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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In India, a court in Delhi has recently acquitted 18 people accused of killing Muslim men during the deadly capitol riots of 2020, meanwhile in the UK, MP’s debate on a ban on the slaughter of animals without stunning them with some noting that the disporportionate focus on Halal meat demonstrates that the “debate is less about animals and more about Muslims,” and lastly, the British government’s decades-long efforts to keep details of its intelligence agencies’ involvement in the CIA’s notorious post-9/11 torture program hidden will face an “unprecedented” challenge this week as two cases are brought before a secretive court. Our recommended read of the day is by Nadeine Asbali for The Guardian on how recent developments in British politics involving the idea of a potential ban on the wearing of burqas is making British Muslims feel a deep sense of unease in an already increasingly hostile political environment. This and more below:
United Kingdom
Once again, British politicians want to ‘ban the burqa’. But this time, I’ve never felt so afraid | Recommended Read
Here we are again, debating the right of Muslim women to wear what they want. Last week, the Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin asked the prime minister, Keir Starmer, if he planned to follow other European countries and prohibit burqas. Then the leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, called for bosses to be able to ban the burqa in the workplace. Following the example of the former Labour minister Jack Straw, who in 2006 sparked the first burqa debate by asking constituents at his surgeries to remove their face coverings, she stated that she does not see constituents at her surgeries if they have their faces covered, “whether it’s a burqa or a balaclava”. These comments from politicians hoping to appease rightwing voters have real repercussions for the safety of Muslim women like me. Muslim women, especially those who wear coverings ranging from the headscarf known as the hijab to the full body and face covering known as the burqa, have become a symbol in UK politics of migration and integration. They – or perhaps the perceived oppressive men in their lives – are outsiders who refuse to live by British values. When politicians call to ban the burqa, they position themselves as defenders of a way of life under threat from outside forces. The timing of this cannot be ignored. Reform, which triumphed at the recent local elections, warns in its manifesto that “unchecked migration has pushed Britain to breaking point”. The Conservatives, keen to claw back any defecting voters, have positioned themselves as equally tough on immigration and integration. When our national leaders parrot catchy soundbites such as “ban the burqa”, what they are really doing is normalising Islamophobia by making it part of mainstream political conversations. read the complete article
UK think tank calls for national strategy to tackle anti-Muslim hatred, rebuild social cohesion
A new report from the think tank Equi released Monday has urged the UK government to adopt a coordinated national strategy to address anti-Muslim hatred, while warning that social division is harming trust in institutions and threatening the country’s cohesion. Released as British Muslims marked Eid Al-Adha, the report highlighted growing levels of anti-Muslim narratives and attacks, but also pointed to polling by Savanta/ComRes that showed that the majority of Britons hold either neutral or positive views toward Muslims. Equi argued that this provided a foundation for progress, and said that building trust, inclusion and civic resilience must be treated as a national priority. The report identified anti-Muslim hatred as a key barrier to intercommunity trust, particularly in the aftermath of flashpoints such as the 2024 summer riots. It estimated the cost of anti-Muslim hatred last year at a minimum of £243 million ($328.9 million), including expenses linked to policing, imprisonment, and insurance claims. The report also pointed to alienating government policies, such as Prevent, and rising misinformation as major factors eroding social trust. Many British Muslims, it noted, feel disproportionately scrutinized and disconnected from wider society. read the complete article
MPs criticise halal slaughter debate: ‘about prejudice, not animals’
A ban on the slaughter of animals without stunning them first would infringe on religious freedoms and stoke division, Muslim MPs said during a debate in parliament on Monday. In its response, the government said it would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter, but that it respects “the rights of Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs”. According to the RSPCA, an estimated 30m animals were slaughtered without first being stunned in 2024, though it also estimates that around 88% of animals slaughtered for halal meat in the UK are stunned first. No animals slaughtered for kosher meat are stunned before being killed. A separate motion calling for a ban on “halal slaughter” has been brought by independent MP Rupert Lowe, who was kicked out of Reform UK in March, and backed by Conservative MP Bradley Thomas and Sammy Wilson of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party. Lowe has made no written intervention on the subject of kosher slaughter, but did say during Monday’s debate that he opposed it. Yasmin Qureshi, Labour MP, said she opposed the “divisive narratives” that surrounded the debate on stun slaughter. “Non-stun religious slaughter accounts for just 2.9% of animals killed in the UK. Yet this small percentage is repeatedly singled out in public debate,” she said. “We have heard religious slaughter described as barbaric. MPs like myself have received emails referring to ‘Muslim meat’ and ‘dirty men with beards’. That is not animal welfare language — that is prejudice, plain and simple. “The petition talks about non-stun slaughter in general, but public focus has been almost entirely on halal. Kosher slaughter uses the same method but is rarely mentioned. This reveals what many of us [know] — this debate is less about animals and more about Muslims.” read the complete article
I forgave Yusuf, says Farage after burka row
