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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, a Muslim woman exclusively told Eyewitness News that she was brutally beaten after a man asked her what her religion was and proceeded to attack her at 4 a.m. on a subway in Queens NY, elsewhere in the city, police are investigating an alleged car bomb threat against Democratic Mayoral Candidate Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, and in Canada, a man who was filling his gas tank at a service station in Pitt Meadows was beaten and thrown to the grown after a verbal altercation over a “Free Palestine” bumper sticker ended in what the victim alleges to be a hate crime. Our recommended read of the day is by Mona Eltahawy for The Guardian who writes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “using Muslim women’s ‘rights’ to justify his war, a political move which Eltahawy calls a “hollow hypocrisy”. This and more below:
International
Netanyahu is using Muslim women’s ‘rights’ to justify his war. What hideous, hollow hypocrisy | Recommended Read
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has invoked the Iranian regime’s heinous women’s rights record to justify his heinous war on Iran. This is the man whose genocide of Palestinians in Gaza killed more women and children in its first year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades. It is incredible to hear Netanyahu call on the Iranian people to rise up against the very things he has subjected Palestinians to. But it is not surprising. I am all too familiar with the ways imperialists, occupiers and invaders weaponise Muslim women’s bodies and rights to justify their wars. As an Egyptian, I know that colonisers such as Evelyn Baring, the 1st Earl of Cromer and the de facto ruler of Egypt between 1883 and 1907, supported greater rights for Egyptian women while being an anti-suffragist back home. Far from emancipating Egyptian women, Baring made it almost impossible for those opposed to the occupation and European influence to criticise traditions or religious practices without looking as though they were taking the side of the west. As a woman of Muslim descent, I remember vividly the US claiming its invasion of Afghanistan was to “liberate” women from the Taliban’s misogyny. Twenty years after that reckless invasion, an increasingly disastrous war and occupation, and a criminally chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban once again rule. Even worse and more shamefully, as a feminist I know that, unlike Afghan feminists, white feminists in the US were cheerleaders of that invasion, failing to understand the dangers of imperial powers co-opting women’s rights. Leaders of the Feminist Majority Foundation – including Eleanor Smeal, the former head of the National Organization for Women – attended events at the state department and met administration officials. The spring 2002 issue of Ms magazine called the invasion a “coalition of hope”. They did not need Netanyahu to fight for their freedom then, nor do they need him now. On the contrary, his attempt to co-opt the courageous uprising is the quickest way to discredit feminism itself – often dismissed as “western” and alien. Wars and invasions harm, not strengthen, revolutions. As an Egyptian, I know all too well that the Egyptian regime tried its hardest to claim our 25 January revolution in 2011 was being masterminded from abroad. Protecting the “liberal” and “western” values of women’s rights is an easy moral cover for what is an invasion, war or colonisation always motivated by a desire for power, resources or both. read the complete article
Why do so many Americans join the Israeli military?
I began to reflect on the novel after reading about the recent Hamas-US prisoner deal. Edan Alexander, the American Israeli soldier who was held captive by Hamas for a year and a half, “grew up in New Jersey and moved to Israel after high school to join the military”, as reported by the New York Times. When I read that line I wondered what drove his radicalization – what leads an American teenager to travel to a foreign country to join an army whose primary occupation is apartheid? The question is meaningful in its particulars, but it also highlights a broader phenomenon: Alexander’s path is not remotely unique. The Washington Post reported in February 2024 that “an estimated 23,380 American citizens currently serve in Israeli ranks”. But they have traveled a trail worn and bloodied by others. Baruch Goldstein, an American Zionist who murdered 29 Palestinians in a mosque in Hebron in 1994, was from Brooklyn. The Post story, which profiles the families of Americans who died serving in the Israeli army, describes their “fierce commitment to the Jewish state”. Two of the three families have lived or volunteered in settlements – the apartheid infrastructure Israel has built in the West Bank. One mother describes her son, who died while perpetrating a genocide in Gaza, as “more Israeli than the Israelis”. A father describes his family’s journey from America by saying: “We came for Zionism.” The story goes on to describe the elaborate social apparatus through which young Americans are radicalized. One soldier who was killed in Gaza “worked each year at a Zionist summer camp in Pennsylvania”. Reading the article, I got a strong sense of the brainwashing, the in-group dynamic at work. The families seem to regard their choices, and those of their children, as being normal – valiant, even. Now, with the genocide in Palestine, we’re faced with a reality in which tens of thousands of Americans are actively involved in war crimes. The radicalization of young Zionist men and women does not receive the attention it deserves by the FBI and law enforcement – as contrasted with the experience of Muslims, which is described by the writer Arun Kundnani in his book, The Muslims are Coming. read the complete article
United States
Ghazala Hashmi wins Democratic nomination for Virginia lieutenant governor
The candidates for Virginia’s lieutenant governor are set to make history after Sen. Ghazala Hashmi won the Democratic nomination for the position on Wednesday. Hashmi is the first Muslim and the first Indian-American to be nominated to appear on the ballot for a Virginia statewide office. She defeated five other candidates, including Democrat Levar Stoney by less than a percentage point, to secure the nomination in a razor-thin primary race. Stoney congratulated Hashmi on Wednesday in a concession statement. Hashmi will now face Republican John Reid, the first openly gay man to receive a major party’s endorsement for statewide office in Virginia, who became the de-facto nominee after his primary opponent left the race. Her victory rounded out the Democratic ticket ahead of the November general election. It comes after former Del. Jay Jones became the party nominee for attorney general late Tuesday. read the complete article
NYPD investigating alleged bomb threat against Zohran Mamdani
Police in New York City are investigating an alleged car bomb threat against Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who is running in the Democratic primary for mayor. Mamdani's office in Queens received four voicemails from an individual threatening to blow up his car, a spokesperson for the assemblyman said. The NYPD said Thursday it was investigating a report of voicemails "making threatening anti-Muslim statements by an unknown individual. There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing by the Hate Crime Task Force." The calls were made on various dates and reported on Wednesday, police said. Mamdani's campaign said it recently hired security due to an uptick in threats against him. read the complete article
Muslim woman says man asked 'Are you Muslim?' then beat her on Subway
A Muslim woman exclusively told Eyewitness News that she was brutally beaten after a man asked her what her religion was and proceeded to attack her. It happened Wednesday at 4 a.m. on a subway in Queens, a borough known for its diversity. The victim got on the E train at Forest Hills to head to work a large, hulking man towering over her got in her face nose to nose. "He said tell me where are you from? Are you Muslim? I said yes. And then he punching me, he start to kick, he punch all over," the victim said. As soon as the doors closed, the suspect allegedly pummeled her nonstop until it arrived at the next stop at 75th Avenue. The suspect fled and two women and the conductor helped flag him down for police. Police arrested 34-year-old Naved Durni and charged him with hate crime assault. read the complete article
Canada
Assaulted man says he was victim of hate crime in Pitt Meadows
A man who was assaulted at a Pitt Meadows service station says he was the victim of a hate crime. Abdullah Khan was filling his tank at the Centex gas station at the corner of Lougheed Highway and Harris Road at approximately 5:45 a.m. on June 17, when another patron of the business noticed the sticker on the back of Khan's vehicle that said "Free Palestine." "Go back home," the stranger said to Khan. Khan accused the man of hate speech, and said he would report him to police. He was shocked by what happened next, as Khan said the man punched him, and threw him to the ground. Khan had his phone in hand, and the man grabbed it and smashed it. "It was a violent attack. It was a shocking attack," he said. read the complete article