Search
SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, Congressman Randy Fine (R-FL) has been labeled by the American Muslim civil rights group, CAIR, as an “anti-Muslim extremist” following his violent rhetoric directed at Muslims and Palestinians, while Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, has said that the US is now no longer pursuing the goal of an independent Palestinian state, marking a stark departure from what was a cornerstone of US Middle East diplomacy, and lastly, the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on a leading Palestinian human rights organization, Addameer in addition to other groups on Tuesday, accusing them of supporting Palestinian militants. Our recommended read of the day is by Imam Dr. Omar Suleiman for Religion News Service, who argues that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) should be abolished, as it was founded on flawed, Islamophobic logic—not justice or order. This and more below:
United States
Abolish ICE. This time for real. | Recommended Read
ICE is not some foundational American institution. It did not exist during the Civil Rights Movement, the Great Depression or even 9/11. It was created in 2003, in the fearful shadow of the so-called war on terror, as part of a sweeping expansion of federal power under the newly formed Department of Homeland Security. What’s happening now in Los Angeles and other cities is not immigration enforcement. It’s an assault on everything we claim to hold inviolable. ICE has become a personal police force of Donald Trump, operating like an unaccountable militia tasked with silencing the voices he finds inconvenient. Born out of the flawed and Islamophobic logic of securitizing supposedly inherently dangerous populations, ICE was never about justice or order. It was always about control. It grew alongside the Countering Violent Extremism programs that treated mosques as possible breeding grounds for radicals and mass surveillance projects — all designed to target Muslims, immigrants, and anyone who questioned the post-9/11 security state. That same logic has now turned inward, fueling a domestic war on dissent. Abolishing ICE is not about ideology. It’s about consistency. It’s about returning to a society that doesn’t criminalize entire communities for the crime of existing. read the complete article
'Systemic failure': At the State House, Muslims tell stories of Islamophobia, advocate for permanent civil rights commission
They were stories of hatred. One girl was playing in the yard with her sister, both wearing their hijabs, when a neighbor offered to take off their religious head coverings unprompted. A woman attending graduate school at Harvard said she was scared to leave her building because of discrimination on campus and in the city. One boy shared that his sister’s hijab was torn off while she was at school. Massachusetts lawmakers heard these stories and more Tuesday as part of Muslim lobbying day at the State House. More than 100 people, including many school-aged kids, advocated for several bills that would protect Muslim Americans and immigrants alike. Notably, one that would create a permanent commission to study the issues facing Muslims in Massachusetts. The push follows a recent report from the Massachusetts Council on American-Islamic Relations — the group that organized the lobbying day — that showed a 65 percent increase in reported hate crimes and harassment against Muslims in 2024, the highest recorded since the group started collecting data in 2017. The results, collected from 325 students across 11 counties, also indicated that 48 percent of Muslim students in state public schools were bullied because of their religion, and 35 percent of hijab-wearing girls experienced physical harassment. Sumaira Afzal, a Muslim adviser at Simmons University, said she supports the bill because of the instances of discrimination she’s heard about in the city and state. There was no question, she said, as to whether those instances had gone up after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023. State Senator Jamie Eldridge and state Representative Vanna Howard, both Democrats, are the lead sponsors of the so-called Muslim Commission Bill. Eldridge said he introduced the bill because there is no commission to support Muslim civil rights, as there are for other minorities, including the Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism. “The truth is, Massachusetts has long benefited from the strength and contribution of its Muslim residents, but that hasn’t been matched by recognition in our state government,” Eldridge said. read the complete article
CAIR Designates Florida Rep. Randy Fine as ‘Anti-Muslim Extremist’ Following ‘Unceasingly Violent’ Rhetoric
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today designated Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) as an “anti-Muslim extremist” on its Islamophobia hate list following his unceasingly violent rhetoric directed at Muslims and Palestinians. Last week, CAIR called on Congress to censure Rep. Fine after he made yet another racist attack on Palestinians, saying they have “mental defects.” Last month, CAIR sent a letter to every member of the U.S. House of Representatives and more than 1,600 congressional staffers, urging them to condemn Rep. Fine’s dangerously anti-Muslim, anti-American, and anti-Palestinian rhetoric. read the complete article
Trump to ramp up transfers to Guantánamo, including citizens of allies
The Trump administration is preparing to begin the transfer of potentially thousands of foreigners who are in the United States illegally to the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, starting as early as this week, said U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The foreign nationals under consideration hail from a range of countries. They include hundreds from friendly European nations, including Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine, but also other parts of the world, including many from Haiti. The administration is unlikely to inform the foreigners’ home governments about the impending transfers to the infamous military facility, including close U.S. allies such as Britain, Germany and France, the officials said. The preparations include medical screening for 9,000 individuals to determine whether they are healthy enough to be sent to Guantánamo, notorious for its history as a prison for suspected terrorists and others captured on battlefields in the aftermath of 9/11. Some of these details were reported earlier by Politico. read the complete article
