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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, thousands of New Yorkers braved freezing temperatures and long lines on New Year’s day 2026 to welcome Zohran Mamdani in as the city’s first Muslim mayor on Thursday, meanwhile after two Republican governors targeted the country’s largest Muslim civil rights group, CAIR’s deputy director notes that there are “very clear historical parallel between the targeting of our organization today and the target of Black civil rights groups in the 1960s ,” and in Australia, the Islamophobia Register Australia and the Islamic Council of Victoria’s Islamophobia Support Service have both reported a surge in Islamophobic incidents, many of which involve women with children. Our recommended read of the day is by Shada Islam for The Guardian, who states that despite expecting strong resistance to Trump’s racist, anti-migrant national security strategy, EU leaders have responded weakly while increasingly mirroring his far-right rhetoric and policies. This and more below:
International
The awkward truth about some of Trump’s views on Europe? European leaders agree with him | Recommended Read
I expected the EU to push back strongly against Donald Trump’s new national security strategy. Not only does it show contempt for the EU and its “weak” leaders, but it also targets European citizens and migrants with racist dog whistles and barely disguised Islamophobia. Yet instead of a rousing defence of the bloc’s commitment to human rights and equality, there have just been bland platitudes. The truth is that Trump’s alternative reality about a “woke” Europe is laughable. He would feel quite at home in today’s EU. Far-right parties are on the rise, and the rhetoric of “defending civilisation” – part of the “great replacement” conspiracy discourse – has seeped from the far-right fringes into the political mainstream. Von der Leyen’s own conservative bloc increasingly relies on far-right votes to move legislation through the European parliament. If Trump were to visit “Brussels so white”’s institutions, the US president would likely not run into many people of colour. The US and EU’s methods for dealing with unwanted migrants are beginning to converge. The EU might not deploy the masked ICE-style paramilitaries who stalk American streets, but its new migration pact tightens asylum procedures, accelerates deportations and expands detention. Many EU countries want additional “innovative solutions”, which include increased powers for Frontex, the EU border control agency accused of systemic human rights failures, including being complicit in illegal pushbacks. Twenty-seven European states have asked for a revision of the European convention on human rights because, they argue, migrant rights must be balanced against Europeans’ “security” and “freedom”. read the complete article
Mamdani’s letter to Indian activist shows how Modi govt weaponised anti-terror law against Muslims
Some gestures are small enough to be overlooked, yet precise enough to matter. New York City's first Muslim and South Asian mayor Zohran Mamdani’s letter to jailed Indian activist Umar Khalid is one of them. Khalid has spent nearly five years in prison without trial after he was arrested under India’s sweeping anti-terror law that critics say has been weaponised against Muslims by the Hindu right-wing government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shortly after Mamdani was sworn in, the short, handwritten and undated note was shared publicly by Khalid’s partner. "Dear Umar, I think of your words on bitterness often and the importance of not letting it consume one's self. It was a pleasure to meet your parents. We are all thinking of you," the letter read. The letter emerged after Mamdani met Khalid’s family during their visit to the United States in early December. Its timing ensured it would not be read as a private exchange alone. read the complete article
United States
Unnamed Source in Viral Minnesota Somali Fraud Video Is Right-Wing Lobbyist Who Called Muslims “Demons”
In his video alleging fraud at Somali-owned day care centers in Minneapolis, right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley was led around the city by a purported whistleblower called only “David.” Shirley — and outlets like Fox News that credulously picked up the influencer’s video — credited “David” by first name only. While Shirley’s video portrays the man as a party interested in purported fraud because he observed day care centers near his office in downtown Minneapolis, David, it turns out, is actually a political operative with connections to the Minnesota state House. Shirley’s main source is a lobbyist and one-time right-wing candidate for Minnesota attorney general whose full name is David Hoch. Accounts bearing his name have a long online history posting about the Somali community in Minnesota. A TikTok and a recently deleted Instagram account posted almost exclusively on the subject — including derogatory statements about Somalis and Muslims. In November, he posted, “Even the Blacks have had enough of the demon Muslims.” Hoch’s last name was not given in Shirley’s video, but The Intercept identified him using information in the video itself cross-referenced with publicly available materials. According to the video, Hoch received information for his campaign against Somali day care centers from the Minnesota state House. Emails shown in the video reveal he got state-funding figures for specific centers from a Republican staffer named Joe Marble. read the complete article
'Liberation coming to City Hall': Thousands brave freezing temperatures to welcome Mamdani as New York City mayor
Thousands of New Yorkers braved freezing temperatures and long lines on New Year's day 2026 to welcome Zohran Mamdani in as the city's first Muslim mayor on Thursday, as he promised to deliver on his left-wing agenda that tapped into deep economic fustration in the US's biggest city. Mamdani emphasised the cost of living issues that were central to his mayoral campaign, as he promised to help those "betrayed by the established order". Left-wing allies Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also delivered remarks. But for thousands of attendees, Mamdani's victory transended even economic concerns. For Asad Dandia, coming out in the cold on New Year's day was well worth it, after he supported Mamdani's upset mayoral campaign as an informal adviser. "It's insane we are going to have a Muslim guy in command of City Hall," Dandia told Middle East Eye. "Islamaphobia, anti-Muslim bigotry [and] anti-Arab bigotry lost and we won." Dandia said that Mamdani has "set the bar high" to succeed but he was committed to the new mayor he had come to work with when he was a little-known state assemblyman. read the complete article
Expert testimony or anti-Islam bias? Sex assault case tests legal limit.
