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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In countries such as the UK, Denmark and France, the aftermath of Hamas’ attack and Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza has unleashed a sustained and entrenched wave of Islamophobia across the continent, meanwhile in the UK, police are investigating an attack on an Islamic community center in Belfast Northern Ireland where a 35-year old man threw a device through a window while people were praying, and in the United States, a wave of violent threats and incidents targeting elected officials broke out in the US last week, prompting more urgent calls for increased security measures days after the killing of a Minnesota state legislator. Our recommended read of the day is by Rayan Freschi for The Middle East Monitor, who writes on how anti-Muslim conspiracy theories are growing in France and will lead to even more Islamophobic laws and policies. This and more below:
France
Tangled in conspiracy theories and violence, Muslims prepare for a new Islamophobic law | Recommended Read
In the wake of the tragic and violent Islamophobic murder of Aboubakar Cissé — who was stabbed 57 times in a mosque — Muslims were left to grieve for both his loss and the countless lives lost in Palestine. The State had the opportunity to halt its relentless Islamophobic agenda. It did the exact opposite. The Minister of the Interior refused to visit the mosque where the murder took place, and on 21 May he divulged a report on the alleged infiltration of French society by the Muslim Brotherhood. The publication exacerbated an already intense moral panic, depicting Muslims as conspirators on the verge of seizing power. Ten days after the publication, a second racist murder occurred: a man stabbed his Tunisian neighbour, Hicham Miraoui, to death and subsequently published a series of videos on social media in which he declared his racism. The stark contrast with the official response to the Islamophobic attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, six years ago — where former Prime Minister Ardern wore a hijab to express solidarity with the Muslim community — highlights the definitive collapse of any empathetic bridge between France and Muslims. Western societies have become blind to the humanity of Muslims, whose essential guilt is demonstrated by conspiracy theories now adopted by the State. If loss of empathy is the most telling sign of a barbaric culture, as indicated by Hannah Arendt, it becomes increasingly difficult to exonerate France — and others — from this charge. read the complete article
United States
New Yorkers might vote for a socialist mayor, but a Muslim?
When hijacked airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center in 2001, New York’s popular mayoral candidate Zohran Kwame Mamdani was just 9 years old. On that otherwise bluebird day, he had been in the United States only two years, after moving to New York with his parents from Kampala, Uganda. Seventeen years later, he became an American citizen, after completing a degree in Africana studies at Bowdoin College. Mamdani is all of 33 now, a member of the New York Assembly and, incidentally, Muslim, which I mention only to illustrate how far we’ve come from our dark days post-9/11 when Islamophobia infected too many “good Americans.” For people of Mamdani’s generation and younger, Sept. 11, 2001, is a chapter in a history book rather than a haunting memory. People born that year reached voting age just six years ago. Not to overplay the Muslim connection to a mayoral race, but it’s astonishing how quickly things can turn and how important it is to remember where we were a quarter-century ago. Americans were knocked off-balance by the events of 9/11. We suffered psychological and emotional vertigo that persisted for years, and you could say that the whole country suffered post-traumatic stress disorder. I had hoped that by now a Muslim candidate such as Mamdani could be judged only for his socialist agenda and not his religion. Then again, we’re living through Trump II and his ongoing policy of blocking Muslims. Never mind our third-party role in the Iran-Israel missile exchange. To give Mamdani his due, note that the man is bold and brave. And he has stamina. On social media, he runs, jumps and shouts — in a good way. He’s one of those joyful candidates who is impossible to ignore. Or, frankly, to dislike. read the complete article
US elected officials face wave of violent threats prompting calls for security
A fresh wave of violent threats and incidents targeting elected officials broke out in the US this week, prompting more urgent calls for increased security measures just days after the killing of a Minnesota state legislator and the shooting of another. Amid a series of attacks involving federal and local officials, the latest incidents included death threats against Zohran Mamdani, the New York mayoral candidate, a purported road rage attack on Max Miller, the Ohio congressman, and an alleged kidnapping attempt targeting Paul Young, the mayor of Memphis. The New York police department (NYPD) hate crimes task force is investigating multiple death threats against Mamdani, a Muslim democratic socialist candidate in the final stretch of his campaign and endorsed by national figures such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The intimidation included threats to blow up his car and Islamophobic voicemails left at Mamdani’s office in the city’s Queens borough. read the complete article
