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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In India, a Hindu gym owner in Uttarakhand is facing threats after intervening to protect a Muslim shopkeeper from harassment by a Hindu mob made up of members of the far-right outfit Bajrang Dal, meanwhile in the United States, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier called law enforcement ahead of CAIR’s annual “Muslim Day at the Capitol”, and lastly in the UK, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has pledged to take “every possible step” to protect Welsh Muslims from the rise of the far right in an effort to advocate for a “Whales for All” approach in governing. Our recommended read of the day is by Ismail Allison for The New Arab, who states that the hate-fuelled assault on Rep. Ilhan Omar reflects years of escalating anti-Muslim and racist rhetoric from President Trump and several members of Congress.
United States
Surprising or not, assault on Ilhan Omar shouldn't be normalised | Recommended Read
When AIPAC, media outlets, pro-Israel members of Congress, and even the President of the United States spend years smearing a single member of Congress as a threat to our nation, it is only a matter of time before that hatred inspires someone to take matters into their hands. That is exactly what happened on January 27 in Minneapolis, when a right-wing extremist with an obsessive hatred of Somali-Americans charged at Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and sprayed a liquid on her using a syringe. While Omar was thankfully left uninjured and the assailant was taken into custody, the torrent of anti-Muslim hate unleashed against her by the Trump administration, Israel lobby groups and anti-Muslim extremists shows no signs of stopping. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, President Trump called Omar a “fraud” before suggesting that she may have arranged the attack herself. There is a direct line between this kind of rhetoric, which is not coming from fringe corners of the internet but rather from the very government of which Omar is a member, and the kind of violence that almost took place at that town hall. When millions of Americans repeatedly hear claims that a female Muslim lawmaker and former refugee is an un-American terrorist, there's an obvious risk that at least one of these individuals will act on that rhetoric. read the complete article
Attorney general calls for cops ahead of Muslim Capitol visit
The country's largest Muslim advocacy group had plans to go to Florida's Capitol to talk about bills that could affect Muslims living in Florida. Then the state's attorney general called the cops on them. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) every year hosts what they call "Muslim Day at the Capitol," where Florida Muslims visit the Legislature and discuss issues important to them, including religious freedom. This year, that landed on Feb. 2. The same morning, Attorney General James Uthmeier posted on X that he had "requested law enforcement to be on heightened alert for any possible security threats" around the Capitol, referencing to an announcement made by Gov. Ron DeSantis in December designating CAIR a foreign terrorist organization. "Further, terrorist organizations are barred from using any and all state resources, and we expect the governor's executive order to be upheld," he said. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Plaid Cymru leader: We’ll protect communities if Reform UK wins in England
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has pledged to take “every possible step” to protect Welsh Muslims from the rise of the far right. Asked what his party could offer Muslims who were considering backing Plaid for the first time in May’s Senedd poll, he said he wanted Muslim communities to be “at the heart” of the Wales a Plaid government would build, adding: “My pitch is around a Wales for all.” “To me, this is about building Wales as a community of communities,” he said, explaining that his party would focus on prosperity and public services, particularly education, health and care. Based on current polling, Plaid will become the largest party, followed by Reform UK, with the governing Labour Party collapsing into a fight for third place with the Green Party. It would be a political transformation for a nation that has been dominated electorally by Labour for more than 100 years. read the complete article
India
'My name is Mohammad Deepak': Hindu man defends Muslim shopkeeper from far-right mob in India
A Hindu gym owner in India’s Uttarakhand state is facing threats after intervening to protect a Muslim shopkeeper from harassment by a Hindu mob made up of members of the far-right outfit Bajrang Dal. The moment was captured on video and has since gone viral. “I am not a Hindu, I am not a Muslim, I am not a Sikh, and I am not a Christian. First and foremost, I am a human being. Because after I die, I have to answer to God and to humanity, not to any religion,” gym owner Deepak Kumar, 46, stated proudly in a video on Instagram after the incident. He added, “I will not back down.” The episode began in the northern Indian town of Kotdwar on January 26, when Kumar was at a friend’s shop and saw a group threatening 70-year-old Wakeel Ahmed, a Muslim shopkeeper. The men demanded that Ahmed remove the word ‘baba’ from the name of his shop, ‘Baba School Dress’, claiming the term could only be used for Hindu religious figures, Indian media reported. A video of the confrontation, which has since gone viral, shows Kumar questioning the demand. “The shop is 30 years old; will you change the name?” he asks. When one of the men asks him his name, Deepak responds, “My name is Mohammad Deepak!” Deepak later said the statement was meant to express unity and equality. “I intended to convey that I was an Indian and everyone is equal before the law,” he told The Indian Express. read the complete article
France
In France, the word intifada is on trial
Will French courts ban the word intifada? This Orwellian question has been at the core of a legal dispute since October 2024. Elias d'Imzalene, a founding member of Urgence Palestine, was charged with "incitement to antisemitic hatred and violence". The speech was given in Paris in September 2024 during a political gathering where pro-Palestinian voices declared their renewed intent to mobilise against the genocide. "Are we ready to carry out an intifada in Paris? In the banlieues? In our neighbourhoods?" When d'Imzalene uttered these words, he could not have known that a native informant was secretly recording everything. The informant gained recognition as an "insider" who exposed Muslims as inherently violent and antisemitic through literary works celebrated by Islamophobes. The prosecution of d'Imzalene is part of a wider effort in France to criminalise Palestinian solidarity by treating the language of anti-colonial resistance as antisemitic hatred and violence, a move backed by Islamophobic and pro-Israel groups and reinforced by foreign lobbying. read the complete article