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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the UK, Lord Pearson of Rannoch has been accused of Islamophobia after claiming in a speech before the House of Lords that “radicals” plan to “take us over through the power of the womb and the ballot box”, meanwhile in New Zealand, Over 85 percent of Muslims living in Aotearoa New Zealand believe that Islamophobia exists in this country, and more than half have experienced discrimination, according to the first baseline study of Muslims in New Zealand, and in Australia, the Executive Director of the Islamophobia Register Australia, Dr. Nora Amath said recently that reports of Islamophobic incidents increased by over 1300 percent since October 7 last year. Our recommended read of the day is by Kanishka Singh for Reuters on how according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians rose by about 70% in the U.S. in the first half of 2024 amid heightened Islamophobia due to Israel’s war in Gaza. This and more below:
United States
US anti-Muslim incidents rose about 70% in first half of 2024 amid Gaza war | Recommended Read
Discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians rose by about 70% in the U.S. in the first half of 2024 amid heightened Islamophobia due to Israel's war in Gaza, the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group said on Tuesday. Human rights advocates have reported a global rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and antisemitism since the eruption in October of the Israel-Gaza war which has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis. In the first six months of 2024, CAIR said it received 4,951 complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian incidents, a rise of nearly 70% compared with the same period in 2023. Most of the complaints were in the categories of immigration and asylum, employment discrimination, education discrimination and hate crimes, CAIR said. In 2023, CAIR documented 8,061 such complaints in the whole year, including about 3,600 in the last three months after the war broke out. read the complete article
Why Biden Needs to End the So-Called ‘War on Terror’
The U.S. security apparatus as it currently exists is a ready-made dystopian dragnet just waiting to be abused by Donald Trump if he is re-elected. That’s why it’s so important for President Joe Biden to end the last remaining institutional vestiges of the now-seemingly defunct “War on Terror,” according to The New Abnormal guest Spencer Ackerman, who first made the point on his Forever Wars newsletter. “We’ve kept a lot more than we’ve gotten rid of,” Ackerman said. “The [‘War on Terror’] has been basically codified since 2001 to 2002 and it’s hard to believe that it hasn’t been that way forever. We become inured to stuff like this and we just forget that it doesn’t have to be this way.” read the complete article
United Kingdom
How university surveillance is affecting Palestinian students in the UK
When students at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich learned that their university had been accused of working with police to spy on pro-Palestine protesters, the news rippled through campus. Many were left feeling worried about being watched. For some of the university’s Palestinian students, surveillance is nothing new. “I’m always careful because this is how I learned to survive in Palestine,” one student told Hyphen. “I’m aware of what words I say and how I say them. It reminds me of living under occupation. I feel like I’m living the same situation here.” The student’s fears of surveillance follow a recent investigation by human rights journalism unit Liberty Investigates and Metro which revealed that a number of UK universities have been working with police to target and surveil their own students. The student — who does not want to be identified because she fears losing her student visa — told Hyphen that taking part in pro-Palestine activism on campus has held a special significance. “I’m struggling to cope with the guilty feeling of being abroad while my family and friends are being attacked. It’s my first time being outside of Palestine when there’s been a war, especially of this intensity,” she said. On 12 October, police emailed university staff a screenshot of a Palestinian flag that had been raised in the students’ union on campus and warned that while flying the flag isn’t an offence, it might not “look well” for the establishment. read the complete article
Peer accused of Islamophobia after claiming ‘radicals will take us over through power of the womb’
A peer has been accused of Islamophobia after giving a “disgusting and outrageous” speech in the House of Lords. Lord Pearson of Rannoch claimed “radicals” plan to “take us over through the power of the womb and the ballot box” after discussing government plans to improve counter-terrorism measures at public venues following the King’s Speech. “The sharia allows Muslim men to have four wives at a time, most of whom are having at least two children, so the Muslim population is going up 10 times faster than our national average,” he told the House of Lords last Thursday (25 July). “On past trends, Birmingham and nine other English local authorities will be majority Muslim by 2031. The radicals’ plan is to wait until they can take us over through the power of the womb and the ballot box.” The 82-year-old, now a non-affiliated peer having formerly sat as a Conservative and briefly been the leader of UKIP, has been condemned for his comments. read the complete article
If you're Muslim in a UK airport, expect the worst from the police
