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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United Kingdom, a new national survey commissioned by Better Communities Bradford (BCB) has revealed that 38% of UK adults have witnessed anti-Muslim comments or behaviour in their workplace or place of study, meanwhile in the United States, according to survey research out by The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), discrimination against Muslim workers in the country has reached an all-time high, and in Canada, Amira Elghawaby, the country’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, has said that Ottawa’s approach to the war in Gaza has “eroded many Muslim-Canadians sense of belonging” in the country. Our recommended read of the day is by Athena Stavrou for The Independent on how Southport’s Muslim community is still facing ongoing Islamophobic incidents over a year after racial hate-induced riots swept the area. This and more below:
United Kingdom
Southport’s Muslims still plagued by Islamophobic incidents a year on from race riots, imam says | Recommended Read
Southport continues to be plagued by Islamophobic incidents a year after the deadly knife attack that sparked race riots last year, the chairman of its mosque has revealed. Imam Ibrahim Hussein, the chairman of Southport Mosque, said members had reported six incidents to the police since last July – a sharp increase from the three he said they had reported over the 30 years since they opened in the town. The mosque in the seaside town found itself at the centre of nationwide riots last July, sparked by misinformation spread online following an attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport that killed three young girls. The mosque found itself at the centre of the Islamophobic rioting the evening after the attack, after false reports that the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker. “In the evening, it escalated very quickly into a big mob charging at us. We were trapped in from 8pm to just before 1am in the morning,” he recalled. But the next day, the local community came out “in droves” to rebuild the mosque’s broken wall and offer support. He said: “The response from the local community was more than great. We always knew we were on good terms with our neighbours, there has been nothing but mutual respect between us and on that morning they all came out in droves to support us and the muslim community.” read the complete article
One in Three Brits Witness Anti-Muslim Behaviour at the Workplace or Place of Study
A new national survey commissioned by Better Communities Bradford (BCB) has revealed that 38% of UK adults have witnessed anti-Muslim comments or behaviour in their workplace or place of study, with 10% saying they have seen it happening regularly. The research, drawn from a representative sample of UK consumers, provides urgent evidence that Islamophobia is deeply embedded in the everyday environments where people live, work, and learn. In a related finding, 22% of respondents agreed that Muslims are demonised more than any other religious group in the UK, highlighting the scale of public awareness around this issue and the need for targeted, informed responses. “When over one in three people are witnessing anti-Muslim behaviour at work or study, we’re dealing with more than prejudice, we’re dealing with a systemic problem. And when nearly a quarter of the population believes Muslims are demonised more than any other group, that tells us people see what’s happening — and are ready for change.” read the complete article
United States
Islamophobia in the Workplace: Combating a Troubling Trend
Despite increasing awareness of the importance of inclusion and diversity, many Muslim employees in the U.S. continue to face discrimination and prejudice in the workplace. In fact, discrimination against Muslim workers has reached an all-time high, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group. CAIR recorded a 113% increase in employment discrimination complaints between 2022 and 2023, and that number continues to rise. The organization received 1,329 complaints related to employment discrimination in 2024, making it the highest-reported complaint category last year. This was “the first time this has occurred in our organization’s 30-year history,” said Farah Afify, research and advocacy manager at CAIR. Allegations of Islamophobia come from almost all areas of employment in the U.S., including health care, education, tech, and media. “Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry is not particular to any one sector,” Afify said, “but is instead at an unprecedented high across American employment writ large.” read the complete article
New Data Shows Trump Gained Big With Muslims Just As He Betrays Them Over Gaza
The Cooperative Election Study recently made available its data for the 2024 election, and America’s leading demographer of political trends by religious affiliation, Ryan Burge of Eastern Illinois University, has taken a fresh look at the Muslim vote. Harris hung on to 61 percent of the Muslim vote and Trump won 33 percent, a sharp departure from the 91 percent to 9 percent Biden win among these voters in 2020, according to CES data. (Only 6 percent of Muslims voted for third-party candidates like Jill Stein.) Trump did better than Republicans have done since he scandalized Muslims with his original travel-ban proposal in 2015. To be clear, Burge sees real Trump gains among Muslims in 2024 — not just a slightly higher share of a vote, reduced by anger over the choices. Indeed, CES suggests Muslim turnout went up sharply in 2024. But the other trend he finds is interesting: The Trump surge in 2024 was significantly higher among voters who attend mosques weekly, which may suggest that culture issues might have been a factor alongside unhappiness with Biden-Harris support for Israel. It seems likely that Trump’s doubled-down position on Gaza and his close relationship with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu will come across as a betrayal of his new Muslim voters now that he’s more closely identified with a war that many, perhaps most, Muslim Americans view as criminal and even genocidal — to say nothing of Trump’s renewed hostility to immigrants. But Burge does think Muslims are slowly trending toward the GOP, much like other previously pro-Democratic voting groups. read the complete article
India
Evictions and expulsions of Muslims to Bangladesh precede Indian state polls
