations. What makes the activity systematic is the deliberate exploitation of platform features like live streaming, recommendation algorithms, group mechanics, cross-posting tools to manufacture virality for violent rhetoric. By this, I mean real, named infrastructure like Party IT cells running WhatsApp trees from Delhi down to booth level groups, district tagged facebook pages for BJP and VHP units, and Instagram handles for local Bajrang Dal people that cross-post the same hate clips within minutes. The coordination happens through authentic infrastructure like WhatsApp groups hierarchies mapped to India's administrative geography, Facebook pages run by official BJP and VHP units, Instagram accounts representing local Bajrang Dal chapters. This is, in some ways, more concerning than classical CIB. There is no deception about identity. The hate is operating in plain sight, amplified by platform design choices that reward engagement regardless of content. read the complete article