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he "forgave" Zia Yusuf after he criticised one of the party's MPs and quit as its chairman, but told him "don't do it again". Yusuf stepped down from the role last week shortly after saying it was "dumb" for MP Sarah Pochin to call for a burka ban. On Thursday, Yusuf said working for a Reform UK government was not "a good use of my time"; however two days later he appeared to have a change of heart and said he would continue working for the party, albeit in a different role. Speaking in Port Talbot in Wales, Farage said Yusuf had "lost his rag" and "plunged us into a difficult place". He said Yusuf had made "intemperate comment or two" but added: "It was pretty clear by the next morning he quickly regretted what he had done. "I forgave him, I said 'don't do it again' but I forgave him." Speaking to the BBC earlier in the day, Yusuf had said he regretted his social media post and that "exhaustion led to a poor decision". He dismissed the incident as a "storm in a teacup". read the complete article
United States
Trump’s New “Muslim Ban” Wipes Out Hope for 250,000 Afghans Seeking Refuge in US
During Donald Trump’s first term, the Afghan American community dodged a bullet. This time, we weren’t so lucky. The new “Muslim ban 2.0,” the successor to Trump’s original Muslim ban, went into effect today, with 12 countries on its list, including Afghanistan. When President Trump began his second term in office on January 20, he issued an executive order asking for a 60-day review of vetting requirements for certain nationalities. As of 12 a.m. ET on June 9, Afghans are now barred from entering the U.S. This news comes as most of our community celebrates Eid-al-Adha and many Muslims around the world finish the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. While some of this policy is framed as legal language in the name of “national security,” it is clear that this masking was done in an attempt to help the order pass challenges in the courts. Despite its narrow exception for Special Immigrant Visa holders, this policy is clearly a sweeping expression of racism and anti-Muslim prejudice. Afghanistan isn’t merely a Muslim country that happens to be a target of this administration’s ire. The U.S.’s role goes back to the 1970s, when the CIA covertly supported and armed the Afghan mujahideen fighting back against the Soviet invasion, part of a Cold War era-proxy war. This was followed by USAID-funded school textbooks in Dari and Pashto produced by the University of Nebraska that taught young Afghan students violence in refugee camps across Afghanistan and Pakistan. Years later, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in the fall of 2001 in the wake of the September 11 attacks and fought a war against elements of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. During this 20-year war, the U.S. funded endemic corruption, backed notorious human rights violators and helped build an aid-reliant government that was essentially a house of cards. The war killed almost 180,000 people and culminated in bringing back a regime in 2021 that has instilled what many now call “gender apartheid.” Afghanistan today is the only country on the planet where women and girls are barred from education past the 6th grade. This 40-year history means that the U.S. owes Afghans and Afghan Americans a huge debt. Instead of repaying this debt and undoing the harm it has caused over four decades, Muslim ban 2.0 has been yet another deep betrayal and abandonment. read the complete article
North Jersey Muslims have mixed reaction as Trump travel ban kicks in
Just hours after President Donald Trump issued a travel ban June 4 — a presidential order prohibiting visitors to the U.S. from a group of mostly African and Muslim countries — it was business as usual the next day for the Middle Eastern eateries and shops lining the bustling strip of Crooks Avenue that separates Paterson and Clifton. "I enjoy the Arabic stores in the area," and people here have been welcoming, Mehmood said. So it was "sad" that anyone be denied a shot at American opportunity through Trump's travel ban, he said. "It's not fair," he said of the travel ban, which takes effect June 9. "I would like everyone to be equal. It's not right to see people struggling because of their background. They deserve an opportunity to come here and have a good life." Besides Yemen, citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Sudan are barred from entering the U.S. because of what the Trump administration called national security threats these countries pose. The June 4 travel ban was just one more in a long list of anti-Muslim attacks, said Rania, an Egyptian American college student who grew up in Clifton. "It's always been very hard to be a young Muslim American woman in America," she said with a shrug. "There's always been some disregard or lack of safety for people like me and my people, Muslims." read the complete article
International
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, new study shows
A new Pew Research Center study measuring the evolution of the global religious population shows Muslims are the fastest-growing faith group, followed by the religiously unaffiliated. Though it remained the world’s largest religion, the Christian population declined between 2010 and 2020. Pew’s Global Religious Landscape study, released on Monday (June 9), is the second edition of a demographic report of religious groups, started in 2010. The report, which also analyzed those who switched religions, reveals how religious disaffiliation and natural population growth in certain regions influenced the global religious landscape. The world’s Muslim population increased by 347 million people over 10 years — more than all the other religions combined — primarily due to natural demographic growth. “Muslims are having children at a greater number than Muslims are dying,” Hackett said. “Very little of the change in Muslim population size is a result of people becoming Muslim as adults or leaving Islam as adults.” The growth of the global non-Christian population, which increased by 15%, is in part due to the growth of the religiously unaffiliated, also called nones. Religiously unaffiliated are now the third largest group behind Christians and Muslims, with 24% identifying as such globally. read the complete article
