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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Ukraine, the Muhammad Asad Islamic Cultural Centre opened its doors to displaced people from across the country during Russia’s invasion of the country, turning classrooms and prayer halls into temporary shelters, meanwhile in a new report for the TNI, Shayan Shaukat writes that Hindutva has become one of the world’s “most globally embedded far-right movements”, and lastly, two Human Rights Watch (HRW) employees have resigned after leadership blocked a report that deems Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees’ right of return a “crime against humanity.” Our recommended read of the day is by Vahini Shori for NPR on how a Muslim school near Birmingham, Alabama, seeking to expand its campus faced threats, rebuke, and other forms of Islamophobia as a result. This and more below:
United States
A thriving Muslim school in Alabama looked to expand, but was met with Islamophobia | Recommended Read
The Islamic Academy of Alabama was thriving, winning academic awards and drawing students from across the country. Enrollment increased so much the school needed to expand beyond their Birmingham building. But things did not go as planned. The first hint that obstacles were on the horizon were the lawn signs. While the Islamic Academy of Alabama continues to thrive in Homewood, it's encountered challenges accommodating its growing student body. So they looked into ways to expand and found a bigger space in an office park nearby in Hoover, another Birmingham suburb. It just needed to be rezoned for use as a school and community center. Suddenly, there were lawn signs calling people's attention to a zoning board meeting in the neighborhood where the Academy was trying to move. TOMMY TUBERVILLE: There's a small school that's a Muslim school in that area. They want larger area where they can build a bigger school, infiltrate more and bring in more young people to teach them the Muslim faith. And I'll be d***ed if we're going to do that in the state of Alabama. We're going to protect the people of Alabama. We're going to protect our Constitution. We're going to protect our state, and we're going to protect our country. SHORI: Comments on social media mirrored the same anti-Muslim sentiments. One user commented that the K through 12 school looked, quote, "flammable," while others express anxiety over a violent Muslim takeover of the country. ABDEIN: We did not have to hire security after 9/11. We've had to hire security after Senator Tuberville's comments. read the complete article
The Qur’an, for the Love of Christ!
As a Baptist minister who wants to talk about Islamophobia—indeed, feels called to talk about Islamophobia—I always search for hard evidence. I want to help fellow Christians understand that I’m talking about more than anecdotes, and more than vibes. And one of the best-regarded instruments for measuring systemic Islamophobia is the National American Islamophobia Index, which was introduced in 2018 by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. The results of the 2025 survey are alarming. Compared with 2022, the overall Islamophobia Index has increased by 8 points, from 25 to 33. The sharpest increase was observed among white evangelicals (15 points), Catholics (12 points), and Protestants (7 points). Minimal increase was recorded among Jews (from 17 to 19 points) and the nonaffiliated (from 22 to 23 points). This distribution shows clearly that Christians of all stripes were the driver of the Islamophobia Index increase in the last three years. This lengthy history of Christian anti-Muslim hostility, as well as the fact that Islamophobia thrives in many American churches today, requires of contemporary American Christians a consideration of our ethical and theological responsibilities toward our Muslim siblings. In my book Challenging Islamophobia in the Church: Liturgical Tools for Justice (Judson Press, 2026), co-authored with Michael Woolf, I argue that, for Christians, learning about Islam and engaging with Muslim communities is a necessary endeavor, not just because of the troubling history of Christian Islamophobia, but, more important, because knowledge of Islam can make one a better (and more educated) Christian. read the complete article
‘New York is constantly being renewed’: how Muslim creatives are changing the city’s cultural landscape
Teal power in America is often built at dinner tables. That adage is particularly relevant to the past few years in New York City, where Muslims and non-Muslims have come together at Iftar and Eid events, marking the moment and reimagining traditions. In Chinatown lofts and Bushwick studios, Muslim artists and writers have gathered to pass around plates of papri chaat and basboosa. Some of these dinners have made the pages of Vogue and glowing New Yorker write-ups. The New York Times even described Eid morning prayers in Washington Square Park as the “Muslim Met Gala”. At one Eid al-Fitr event in Bushwick last April, the guest list featured hosts Ramy Youssef, Hasan Minhaj and Zara Rahim, and guests such as Kareem Rahma, Rashid Khalidi, Cynthia Nixon and David Byrne, among others. After dinner, Zohran Mamdani – who was still an outside bet and yet to secure the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor – took the mic. “New York City is at a historic crossroads. Does it want to look to the future,” he asked, “or look to the past?” Six months later, the question was answered resoundingly. Those dinners represent a broader current: a critical mass of Muslim artists and thinkers who have built the political capital and social clout to create a growing imprint on the city’s cultural landscape. This pulsating cultural life and reimagining of traditions coincided with two profound shifts in the lives of New York’s Muslims. First, a rise in Islamophobia in the aftermath of 7 October, with mounting pressure from state and institutional powers on those who spoke publicly in solidarity with Palestinians. At the same time, Mamdani, a young state assemblyman from Queens, was quietly considering a mayoral run, one that promised not only to redirect the city’s politics but to recalibrate the place of progressive Muslims in American public life. read the complete article
