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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Luxembourg, according to research conducted by Observatoire de L’Islamophobie, of 299 Muslim citizens surveyed in 2023, 22% said they had been victims of Islamophobic incidents, meanwhile in the US, the Department of Education is investigating Northwestern University in response to a complaint from Palestinian and Muslim students who say the school created a “hostile environment” and failed to protect them from discrimination, and in Sri Lanka, the government formally apologized to the island’s Muslim minority for forcing cremations on Covid victims. Our recommended read of the day is by Nadine White for The Independent on how the UK-based organization, The Muslim Vote, has reported to authorities numerous incidents of violent threats, racism, and anti-Muslim hate targeting the group during the country’s recent general election. This and more below:
United Kingdom
‘I will burn every single mosque’ - Muslim political group was inundated with racist abuse during election | Recommended Read
A Muslim political group has described the scale of racist and Islamophobic abuse it received during the recent general election. The Muslim Vote is reporting the offensive messages received to the police in the hope that the perpetrators will be held accountable. Among the messages, seen by The Independent, are serious threats to safety such as the “burning down” of mosques and correspondence calling staff “vile terrorist scum”. “Get out or die, your choice,” says another. Speaking to The Independent, The Muslim Vote coordinator Abubakr Nanabawa, 24, said the small team within the organisation began receiving an influx of abusive emails around February, accusing them of trying to undermine democracy and being unappreciative of British values. “Since then, it’s been a steady stream of violent and threatening messages,” he said which impacted the morale of his colleagues. “Now, when you’re a Muslim in politics, you learn to move past or, as much as possible, ignore the abuse. If you start dwelling on these things, you won’t have much time to do anything productive during the day. read the complete article
United States
U.S. Department of Education investigating Northwestern after anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic complaint
The U.S. Department of Education is investigating Northwestern University in response to a complaint from Palestinian and Muslim students—who say the school created a hostile environment and failed to protect them from threats and discrimination. Palestine Legal, an independent legal organization that defends Palestine advocacy, filed the Title VI complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights on behalf of four students in April. Two are Palestinian American, and two were targeted for their association with Palestinians, the complaint said. CBS News Chicago obtained a copy of the complaint, which accuses professors of making racist and insensitive comments to the students. Those students said the remarks created a hostile environment that enabled others to target them due to their identities and their solidarity with Palestine. This is the first time the students have spoken publicly about their experiences. "I want to point to this environment of fear and hostility that Northwestern has cultivated," said Aasiyah Wasif, a Pakistani and Muslim-American law student, who's part of the complaint. "The fear was so pervasive, and the hostility was so pervasive." read the complete article
Pro-Palestine Muslim Americans are facing collective punishment at work and school
Adil Abbuthalha felt hopeless last November while watching thousands of Palestinians die from Israel’s military offensive on Gaza. The child of Yemeni and Sri Lankan Muslim immigrants, he wanted to do something to help the Palestinian cause for resistance. A product and data science expert at the tech company Linktree, Abbuthalha taught himself to code and launched boycat—an app that helps people identify Israeli products to boycott by simply scanning merchandise barcodes. The app also provides options for more ethical consumption. By April, the app exploded in popularity, partly fueled by news coverage in Al Jazeera. Abbuthalha estimates the app has diverted $50 million in purchases and reached 500,000 users. But with this success came the loss of his day job—and Abbuthalha says the two are linked. The dangerous effects of supporting Palestine have reached dizzying heights across academic institutions, corporate America, health care, law, and politics. The genocide of Palestinians has also divided the American public and unleashed a new wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian sentiment in the U.S., which continues to fund and provide arms for Israel’s military offensive on Gaza. According to a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) report released in April, the number of anti-Muslim complaints filed with the organization in 2023 increased 56% from 2022—and nearly half of the complaints were reported in the final three months of 2023 when the genocide began. Employment discrimination experienced by people like Abbuthalha ranked among the top complaints received by CAIR. read the complete article
India
Targeting of Indian Muslims alleged in row over naming eateries by religion