Last week, footage from Manchester Airport went viral showing 19-year-old Muhammed Fahir being brutally attacked by a police officer. Even though he was already handcuffed, he was kicked in the head by the armed officer and his skull was stamped on. It has since emerged that he has developed a cyst on the brain and according to his solicitor, he has been left understandably traumatised by the incident. Horrific and violent though it is, it’s in the reaction rather than the incident itself at Manchester Airport that the true state of racism and Islamophobia in Britain is laid bare. As soon as the initial footage went viral, social media was flooded with rightwing support of the police and a cesspit of Islamophobia opened up. Comments under the videos shared sentiments like “this is how all Muslims should be treated” and that “the officer wasn’t harsh enough”. Newly-elected Reform MP, Lee Anderson, commended the police officer for stamping on 19-year-old Fahir’s head and called the men “animals” who “need locking up”. read the complete article
Australia
Islamophobia in everyday life
Against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, incidents of Islamophobia in Australia have surged – whether verbal, physical or online. What's the lasting impact on victims, and what can be done? Executive Director of the Islamophobia Register Australia Dr Nora Amath said reports of Islamophobic incidents increased by over 1300 per cent since October 7 last year. But she said many more go unreported. “There are unfortunately some Muslims who believe that this is part of what it means to be Muslim here – to cop it and to deal with the hate." Dr Amath said Islamophobia has sadly become part of everyday life for many Muslims in Australia – particularly women, who make up almost 80 per cent of victims. "Every single Muslim female that I've spoken to, and that's 100 per cent, has had an incident, and yet they haven't reported it," she told SBS Examines. read the complete article
Where the Bloody Hell is the Islamophobia Envoy? Labor’s Biased Social Cohesion Debacle
PM Anthony Albanese announced to the public on 9 July that he was appointing Jillian Segal as “Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in Australia”, in line with the claims over rising antisemitism and Islamophobia in this country since last October, with the “conflict in the Middle East”. The conflict in the Middle East, as Albanese puts it, is the Gaza genocide, which involves the Netanyahu government carpet bombing, ground invading and purposefully inflicting a famine upon the captive Palestinians of Gaza, who are confined to the region due to an Israeli built border wall. So, when it came to appointing an antisemitic envoy, this was all about ensuring that, as the PM put it, the fallout from the carnage in Gaza doesn’t spill out locally, as rather, he’s all about preserving “social cohesion” and to that end, he’s also appointing an “Envoy for Islamophobia”. But for some background, Labor has supported Israel in its mass colonial extermination of the people of Gaza. And the party has deemed it as self-defence, despite the Israelis being the occupying force, and Labor too has been framing pro-Palestinian demonstrations and support here as antisemitic acts. So, in this context, providing an antisemitic envoy when anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and antigenocide sentiment is all being conflated as antisemitic, and then to simply promise an Islamophobia envoy, as multifaith Palestinians are majority Muslim, really doesn’t look like an attempt at social cohesion. read the complete article
India
CJP files complaints against the Hate Speeches delivered in Uttar Pradesh
Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) files complaints before the Uttar Pradesh Police against the multiple incidents of hate speech incidents in Mainpuri and Shamli districts. In both incidents speeches were delivered with intention to create enmity on grounds of religion. CJP in its complaint before Superintendence of Police, Mainpuri and District Magistrate, Mainpuri, filed on July 12, highlighted the hate speech delivered by preacher Swami Sachidanand (Serial hate offender) in Bainsroli, Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh) against the Muslim and Christian citizens. Swami through his speech, propagated false conspiracy theory against the Muslims and Christians. Similarly, the other complaint filed by CJP on July 23 against the speaker of Antarashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP) and Rastriya Bajrang Dal over dehumanizing and islamophobia filled hate speech in an event in Kairana, Shamli (UP) on June 6, 2024. read the complete article
New Zealand
Study exposes Islamophobia and discrimination against Muslims in Aotearoa New Zealand
Over 85 per cent of Muslims living in Aotearoa New Zealand believe that Islamophobia exists in this country, and more than half has experienced discrimination, according to the first baseline study of Muslims in New Zealand. The study took place in 2023 and sought to understand discrimination, experiences of exclusion, Islamophobia, feelings of heightened vigilance, social cohesion, relation/reporting to the authorities and feelings of safety/wellbeing. Following the 2019 Christchurch Mosque attacks, the need to research Muslims’ experiences of discrimination and inclusion in New Zealand, and the impacts on their wellbeing, became increasingly evident. Following several huis between Government and Muslim organisations between 2021 and 2023, the need for a baseline study was formalised. Dr Junaid says the insights into experiences of discrimination amongst those surveyed were striking. “More than 50 per cent of respondents felt that others treated them as if they were not smart, were afraid of them, or acted as if they are better than them. Sadly, 58 per cent of respondents also felt that their children have been discriminated against at school.” She adds that more than half of the respondents said they had felt they were treated with less respect and courtesy, or received poorer service, than their non-Muslim counterparts. read the complete article