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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, Megan Horne has been arrested and charged with assaulting three Muslims in Brooklyn, NY, including a 12 year-old girl, meanwhile in Canada, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) has sharply criticized the government’s decision to abolish two key offices dedicated to fighting Islamophobia and antisemitism, warning that the move risks weakening protections for vulnerable communities at a time of rising hate, and lastly in the United Kingdom, Alexander Taylor, who sent Islamophobic messages hours after the terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue, was been sentenced to a 12 month community order with 15 rehabilitation days. Our recommended read of the day is by Steven Lee Myers for the New York Times, about The Taj Story, a new Bollywood film that rehashes a discredited anti-Muslim conspiracy theory once relegated to the fringes of the internet, giving prominence to efforts to inflame sectarian tensions. This and more below:
India
Bollywood Embraces a Taj Mahal Conspiracy Theory | Recommended Read
The Taj Mahal, India’s most famous landmark, is haunted by a conspiracy theory. It has been pushed for years by an ardent cadre of pseudo-historians, lawyers and religious believers who claim that everything you’ve been told about the building is a lie. The theory is convoluted, to say the least. The thrust is that the building is not truly a masterpiece of Indo-Islamic architecture, commissioned in the 17th century by the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan, a Muslim, as a tomb for his beloved wife, who died giving birth to their 14th child. Instead, the theory goes, its origins are Hindu, a history that has long been suppressed. Evidence of that is conjecture — and has repeatedly been debunked. That has not put the matter to rest. Hari Shankhar Jain, a prominent lawyer in the cause, said in an interview that the authorities “did not want the truth to come out.” Now Bollywood has weighed in. A new film, “The Taj Story,” has turned the revisionist claims into a courtroom drama, featuring a popular actor, Paresh Rawal. read the complete article
United States
Christians have a duty to confront Islamophobia, ministers argue in new book
In their years of interfaith work, the Revs. Anna Piela and Michael Woolf have heard an oft-repeated reason for why some Christians don’t want to learn about Islam or are reluctant to challenge their misconceptions about the faith: They fear they might convert. But in their new book, “Confronting Islamophobia in the Church: Liturgical Tools for Justice,” the authors — who are American Baptist Churches USA ministers and a married couple — argue that learning about Islam, or any other religion, can help Christians better appreciate and practice their own tradition. The book, published by Judson Press last month, also asserts that Christians have a moral responsibility to confront prejudices in their congregations about Muslims. Piela, a visiting scholar of religious studies and gender at Northwestern University, also in Evanston, and Woolf bring their academic expertise and experiences as ministers to trace the origins of Islamophobia and the role it plays in American society today. They also discuss the Baptist commitment to religious freedom as one framework for challenging anti-Muslim hate. The book is meant to serve as a practical guide for Christian faith leaders and laypeople on how to learn about Islamic concepts through worship and group study. The goal, they write, is to help congregations break down stereotypes about Islam and, ultimately, find common ground for building relationships with Muslim communities in the U.S. read the complete article
How anti-Muslim rhetoric has become a focus point for Texas Republicans on the campaign trail
Republicans are vowing to target Islam and stop what they call the "Islamification" of Texas. It's become a key pillar of primary election campaigns. read the complete article
Woman Charged With Assaulting 3 Muslims in Brooklyn, Including Girl, 12
A 12-year-old girl wearing a hijab was standing near her school in Brooklyn last Friday afternoon, waiting for her mother, when a woman walked up to her and punched her in the face, the police and a city councilwoman said. The girl, who was struck in the eye and had to go to the hospital, was the third and final person assaulted by the woman on Jan. 30 in attacks targeting Muslims, according to the police and Kayla Santosuosso, a city councilwoman who represents southern Brooklyn. All of the assaults took place in Bay Ridge, which has a large Muslim community, in a span of 11 minutes, the police said. On Wednesday, the police said they had arrested Megan Horne, 34, of Staten Island, and charged her with 21 counts of assault, aggravated assault, menacing and acting in a manner injurious to a child. Six of the charges were considered hate crimes, according to court records. The attacks drew swift condemnation from political leaders, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul, who called the assaults “disgusting” and “Islamophobic” on social media. “This violence is unacceptable,” said Mr. Mamdani in a post on X. “And we know that all too often visibly Muslim, hijab-wearing women and girls bear the brunt of it.” read the complete article
Muslims Move to Assert Political Power in New York City