An expert witness was called to the stand at a Brooklyn domestic sexual assault trial to tell the jury about the impact of intimate abuse in the Islamic faith. The testimony included claims that Muslim men entering arranged marriages seek virgin brides from their native countries so they “will be more submissive,” court records show. The witness, Chitra Raghavan, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, also said that Islamic men “across religion” tend to ignore rules giving women the right to reject a husband’s sexual advances. Men in arranged South Asian unions “sometimes want, particularly if they know they want to be controlling,” to find a wife in their native countries, Raghavan testified, citing an alleged cultural belief “that if a woman comes from their so-called mother country, she will be easier to control, ultimately, because she will be more submissive.” Di Chiara, a former prosecutor who handled sex-trafficking cases, said Raghavan’s testimony disparaged Muslim men and was not “supported anywhere in the record by science research or studies.” Other cultural stereotypes introduced at a trial would have been seen as clearly out of bounds, the attorney said. read the complete article
Republican claims of ‘terrorism’ leave everyone unsafe, Muslim leader warns
The deputy director of the US’s biggest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group warns that Republican governors’ steps to declare his organization a “terrorist organization” won’t stop with the Muslim community. “No governor should have the power to unilaterally declare a civil rights or advocacy group he disagrees with a terrorist organization, take punitive action against them, all in violation of due process and free speech,” Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Guardian this month. “If any governor can get away with abusing that kind of power, then no organization is safe.” In November, the Texas governor Greg Abbott designated Cair and the Muslim Brotherhood, the century-old movement founded in Egypt and active through chapters overseas, “foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations”. The Florida governor Ron DeSantis issued a similar order in early December. “To me, I see a very clear historical parallel between the targeting of our organization today and the target of Black civil rights groups in the 1960s even down to the crazy accusation that Black rights leaders and organizations were part of a communist plot to take over America,” Mitchell said. He believes that the erosion of support for Israel in the US is motivating its supporters to fuel anti-Muslim hatred. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Extremism is tearing Britain apart - we should choose hope over hate
Ideological extremism and hatred cast a long shadow over Britain in 2025 – testing communities, shaking institutions, and demanding resolute action in the year ahead. The past year forced a reckoning with an uncomfortable truth: anti-Muslim hostility and antisemitism have reached alarming levels, threatening not only minority communities but the very idea of a plural, democratic Britain. In October, worshippers at Peacehaven Mosque in East Sussex gathered for evening prayers when arsonists struck, setting the building ablaze while two people remained inside. Between July and October, the British Muslim Trust recorded at least 27 attacks against mosques nationwide. These were not attacks on bricks and mortar alone; they were assaults on the sense of safety and belonging that Muslim communities rely on to live freely. Just days earlier, during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, an antisemitic attack at Manchester’s Heaton Park synagogue claimed two lives. These horrors were not isolated incidents. Home Office data shows religious hate crimes reaching record highs by March 2025, with incidents targeting Muslims rising by 19 per cent. From Newcastle to Watford, Muslim families now weigh everyday decisions many others take for granted: whether children can attend mosque safely, whether a headscarf invites abuse, whether a job application should hide a recognisably Muslim name. Minority communities face similar calculations. When people feel compelled to conceal who they are, freedom itself is diminished. read the complete article
Australia
Muslim women and children are being attacked in public — their safety is the outcome of the choices we make
Our oldest daughter is 14 years old. It has almost been a full year since she first decided to wear a hijab. But in this short time, she has already been subjected to two Islamophobic incidents and has had to report them. The most recent incident occurred two weeks before the massacre at Bondi Beach. She was standing outside of her state school, when two grown men drove past and yelled Islamophobic slurs out of the window. How is it, I wonder, that these men thought it was acceptable to call a young girl —wearing a school uniform and waiting in front of her school — a “terrorist”? As a mother, I found this heartbreaking. I have spent many years working in the community on initiatives that attempt to address Islamophobia and racism and break down pervasive stereotypes. But none of these efforts could prevent such hate from hurtling towards my own daughter. Last year two Muslim women wearing hijabs were assaulted in a busy shopping centre. The fact that one of these women was pregnant and had her child present evidently did not dissuade to the attacker. The Islamophobia Register Australia and the Islamic Council of Victoria’s Islamophobia Support Service have both reported a surge in Islamophobic incidents, many of which involve women with children. read the complete article