International
Hindutva as a global far-right project
Hindutva is no longer a primarily domestic project: it has become one of the world’s most globally embedded far-right movements. Fusing majoritarian ideology with neoliberal governance, diaspora lobbying networks and digital surveillance capitalism, the BJP–RSS ecosystem now shapes culture-war politics and geopolitical alignments far beyond India. This essay maps Hindutva as a transnational form of twenty-first-century fascism, and what confronting it demands from the left worldwide. read the complete article
Researchers at Human Rights Watch Resign Over Blocked Report on Palestinian Refugee Return
Two Human Rights Watch (HRW) employees who make up the organization’s entire Israel and Palestine team are stepping down from their positions after leadership blocked a report that deems Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees’ right of return a “crime against humanity.” In separate resignation letters obtained by Jewish Currents, Omar Shakir, who has headed the team for nearly the last decade, and Milena Ansari, the team’s assistant researcher, said leadership’s decision to pull the report before its scheduled publication on December 4th broke from HRW’s customary approval processes and was evidence that the organization was putting fear of political backlash over a commitment to international law. “I have lost my faith in the integrity of how we do our work and our commitment to principled reporting on the facts and application of the law,” wrote Shakir in his resignation letter. “As such, I am no longer able to represent or work for Human Rights Watch.” In an interview with Jewish Currents, Shakir said he worried that HRW planned to “take the finalized report back to the drawing board,” giving leadership “the opportunity to kill or distort the report at different stages.” He said that despite the clear “shift in discourse when it comes to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians,” with “concepts of apartheid, genocide, and ethnic cleansing” now being broadly embraced, the right of return—which Israel’s supporters say would end the Jewish state by depriving it a Jewish majority—remains a third rail. “The one topic,” he said, “even at Human Rights Watch, for which there remains an unwillingness to apply the law and the facts in a principled way is the plight of refugees and their right to return to the homes that they were forced to flee.” read the complete article
China
China: Repression Deepens, Extends Abroad
The Chinese government intensified its repression across the country in 2025, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2026. President Xi Jinping mobilized the government to impose strict ideological conformity and loyalty to him and the Chinese Communist Party. Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other communities with distinct identities, including members of unofficial churches, face the most severe suppression of rights. Government repression of Hong Kong has also escalated. “The Chinese government under Xi Jinping has amassed an increasingly disastrous human rights record, expanding and deepening its crackdown on fundamental freedoms,” said Maya Wang, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Foreign governments have largely been unwilling to push back against the threats the Chinese government poses to the international human rights system, let alone within China.” read the complete article
Australia
Kids in jail, rising racism: Australia's 2026 human rights report card
Human Rights Watch has released its 2026 world report, saying poor treatment of refugees, systemic discrimination and racism have tarred Australia's human rights record, despite freedoms in the country being largely upheld. Racial and ethnic discrimination — including antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism — was increasing, as was racism towards Indian and Indigenous communities, the report found. The report, released on Wednesday, pointed to a spate of antisemitic attacks across Sydney and Melbourne in 2024 and 2025, as well as the Bondi Beach terror attack in December last year, in which 15 innocent people were killed by two alleged gunmen targeting a Hanukkah celebration. The human rights group also pointed to an increase in neo-Nazi activities, including anti-immigration rallies in September and the attack on a First Nations protest and gathering site in Melbourne. read the complete article
Ukraine
From Crimea to Cameroon: Ukraine’s minorities reflect on life during war
When the war began, the Muhammad Asad Islamic Cultural Centre in western Ukraine opened its doors to displaced people from across the country, turning classrooms and prayer halls into temporary shelters. Muslims lined study rooms with mattresses, cooked meals and distributed water – acts they saw as ordinary, yet gestures that quietly challenged long-held misconceptions about Islam. Ibrahim Zhumabekov, the centre’s 29-year-old imam, said misinformation in Ukraine is prevalent, including claims that “Muslims are terrorists” and that their faith subjugates women. But amid the chaos of the early days of the war, these views were dispelled as hundreds of Ukrainians found peace at the centre and as women and children were given female-only quarters to sleep, change and wash in privacy. As two small, colourful birds flew overhead, chirping, Zhumabekov and 46-year-old Ezzideen el-Yaman, a visitor at the centre who is originally from Lebanon, recalled when a Ukrainian man once arrived at the centre banging on the door as he hurled anti-Muslim stereotypes. “We invited him in, showed him around, and he changed his mind – now he visits us regularly,” Zhumabekov said, smiling. Zhumabekov said educating Ukrainians about the country’s rich Muslim heritage is equally important, noting that Muslims in Lviv may have been present since the 14th century. read the complete article