For nearly two weeks now, Islah*, a Muslim, has been forced to close his restaurant situated along a highway in Khatauli town of Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district in northern India. The venue, which seats about 100 people at a time and serves vegetarian food to people of all religions, is under pressure to display the names of its owner and staff members following a controversial order issued by the district administration earlier this month. On July 2, police in Muzaffarnagar mandated restaurants and roadside vendors to prominently display their names to help Hindu devotees decide which food outlets to avoid as they observe the holy month of Shravan, during which millions of pilgrims walk along the Ganges River, collecting its holy water. The pilgrimage, which lasts two weeks, started on July 22 and will end on August 6. Most devotees do not eat meat or fish during this journey. But critics said the move was intended to stop the pilgrims from visiting eateries owned by Muslims. Similar orders were issued by the police in neighbouring Uttarakhand – both the states governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which, since coming to power in 2014, has been accused of persecuting the minority Muslims. BJP denies the charge. read the complete article
Canada
Quebec, religion and Islamophobic double standards
Images recently shared on social media of members of Montreal’s Muslim community gathered in prayer in a public park in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough to mark the end of Ramadan and the start of Eid quickly brought out the usual complaints from the usual suspects. Even though the group had requested and obtained permission from the borough council for the collective prayer, many expressed discomfort with the images. In a Journal de Montréal column, Joseph Facal argued that public religious ceremonies should be banned, insisting that “a collective prayer by hundreds of people at the same time transforms the park into a sacred space reserved only for the faithful of this religion.” It’s a questionable argument at best, since absolutely no one was forbidden from accessing the park at any time while the group was praying. What I’m pointing out are the double standards and the lack of consistency often displayed when it comes to Quebec secularism. What many won’t come out and just say is that the image of a bunch of folks praying scares them, as they see it as the first step in taking over that space, and other spaces like them — metaphorically and physically. As an atheist who adamantly believes in secularism and the separation of state and religion, I tire of disingenuous arguments about protecting our public spaces from religion. Primarily because these arguments, curiously enough, only seem to materialize after Muslim gatherings. read the complete article
Germany
Germany bans Muslim association for pursuing radical Islam
Germany's interior ministry said on Wednesday it has banned the Islamic Centre Hamburg (IZH) association and its subsidiary organisations, saying it pursues radical Islamist goals. The ministry said in a statement that 53 of the organisation's premises had been searched by authorities in eight German states early on Wednesday, acting on a court order. In addition to the Hamburg-based IZH, which includes one of the oldest mosques in Germany known for its turquoise exterior, its subgroups in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin were also banned. As a result, four Shiite mosques will be closed, said the ministry. The IZH was not available for comment by phone on Wednesday morning, and its website was not accessible to the public. Evidence from an earlier search of 55 properties conducted in November provided the basis for Wednesday's ban of the IZH, known in German as Islamisches Zentrum Hamburg, said the ministry. "Today, we banned the Islamisches Zentrum Hamburg, which promotes an Islamist-extremist, totalitarian ideology in Germany," said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. read the complete article
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka apologizes for cremating Muslim Covid victims
Sri Lanka’s government Tuesday formally apologized to the island’s Muslim minority for forcing cremations on Covid victims, disregarding WHO assurances that burials in line with Islamic rites were safe. The cabinet issued an “apology regarding the compulsory cremation policy during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the government said in a statement. It said a new law would guarantee the right to burial or cremation to ensure the funeral customs of Muslims or any other community were not violated in future. Traditionally, Muslims bury their dead. Sri Lanka’s majority Buddhists are typically cremated, as are Hindus. Muslim representatives in Sri Lanka welcomed the apology, but said their entire community, accounting for about 10 percent of the island’s 22 million population, was still traumatized. “We will now sue two academics — Meththika Vithanage and Channa Jayasumana — who were behind the forced cremation policy of the government,” Hilmy Ahamed, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, told AFP. “We will also seek compensation.” read the complete article
Luxembourg
22% of Muslims in Luxembourg experienced Islamophobia in 2023, survey finds
Incidents of Islamophobia were reported in just 10% of cases in Luxembourg last year, according to a survey conducted by the Luxembourg Observatoire de L'Islamophobie. Of the 299 people surveyed last year, 22% said they had been victims of Islamophobic incidents in the Grand Duchy, compared to 21% in 2022. In 2023, 29% said they had witnessed incidents which had affected other people, down from 34% in 2022. The highest figure was in 2020, when 45% of respondents said they had been victims of Islamophobic incidents. Most incidents mainly concern verbal aggression, but in 2022, 5% said they had been victims of violence because of their faith. In 2023, it was only 1%. Respondents were mainly verbally attacked at work, in education, on social media and in public, the research body said. Among respondents in 2023, women wearing a veil or niqab were particularly vulnerable to Islamophobic treatment. 100% of the women interviewed said that they had faced Islamophobia when they wore a niqab or veil. read the complete article