Freed Mahmoud Khalil vows to keep speaking up for Palestine after release
See the moment former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who was held for 100 days in a US detention centre, was greeted by supporters after his release from custody. Khalil vowed to continue protesting US complicity in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Israel kills innocent Palestinians. Activists spray-paint a plane. Guess which the UK government calls terrorism
On 20 June, in what has now become an appallingly familiar story, Israeli forces once again opened fire on Palestinians at an aid distribution site, this time killing 23 people. The same day, it was revealed that activists affiliated with the UK group Palestine Action had broken into an RAF base and defaced two military aircraft in an act of protest. One of these actions involved the intentional use of lethal violence against civilians, resulting in the deaths of 23 loved and irreplaceable human beings. The other involved no violence against any living things and resulted in no deaths or injuries. The UK government has now announced its intention to deal with one of these incidents as a terrorist offence. Guess which. International organisations could hardly be more unanimous in their assessment that Israel is committing extremely grave war crimes in Gaza. In November last year, a UN special committee found that Israel’s campaign in Gaza was consistent with the characteristics of genocide. In December, an Amnesty International investigation concluded that Israel “has committed and is continuing to commit genocide”. Now, a series of unprovoked and illegal Israeli attacks on Iran have succeeded in drawing the US directly into war with Iran, in violation of US and international law. While massacres continue in Gaza, Israeli aggression threatens to ignite a major regional and perhaps even global conflict. And yet the UK continues to provide Israel with military intelligence, and British companies continue to sell lethal weapons to the Israeli state. In a poll conducted last year, 56% of British voters supported a complete embargo on arms sales to Israel. Across the UK, hundreds of thousands of people have attended demonstrations mourning those lost to the conflict and demanding an end to the slaughter. But the government stubbornly persists in its support for Israel’s military campaign. Mass peaceful protest, even with majority support among the wider population, has yielded no results. In the face of state support for genocide, what are conscientious people supposed to do? read the complete article
Viable device used in 'shameful' Islamic Centre attack
A viable device was thrown through the window of the Belfast Islamic Centre during an attack on Friday night, police have said. People from the centre were praying inside the building on University Road when the attack was reported at about 22:10 BST. The incident sparked a security alert and the building was evacuated. Police said a 34-year-old man was arrested under the Terrorism Act but added that a motive for the attack has not yet been established. "Ammunition Technical Officers attended and examined the object which was determined as viable and has since been removed for forensic examination," said ACC Anthony McNally from the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Kashif Akram from the Belfast Islamic Centre told BBC News NI a window had been broken and device thrown inside, while up to 30 people were upstairs praying. He said the attack has caused alarm among the Muslim community. "There was a lot of commotion outside, that's when people realised from upstairs that something was happening outside. Thankfully nobody was hurt." read the complete article
International
‘Middle ground has shifted’: Experts warn of deepening Islamophobia across Europe after Oct. 7
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Europe’s political and social landscape has witnessed what experts call a seismic and deeply unsettling transformation, significantly impacting its Muslim communities. In countries such as the UK, Denmark and France, the aftermath of Hamas’ attack and Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza has unleashed a sustained and entrenched wave of Islamophobia, far beyond the familiar episodic spikes. “It’s a complete shift in the everyday life of Muslim communities in Britain, but also across the world,” says Aristotle Kallis, a professor of modern and contemporary history at the UK’s Keele University. “What happened after Oct. 7 is a complete shift of the political narrative.” Kallis, who specializes in far-right ideologies and political discourse, stresses that the current surge in anti-Muslim sentiment is not merely reactive but rather an acceleration of long-existing trends. “It has remained at very, very high levels ever since,” he explains, referring to anti-Muslim hatred. “It was not a spike, so it didn’t go up and then come down.” According to Kallis, social media has become a primary battleground, emboldening far-right actors. read the complete article