As a wave of Islamophobic attacks began to spread late in the New York City mayoral race, Zohran Mamdani was quick to respond. He traveled to a mosque in the Bronx to denounce the offensive remarks, surrounding himself with a group of key allies: Muslim faith and community leaders. It was a telling show of support and kinship among an emergent voting bloc that was quietly coalescing within their communities for years, but whose political power was only beginning to emerge. Now, with Mr. Mamdani at the helm of City Hall, Muslim New Yorkers are moving to expand their foothold in the city’s organizing networks and to build on their progress after the mayoral election. And they have focused their efforts on the Bronx. On Thursday, a group consisting mostly of Muslim organizers and faith leaders in the Bronx voted to join the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, one of the nation’s oldest nonpartisan organizing networks. “We all face the same challenges as everybody else in the community,” said Haji Dukuray, a board member with the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx who helped organize Thursday’s event. He added, “It’s great we have a Muslim mayor, but that’s just an example of when we come together as a group, how well we can do.” read the complete article
International
Two Resign From Human Rights Watch Over Shelved Report Criticizing Israel
Two core members of the Israel-Palestine team at Human Rights Watch have resigned amid a dispute over a shelved report that concluded that Israel’s refusal to allow Palestinian refugees and their descendants the ability to return amounted to a crime against humanity. The lead author of the report, Omar Shakir, served as the Israel-Palestine director of the prominent New York-based rights group for nearly a decade. He and Milena Ansari, an assistant researcher, said they resigned over what they described as the continued stalling of the publication of the report, which they said had been set for release two months ago. Mr. Shakir wrote in his resignation letter, which The New York Times reviewed, that the leadership’s decision constituted an “overruling of the normal vetting process” after the report had been finalized and after the group’s relevant experts had signed off on it. “I’m not aware of any precedent in the organization’s history for such an extraordinary decision,” he added. read the complete article
Why a Palestinian protest in Tel Aviv exposed the limits of Israeli solidarity
She stopped me as I was filming and said, almost casually, “Why are you saying Palestinians? Most of the people here don’t identify as Palestinians.” We were standing in the middle of Tel Aviv on Saturday night, during one of the largest protests that Palestinian citizens of Israel have held in recent memory: a mass demonstration — described by local commentators as “historic” — against the organized crime that has been tearing through our communities with impunity. Tens of thousands of people (organizers estimated as many as 100,000) had come to demand the most basic and urgent right to live without fear. And yet, at that moment, the protest’s central contradiction surfaced. Even here, at a march against our own deaths and abandonment by the government, naming ourselves as Palestinians felt disruptive, something in need of correction. People had driven for hours from the Galilee in the north and the Naqab in the south to make their voices heard in the heart of the Israeli metropolis. They came with the knowledge that this government is more comfortable watching Palestinians kill one another than taking responsibility for dismantling the crime networks operating freely in our towns. read the complete article
Tucker Carlson sheds light on Christian-Muslim harmony in Palestine, Jordan
Tucker Carlson has taken his show to Jordan to speak with two prominent Christians about religious freedom in the kingdom, as well as in Jerusalem, located a mere 25 miles away in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The episode was a learning curve for the conservative pundit, despite having hosted multiple guests in the US who described how Christians live under Israeli occupation, as well as in Muslim-majority countries. "Our king here in Jordan, King Abdullah, has donated a substantial amount of money to the repair of the Church of the Nativity and the Holy Sepulchre. And the same thing happened also, partially, with the Palestinian Authority," the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum, told Carlson. Naoum is a Palestinian from Nazareth. He currently holds dual Israeli-Jordanian citizenship. "I think Americans watching this may be confused to hear that a Muslim king of Jordan is giving money to Christian holy sites," Carlson responded. The richest Christian organisations in the US, however, send their money towards the construction of illegal Israeli settlements to further the Zionist Evangelical cause. "Would it be easier just to hand the custodianship over to the government that runs it, which is the Israeli government?" Carlson asked. "No," Naoum responded. Israelis, he said, regularly implement restrictions on worship for both Christians and Muslims. read the complete article
Canada
Canadian Muslims criticize closure of anti-Islamophobia office
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) has sharply criticized the Canadian government’s decision to abolish two key offices dedicated to fighting Islamophobia and antisemitism, warning that the move risks weakening protections for vulnerable communities at a time of rising hate. NCCM responded with concern, saying the Canadian Muslim community "deserves sustained and dedicated leadership” and stressing that the closure of both offices risks diluting long-standing efforts to address Islamophobia. The organization also noted its unease over the dismantling of the antisemitism envoy’s office, emphasizing that both mandates are crucial amid growing hate incidents nationwide. NCCM said it will closely monitor the new council to ensure it delivers tangible results and maintains a robust focus on combating discrimination. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Man who sent threatening Islamophobic messages after Manchester synagogue attack sentenced
Alexander Taylor, 34, was sentenced to a 12 month community order with 15 rehabilitation days, which included an uplift to mark the hate element. On the afternoon of 2 October 2025, Alexander Taylor sent Islamophobic text messages to a mental health text support service. The mental health organisation was so concerned by the messages and the threats within them, that they alerted police. read the complete article