International
US ambassador to Israel says US no longer pursuing goal of independent Palestinian state
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, has said that the US is no longer pursuing the goal of an independent Palestinian state, marking what analysts describe as the most explicit abandonment yet of a cornerstone of US Middle East diplomacy. Asked during an interview with Bloomberg News if a Palestinian state remains a goal of US policy, he replied: “I don’t think so.” The former Arkansas governor chosen by Donald Trump as his envoy to Israel went further by suggesting that any future Palestinian entity could be carved out of “a Muslim country” rather than requiring Israel to cede territory. In a separate interview with the BBC, Huckabee said: “Muslim countries have 644 times the amount of land that are controlled by Israel. So maybe, if there is such a desire for the Palestinian state, there would be someone who would say, we’d like to host it.” When pressed on Palestinian aspirations in the West Bank, where 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation, Huckabee employed Israeli government terminology, asking: “Does it have to be in Judea and Samaria?” “This is not at all surprising given what we’ve seen in the last four-plus months, including the administration’s open support for expelling the population of Gaza, the legitimization of Israeli settlement and annexation policies,” said Khaled Elgindy, a scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and former adviser to Palestinian negotiators. “This is an administration that is committed to Palestinian erasure, both physical and political,” Elgindy said. “The signs were there even in the first Trump term, which nominally supported a Palestinian ‘state’ that was shorn of all sovereignty and under permanent Israeli control. At least now they’ve abandoned the pretense.” read the complete article
US hits Palestinian NGOs with sanctions, alleging militant links
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on a leading Palestinian human rights organization as well as five charity groups in the Middle East and Europe on Tuesday, accusing them of supporting Palestinian militants including Hamas. The rights group targeted is Addameer, which provides legal services to Palestinians detained by Israel or the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank and monitors their conditions. Israel has previously accused the group of channeling aid to militants. The other entities hit with sanctions on Tuesday include the Israa Charitable Foundation, based in the Netherlands; Filistin Vakfi, based in Turkey; Al Weam Charitable Society, based in Gaza; and Associazione Benefica La Cupola d’Oro, based in Italy. Some of the groups' leaders were also sanctioned. read the complete article
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, Pew study says
Muslims are the fastest-growing faith group, followed by the religiously unaffiliated, according to a new Pew Research Center study measuring the evolution of the global religious population between 2010 and 2020. Christianity grew by 122 million members in that decade, but declined as an overall slice of the world's population. Still, Christianity remains the world's largest religion, with 2.3 billion believers — nearly 29% of the world's population. The report reveals how religious disaffiliation and population growth 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." read the complete article
Canada
A Canada where we all belong
Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s special rep on combatting Islamophobia, on community healing, safety, and reflection at a CMHR event. read the complete article
Arab, Palestinian students face ‘pervasive safety concerns,’ CUSA report says
There are pervasive safety concerns for Palestinian and Arab students on Carleton University’s campus, a recent student association report says. Respondents cited hate speech, harassment and microaggressions as forms of discrimination they’ve faced, according to the recent Carleton University Students’ Association report. Many respondents expressed concerns about campus safety services, faculty members and students alike. The report — unveiled on CUSA’s social media on May 27 after compiling 61 undergraduate student responses — also asked the university to divest from companies tied to human rights violations and implement mandatory anti-Arab and Palestinian discrimination training for Carleton staff. “We’ve heard from Arab students, Palestinian students and students in general of all ethnicities and religions who are affected by this conflict, that there is a serious issue here at Carleton,” said Aidan Kallioinen*, CUSA’s vice-president (student issues). Of the 61 respondents, 28 students reported being victims of anti-Arab and Palestinian discrimination on campus, with 46 students reporting they have witnessed such behaviour. read the complete article
France
Discrimination in France: Islamophobic hate crimes fuel mass exodus of Muslims
A recent Jacobin report highlights a growing trend of Islamophobia in France, with severe implications for the country’s Muslim population. Citing findings from the book France, You Love It but You Leave It, authored by Olivier Esteves, Alice Picard, and Julien Talpin, the report sheds light on the rising Islamophobic atmosphere that has driven thousands of French Muslims to emigrate. The authors estimate that up to 200,000 French Muslims—most of whom are highly educated—have left the country, primarily seeking refuge in multicultural nations like Britain and Canada. The wave of emigration stems from a combination of pervasive discrimination, Islamophobic hate crimes, and systemic bias in public life. A staggering 79 Islamophobic hate crimes were recorded in the first quarter of 2025, marking a 70% increase compared to the same period in 2024, according to the French interior ministry. According to experts, for many French Muslims, the decision to emigrate is not due to isolated incidents but the accumulation of daily microaggressions and systemic bias. Muslims interviewed for the book recounted shocking experiences, including harassment, bullying, and discrimination. read the complete article