Why Islam Grew (And Christianity Didn’t) Around The World In Just A Decade
In several Western countries, Christians now make up less than half of the population. That includes the United Kingdom (49%), Australia (47%), France (46%), and Uruguay (44%). In each of these countries, religiously unaffiliated people now account for 40% or more of the population, while smaller religious groups such as Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and others together make up 11% or less. The Pew report identifies Muslims as the fastest-growing religious group during this decade span. Their numbers increased by 347 million —more than all religious groups Pew surveyed combined. As a result, Muslims now make up 25.6% of the global population, up 1.8 percentage points from a decade earlier. Religion continues to play a significant role in shaping cultures and communities around the world, especially in Muslim-majority nations. The spread of Islam — dubbed “the world’s fastest growing religion” for years now — has been driven by higher fertility rates both in the Middle East and across the West. Muslims (along with Hindus) have been the least likely to gain or lose adherents from something called “religious switching.” One of the most notable shifts is the rise in the number of people with no religious affiliation, often referred to as “nones.” While the rise of the nones is nothing new, this latest Pew survey confirms some of the data released over the past few years. Pew said in its latest report that this group was the only one — aside from Islam — to grow as a percentage of the global population over the decade. read the complete article
Laura Loomer praises Chinese government for recognizing “the threat of Islam”
LAURA LOOMER (HOST): I would say that the two biggest threats to Western civilization are the CCP and the Muslim Brotherhood. And ironically, but I guess not surprising, the CCP and the Muslim Brotherhood are now working together. If you look at a lot of these protests, Tesla takedown protests, jihadi protests, anti-ICE protests, [unintelligible], pro-illegal alien protests, a lot of the organizers are Chinese, and Loomer Unleashed has been documenting this. A lot of these people are Chinese. They're probably funded by the CCP. Some of them are probably spies. This is why Donald Trump and his administration just revoked so many student visas from Chinese students. And they're working with the Islamic enemy. All while knowing their own country would never allow for Islam to take root in their country. And I'm not advocating for concentration camps. I'm not. I'm not advocating for people to be thrown in camps. But this is why they have Uyghur camps in China. This is why. Because the Chinese recognize the threat of Islam. And I'm not saying we need to go put Muslims in concentration camps. I'm not saying that at all. I'm sure people will take it out of context. But what I'm saying is that there is some irony and very, you know, sinister energy surrounding the fact that the Chinese are sending all these spies and all these operatives to come to America to sow social discord. read the complete article
Claims that UK spy agencies aided CIA torture after 9/11 to be heard in rare trial
The UK government’s decades-long efforts to keep details of its intelligence agencies’ involvement in the CIA’s notorious post-9/11 torture programme hidden will face an “unprecedented” challenge this week as two cases are brought before a secretive court. The cases, filed by two prisoners held at the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, will be heard across a rare four-day trial at the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT), which has been investigating claims the UK’s intelligence agencies were complicit in their mistreatment. Starting on Tuesday, the trial will place a spotlight back on what is considered one of British intelligence’s darkest chapters, reviving longstanding questions about the extent of the UK’s involvement in the CIA’s kidnapping and detention of terrorism suspects in a global network of secret prisons known as black sites. The hearings begin six years after ministers shelved a judicial inquiry into alleged UK complicity, which David Cameron, the prime minister who ordered it, once said was necessary as “the longer these questions remain unanswered, the bigger the stain on our reputation as a country”. Lawyers for the men have told the IPT there is credible evidence to infer that UK spy agencies, including MI5 and MI6, unlawfully “aided, abetted, encouraged, facilitated, procured and/or conspired” with the US in their torture and mistreatment. read the complete article
India
‘This is not justice’: Father laments after court acquits 12 men accused of killing his sons during Delhi riots
This is the world left behind by Aamir Ali and his brother Hashim Ali whose bodies were found in a drain near Bhagirathi Vihar on 27 February 2020 following riots in the national capital. In a set of rulings related to one of the deadliest episodes of religious violence in India, a Delhi court recently acquitted 18 people accused of killing Muslim men, including the Ali brothers, during the riots. For the family of Aamir and Hashim, the ruling is the latest blow in their long quest for justice – a wait they now fear may never end. Over three days of bloodshed, at least 53 people, mostly Muslims, were killed and more than 200 injured as mobs laid siege to Muslim neighbourhoods, burning homes, shops and mosques in what survivors and rights groups have since called a pogrom. Five years later, a court has thrown out murder charges in three of the cases, citing insufficient or inconsistent evidence, including WhatsApp group chats that investigators presented as confessions but the presiding judge dismissed as boastful rather than factual in a series of orders delivered in mid-May. Those acquitted included 12 men charged with killing Aamir, and another Muslim man named Akil Ahmed, whose body was recovered from the same drain. These 12 men were previously acquitted in April in the murder of Hashim and in March of two other Muslim men in separate orders wherein the same WhatsApp chats were presented as evidence, reported the Indian Express. read the complete article