Beneath a sea of blue tarpaulin in a corner of northeastern India near Bangladesh, hundreds of Muslim men, women and babies take shelter after being evicted from their homes, in the latest crackdown in Assam ahead of state elections. They are among thousands of families whose houses have been bulldozed in the past few weeks by authorities - the most intense such action in decades - who accuse them of illegally staying on government land. The demolitions in Assam, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party will seek reelection early next year, have coincided with a national clampdown on Bengali-speaking Muslims branded "illegal infiltrators" from Bangladesh, since the August 2024 ouster of a pro-India premier in Dhaka. "The government repeatedly harasses us," said Aran Ali, 53, speaking outside a patch of bare earth in Assam's Goalpara district that has become the makeshift home for his family of three. "We are accused of being encroachers and foreigners," said Ali, who was born in Assam, as the scorching July sun beat down on the settlement. Assam accounts for 262 km of India's 4097 km-long border with Bangladesh and has long grappled with anti-immigrant sentiments rooted in fears that Bengali migrants — both Hindus and Muslims — from the neighbouring country would overwhelm the local culture and economy. The latest clamp-down, under Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, has been exclusively aimed at Muslims and led to protests that killed a teenager days ago. Assam's firebrand Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is among a slew of ambitious BJP leaders accused of fomenting religious discord to stir populist sentiments ahead of polls across the country, says "Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh" threaten India's identity. read the complete article
Myanmar
Myanmar: Arakan Army Oppresses Rohingya Muslims
The Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, has imposed severe restrictions and committed grave abuses against the ethnic Rohingya population, Human Rights Watch said today. The Arakan Army’s territorial gains in the state have been accompanied by movement restrictions, pillage, arbitrary detention, mistreatment, and unlawful forced labor and recruitment, among other abuses against the Rohingya. Myanmar’s military has long subjected the Rohingya to atrocity crimes, including the ongoing crime against humanity of apartheid. “The Arakan Army is carrying out policies of oppression against the Rohingya similar to the those long imposed by the Myanmar military in Rakhine State,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Arakan Army should end its discriminatory and abusive practices and comply with international law.” “Life under the Arakan Army’s control was incredibly restrictive,” said a 62-year-old Rohingya refugee who arrived in Bangladesh in June. “We were not allowed to work, fish, farm, or even move without permission. We faced extreme food shortages, with most people begging from one another.” read the complete article
Canada
Lack of action on Gaza eroding Muslim-Canadians’ sense of belonging, envoy says
Ottawa’s approach to the war in Gaza is eroding many Muslim-Canadians’ “sense of belonging” in this country, says the federal special representative on combating Islamophobia. “This ongoing, horrifying situation is deeply, deeply damaging the sense of belonging that people feel,” Amira Elghawaby said in a wide-ranging interview with The Canadian Press. “This relates to dehumanization … of Palestinian life, of Muslim life.” Elghawaby’s job since February 2023 has been to advise Ottawa on how federal policies, including foreign policy, affect Muslim Canadians. The UN World Food Program said last week that Israel’s restrictions on food reaching Gaza have resulted in “new and astonishing levels of desperation,” with 100,000 women and children suffering from severe acute malnutrition and a third of the territory’s population going days without eating. Elghawaby said the grief felt by Muslim-Canadian families over the suffering of loved ones in Gaza is being compounded by a sense that Ottawa isn’t doing enough to prevent the suffering, despite issuing “very clear statements” on the situation. “‘Devastated’ is not even strong enough a word to describe how people are feeling,” she said. “[These are] their loved ones, their family members, who are starving, who are continuing to face bombing and displacement, and who are just desperate – desperate for this to end.” read the complete article
Germany
In praising Israel's 'dirty work', Merz exposes the orientalist roots of German genocidal Zionism
At the G7 summit in Canada last month, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was asked by a German journalist whether Israel might again carry out military strikes on Iran. The journalist described such actions as Drecksarbeit - "dirty work" - a term that, as the Lemkin Institute points out, was once used by Nazi officials "to justify their actions" and is steeped in the fascist, dehumanising language of genocide. Merz embraced the framing enthusiastically, declaring: "This is dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us." He then added, with perfect imperial clarity: "The Iranian regime has brought death and destruction to the world." This is, of course, in stark contrast to Germany under Adolf Hitler and Israel throughout its history - both of which have brought nothing but life, liberty and joy to the world, especially to Palestinians! Merz's remarks exposed what use Israel is to Germany and to Europe more broadly: to do the dirty work they can no longer commit directly, straight from the horse's mouth. German genocidal Zionism - now openly championed by elected officials, unelected journalists and popular neo-fascist parties alike - is rooted in German Islamophobia, which in turn draws from a long tradition of German Orientalism, and from "Islamic Studies" in particular. I have already argued that Germany's genocidal Zionism can be traced back to its colonial history and philosophical racism, from Hegel to Habermas. Here, I wish to draw a more direct line between this genocidal Zionism and Germany's tradition of Orientalism. The aim of "Islamic Studies" was never to "understand" Islam or Muslims, but to silence and pacify them - to treat them as oriental objects of curiosity, while denying them moral and political agency. Reports of rising Islamophobia in Germany are consistent and well-documented. The rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party did not come out of nowhere. It reflects proto-fascist tendencies, rooted in Nazism, with broad support and severe consequences across the country. There is a prevailing hatred of Muslims within Germany's ruling regime - as across much of Europe - and Merz's vulgar racism emerges directly from it. The swastikas may have been scrubbed from Germany's public spaces, but they remain carved and tattooed in the minds of many German politicians. Jews may have been replaced with Muslims, but the genocidal instinct endures. read the complete article