Search
SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, President Donald Trump has been condemned by a leading US Muslim civil rights group for seeking to use the word “Palestinian” as an insult when he attacked the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, meanwhile in the United Kingdom, a group of students at the University of Essex are facing potential expulsion after sharing a series of social media posts, including a video published by Middle East Eye marking the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and in France, a new promotional video by a Dutch clothing brand featuring the Eiffel Tower draped in an Islamic headscarf has sparked a barrage of anti-Muslim criticism and commentary. Our recommended read of the day is by Daisy Dumas for The Guardian on how the newest Islamophobia in Australia Report indicates that there were 309 in-person incidents between early 2023 and 2024, with girls and women being the most recurring victims. This and more below:
Australia
Islamophobic incidents in Australia have doubled over the past two years, research suggests | Recommended Read
Islamophobic incidents – including physical attacks, verbal harassment, people being spat on and rape threats – have more than doubled in the past two years, with girls and women bearing the brunt of hatred towards Muslims in Australia, new research shows. The fifth Islamophobia in Australia report details 309 in-person incidents between January 2023 and December 2024 – a more than 2.5-fold increase from the previous reporting period. Verified online incidents more than tripled to 366. Girls and women accounted for three quarters of all incidents and were a third more likely to be physically attacked than boys and men. “It’s really become a gendered Islamophobia,” said Dr Nora Amath, the executive director of the Islamophobia Register. “The majority of victims are Muslim women and the majority of perpetrators are male. It’s very obvious and really concerning.” The research by the Islamophobia Register and Deakin and Monash universities, released on Thursday, represented the largest rise in Islamophobic incidents since the report began as a Facebook post in 2014. It’s released every two years. read the complete article
Why Muslim women are copping it most in dramatic rise in Islamophobia
The Islamophobia Register's latest research has confirmed what many in the Muslim community were already feeling - a dramatic rise in Islamophobia since the October 7 attacks in 2023. Their latest report shows incidents both online and in the real world have more than doubled since, and Muslim women are the targets by perpetrators. read the complete article
Ealaf was shopping when a stranger smacked and shoved her. She's not alone
Ealaf Al-Easawi was minding her own business, shopping on her lunch break, when from out of nowhere a woman allegedly smacked her on the left cheek. The earring she wore behind her hijab fell out. Before the childcare worker could comprehend what just happened, she was allegedly shoved to the ground. “I didn’t even get a chance to defend myself,” Al-Easawi said. “It was so quick. At that time I could barely breathe, I was crying so hard, shaking, shocked, traumatised. I’ve never had something like that happen to me in my life.” It’s been one month since the alleged attack on Al-Easawi and another Muslim woman at a Melbourne shopping plaza. But she hasn’t left the house alone since, fearful something might happen again. “I’m an independent woman ... being at home in these four walls waiting for someone to take me out feels disgusting,” she said. “But since the attack, I’m not feeling ok, to be honest. I’m scared to go by myself outside. I am having lots of flashbacks, I dream about it lots ... I need groceries for the kids’ lunch boxes but when we go out, I’m looking at people, looking behind me, turning around.” Al-Easawi’s experience last month is symptomatic of a surge in Islamophobia in Australia, although hers was rare in garnering national headlines. While the precise extent of Islamophobia is hard to quantify, the organisation Islamophobia Register Australia has been inviting people to report their experiences since 2014, with its small team contacting individuals to verify incidents. Its latest report, from 2023 and 2024, indicates in-person incidents have more than doubled over the last two years. It verified 309 in-person incidents of Islamophobia, and 366 online – the highest tally since the organisation was created 10 years ago. This included 139 in-person incidents in NSW and 79 in Victoria. read the complete article
United States
Why the Events at Columbia University Will Have Profound Chilling Effects
Nathan J. Brown: In recent years, allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia have been handled by the Department of Education, generally as civil rights complaints. There have been complaints and counter-complaints, investigations, and carefully negotiated settlements. What is happening now dwarfs that earlier activity. First, the tools are so much more punitive and extensive. The wholesale cutoff of grants and contracts is completely unprecedented, but that is just part of the story. The activity is coordinated across the federal government, led sometimes by the Department of Justice and sometimes Homeland Security. Criminal prosecution and expulsion are now replacing negotiated agreements as the instrument of choice. Second, there seems to be no sign of much fact-finding—the officials involved seem to have made up their minds without any investigation. Third, Islamophobia is no longer something that leading government officials see as a problem. And finally, and perhaps most significantly from the perspective of higher education, this comes as part of a broader set of efforts undermining the entire basis for federal relations with institutions of higher education. Every single research university in the United States has to worry about what tomorrow will bring on a wide variety of fiscal, legal, and regulatory fronts. read the complete article
Why Did Trump Just Tell Reporters that Chuck Schumer ‘Is Not Jewish Anymore,’ That He ‘Has Become a Palestinian’?
