Today in Islamophobia

Today in Islamophobia: In the United Kingdom, British police have arrested 12 people in connection with an “extreme right-wing” terrorism threat targeting an Islamic gathering held in eastern England over the weekend, elsewhere in the UK, Muslim leaders whose communities were targeted in the 2024 riots are calling for an inquiry into the Southport stabbings to be extended to examine the causes of the racist and Islamophobic violence that swept the UK following the murders of three young girls, and in Australia, a 43 year old Muslim man in the Hampton Park neighborhood of South-East Melbourne was assaulted after being asked by a group of men “Are You Muslim” in what police are investigating as a hate crime. Our recommended read of the day is by Fiona André for Religion News Service, on how a mayoral election in Frisco Texas has devolved into a “referendum” on who belongs in the state, with Islamophobic and anti-Hindu rhetoric dominating the debate. This and more below:

United States

'It really did take me back to after 9/11': How Islamophobia roiled a Texas election | Recommended Read

When Aneela Charania approached Frisco’s city council office on May 20, she said she immediately felt fear creep in. Charania, who is Muslim, had come to a public comment meeting about construction projects for a mosque and two Hindu temples. In the parking lot, Charania, who wears a hijab, texted a neighbor to ask if she could be escorted from her car to the room, as she feared being targeted. At the meeting, she says she sat through anti-Muslim, anti-Hindu and anti-immigrant comments as speakers debated whether her community belonged in the city at all. “It really did take me back to after 9/11, to be honest,” said Charania, who moved to the Dallas suburb in February. “I’ve never experienced that level of hatred towards our community.” The city council meeting was one of many that turned into a public referendum on Frisco’s diverse communities amid a mayoral runoff election pitting Mark Hill, a Republican business attorney, against fellow Republican Rod Vilhauer, a retired construction business owner. Vilhauer campaigned on anti-Muslim, anti-South Asian immigrant rhetoric, while Hill promised to “unite our city and build a future rooted in connection, opportunity, and pride.” But the race, marked by vitriolic city council meetings, clashes on Facebook groups and rallies drawing conservative activists from across the country, divided the city of 245,000. And as state Republican leaders have ramped up their Islamophobic, anti-Shariah law rhetoric ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the race has been seen as a bellwether of what happens when campaigns stoke anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim sentiment. read the complete article

United Kingdom

UK arrests 12 over extreme right-wing ‘terror’ threat to Muslim event

British police have arrested 12 people in connection with an “extreme right-wing” terrorism threat targeting an Islamic gathering held in eastern England over the weekend. The arrests were made across the country on Sunday and Monday, with the detainees aged between 27 and 82. Eleven of the suspects are men, while one woman has also been detained. The Ijtima festival was attended by around 15,000 people. The event concluded earlier than planned on the advice of the police, who were tipped off about a potential threat. Eight of the 11 men arrested were detained on suspicion of terrorism. The remaining three were detained on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. The woman was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. None had been formally charged by the time of writing. Police said there was no evidence to suggest a wider threat to the public, noting that several addresses across the UK were still being searched as the investigation continued. read the complete article

Extend Southport inquiry to cover riots, say Muslim leaders

Muslim leaders whose communities were targeted in the 2024 riots are calling for the inquiry into the Southport stabbings to be extended to examine the causes of the racist and Islamophobic violence that swept the UK following the murders of three young girls. The inquiry, chaired by a retired senior judge, Adrian Fulford, was set up after Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were killed by Axel Rudakubana at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on 29 July 2024. In the hours after the attack, false claims circulated online wrongly identifying the suspect as a Muslim asylum seeker. The misinformation spread quickly across social media and helped fuel anti-Muslim riots in towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland, with mosques, community buildings and hotels housing asylum seekers among the targets. Imam Ibrahim Hussein of Southport Mosque and Cultural Centre — which was besieged by a mob that tried to set it alight — told Hyphen there would be “absolutely no point” in the inquiry if it failed to examine the aftermath of the stabbings, including the role of the far right. read the complete article

Riz Ahmed and how the War on Terror is defining the arts

With the much-anticipated release of the TV series Bait, our screens have not been shy of Riz Ahmed recently. In one of these appearances, on Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo podcast, Ahmed shared that he had been approached to work for British intelligence on multiple occasions. Each of these instances, whilst different in context, shares a disturbing common thread of revelation: not even the arts are a safe space for Muslims to express their identity. This revealed a lot about the relationship between arts, culture and state power, and what it means for Muslim participation in mainstream Western creative industries. With a career that unfolded in the shadow of the post-9/11 War on Terror, much of Riz Ahmed’s cultural commentary (not just as an actor, but also as a musician, writer, and producer) has centred on this. Countless airport searches, racial profiling and increased surveillance defined his experiences as a first-generation child of Muslim migrants. It is remarkable to think that the very services that profiled him then attempted to use him as part of the highly criticised surveillance apparatus that is used to spy on Muslims in the UK. Especially given that the actor’s prominence and contributions to the arts, both behind and in front of the screen, can be attributed to his criticism of typecasting Muslim roles. read the complete article

8 findings from major NHS maternity probe that Muslim families need to know

A landmark review into maternity services has found “stark inequalities” in maternity and neonatal care UK — with women from religious and ethnic minority backgrounds, including Muslims, persistently experiencing poor outcomes. Commissioned by former health secretary Wes Streeting, the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation saw a team of advisers speak to 450 families across England, visit 12 NHS trusts and assess 10,500 responses to a public call for evidence. It concluded by calling for a redesign of NHS maternity services. The investigation, chaired by Labour peer Valerie Amos, found that some women had experienced poor treatment from staff that they felt was a result of their religious identity. Some Muslim women said they were questioned about the clothing they were wearing, including being asked “why are you wearing this?” during labour or appointments. Others said professionals had assumed that they did not speak or understand English; in some cases this led to derogatory comments by staff. Some Jewish families also experienced staff being unhelpful or speaking to them aggressively. As a result of religious discrimination, families reported not disclosing their faith, or avoiding making requests that might identify them as being Muslim or Jewish. For example, some Jewish families avoided ordering kosher meals. read the complete article

Inside Shahed Ezaydi's The Othered Woman

Every Muslim woman learns the look before she learns the word for it. It lands in a shop, on the metro, in a classroom, and decides who she is before she has said anything at all. Covered or uncovered, loud or quiet, she has already been read. British-Libyan journalist Shahed Ezaydi grew up inside that look in England, and her first book, The Othered Woman: How White Feminism Harms Muslim Women, is what happens when someone stops accepting the reading and starts interrogating who wrote it. The image came first, and it was never ours. It shifts depending on who is looking: oppressed or threatening, silent or in need of saving. It has never fully belonged to the women themselves, but to the political, cultural and feminist narratives that have long spoken for them, and it so often arrives before the woman herself does. The critique itself isn't new. Black, postcolonial and intersectional feminists spent decades challenging a movement that dressed the experiences of white, middle-class women up as universal. Muslim women sat uneasily inside those conversations, present but seldom the starting point. Too often, our experiences have entered these conversations only as illustrations of broader arguments about race, colonialism and intersectionality, rather than as the place those arguments begin. Ezaydi recentres that critique, making Muslim women the subject rather than a supporting example. read the complete article

Australia

Muslim man attacked by two men on way to mosque raises alarm on rising hate

Samir Raghbat says his oversized puffer jacket was all that stood between him and death when two men tried to "kill him" on his way to a mosque. The men allegedly attacked the 43-year-old on June 24, punching, kicking, and striking him with a knife at a car park metres away from his local Hampton Park mosque in Melbourne's south-east The father of three told the ABC one of the men asked "Are you Muslim?" repeatedly and when he answered yes, the man was instructed by the other attacker to "kill him" with what Mr Raghbat said looked like a makeshift knife. The knife that "looked like an icepick" missed the right side of his body by an inch and pierced his jacket instead, Mr Raghbat said. read the complete article

Agencies, envoys at odds over push for change to terrorism definition

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has rebuffed a push by the nation’s envoy for tackling Islamophobia to water down the importance of religion and ideology in defining terrorism, indicating the government does not plan to change the current wording. Debate over changing the terror definition has put the special envoys for combating Islamophobia and antisemitism at odds with each other and has been strongly opposed by domestic spy agency ASIO, which said overhauling the definition could trigger “catastrophic consequences” In his submission to the antisemitism royal commission, Aftab Malik, the special envoy to combat Islamophobia, called for the government to “reduce a reliance on ideological, political or religious motivation as a central criterion to the offence” of terrorism. Malik argued that the current definition was “ill-equipped to address the reality of modern extremism which features hybrid, intersecting, fluid, non-coherent ideologies that are also progressively driven by personal grievances”. read the complete article

Canada

'He is not above the law': Swiss man who punched anti-war protester a no-show in Ottawa court

The Swiss man who pleaded guilty to punching a 21-year-old protester outside an Ottawa defence conference in 2024 did not show up in court on Monday as he was expected to, leaving the Crown in the case livid. "Look at the audacity of this person," Moiz Karimjee said inside a packed Ottawa courtroom as he pointed to a TV screen showing the face of offender David Henschel, who unexpectedly attended the sentencing virtually from Switzerland. "He is not above the law," Karimjee said. Henschel, 58, was an employee of Swiss munitions firm Rheinmetall Waffe Munition Schweiz AG when he attended the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CANSEC) conference in May 2024. Court previously heard that as Henschel walked toward Ottawa’s EY Centre he encountered a 21-year-old woman in a hijab who told him he was "actively supporting genocide" by attending the conference. Henschel swung his arm, intentionally striking the protester in the face with a closed fist. The woman dropped to the ground and Henschel continued walking toward the conference centre, pushing another protester. read the complete article

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