At a press conference today responding to a question about the possibility of Democratic support for the Republican-written spending bill, Trump said of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer: "Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I am concerned. He has become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He is not Jewish anymore. He is a Palestinian." This isn’t the first time the President has labeled Schumer a Palestinian since October 7, usually to criticize his ostensibly insufficient commitment to Israel. I’ve always been fascinated by Trump’s attempts to disparage Chuck Schumer by calling him a Palestinian. The term of course, shouldn’t be a slur—Palestinians are a people like any other. In the mouth of Trump and many others, however, ‘Palestinian’ signifies the ‘Muslim terrorist,’ the ‘radical,’ the ‘enemy’ of the Judeo-Christian West. Trump’s figure of speech mobilizes intense anti-Palestinian bigotry (and by extension, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry) against his Jewish opponent. ‘Jews’ and ‘Palestinians’ are often constructed as opposites in mainstream discourse; here, with a Jew transforming into a Palestinian, the binary is blurred. So what’s behind this inversion? Though Trump surely isn’t aware of it, there’s precedent for his turn of phrase. Eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant, a key figure of the European Enlightenment, referred to European Jews as “Palestinians in our midst,” capturing the Orientalism at the heart of Enlightenment reason. By this, Kant meant that Jews in Europe were foreigners and outsiders, tainted with the exotic Otherness of the Orient. read the complete article
The Attack on Mahmoud Khalil Is Straight Out of the “War on Terror” Playbook
Mahmoud Khalil did everything by the book. The 30-year-old Palestinian came to the United States to study, completed his master’s degree at an Ivy League school, married a U.S. citizen and obtained legal permanent residency. Last year, as students across the country called on their universities to divest from Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Khalil led negotiations on behalf of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition. Fellow students said he was patient and strategic in conversations with administrators, and he spoke tactfully in interviews with the media. While elected officials decried student protesters for shielding their identities, Khalil often appeared unmasked, becoming a public face for CUAD’s demands. I emphasize Khalil’s mainstream respectability here, not because I believe there’s one single “right” way to protest, but because it underscores what human rights advocates have been warning about for decades: The systematic erosion of constitutional protections in the wake of 9/11 has always been a threat to everyone’s civil liberties, not just those engaged in acts of mass violence. When former President George W. Bush declared a “war on terror” in 2001, his administration — largely with the support of Congress — ushered in a new era of expanded executive power and a blatant disregard for constitutional rights. Bush launched the President’s Surveillance Program in secret, which directed the National Security Agency to conduct illegal electronic spying on U.S. citizens, including warrantless phone-tapping and the mining of internet data. Congress passed the PATRIOT Act, with little to no debate, drastically expanding the government’s surveillance powers. Meanwhile, a parallel criminal legal system took shape, as Bush ordered the creation of secretive military tribunals with limited oversight to try detainees held at Guantánamo Bay. Torture techniques were greenlit — by officials at some of the highest levels of government — in violation of international law. Throughout this, the Bush administration used the unitary executive theory to defend a broad interpretation of “executive privilege” and exempt its actions and deliberations from public view. Legal scholars have repeatedly pointed to the Bush administration’s so-called war on terror as a turning point in the expansion of presidential authority. But creating a terrorism exception to the Constitution was always going to come back around to haunt dissenters. read the complete article
United Kingdom
UK: Pro-Palestine students face expulsion for sharing Middle East Eye posts
A group of students at the University of Essex are facing potential expulsion after sharing a series of social media posts, including a video published by Middle East Eye marking the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Last August, the University of Essex Students’ Union informed the university's Palestine Solidarity Society that it may have breached the student conduct code for allegedly "supporting a proscribed group". The breach stems from concerns raised about posts shared on the society's Instagram page following the assassaination of Haniyeh in Iran, and days later when Israel confirmed that it had killed the Hamas leader. The university later formally informed six students involved with the society in September that they were under investigation for the Instagram posts and could face possible expulsion. A document compiled by the university as evidence against the students and given to MEE showed it had based its investigation into the six students on several posts from its Instagram page. Two posts included in the university's evidence bundle are from Middle East Eye's Instagram page. read the complete article
Muslim Heritage Month celebrates a rich contribution to UK society
Muslim history is British history and must be acknowledged as such. That was the message conveyed by Baroness Sayeeda Warsi at the official launch of Muslim Heritage Month in the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday. Speaking to Hyphen at the event, the former Conservative minister called for a change in how Muslim communities are viewed and understood in the UK. She also stressed the importance of challenging the idea that Islam is somehow “alien” to life in the UK. “Don’t get vexed that Muhammad wasn’t born in Manchester, because Jesus wasn’t born in Leeds and Moses wasn’t born in London,” Warsi said. “So, why do we see them differently to the way we see Islam and Muslims?” The launch event, organised by the Muslim Women’s Network UK (MWNUK), marks the start of a month-long celebration recognising the contributions of Muslims to the country. Muslim Heritage Month coincides with the UN-recognised International Day to Combat Islamophobia on 15 March. The MWNUK first introduced the initiative in 2024, with the aim of combating negative stereotypes and Islamophobia. Faeeza Vaid, a trustee of MWNUK, said the month is a much-needed counterbalance to the rise in hate crime targeting Muslim communities. “This initiative is so important because it aims to celebrate the contributions of Muslims not only in Britain but also across the world,” she said. “Muslims have been and are part of the solution in making Britain a really great society. This isn’t about one charity or one event, it’s about Muslims in all our diversity showcasing our brilliance. read the complete article
France
Furore in France over ad featuring Eiffel Tower in hijab
A new promotional video by a Dutch modest clothing brand featuring the Eiffel Tower draped in an Islamic headscarf has sparked a barrage of anti-Muslim criticism and commentary in France this week. The realistic animation by Merrachi, which caters primarily to Muslim consumers, was published on TikTok this week with the text: "The French government hates to see Merrachi coming," hinting at its imminent launch in the country with a tongue-in-cheek reference to France's restrictions on Islamic dress. The video was slammed by far-right politicians, commentators and social media users as a deliberately "provocative" ad that served to "attack" a French symbol. "Unacceptable! The Eiffel Tower, symbol of France, has been hijacked by the Merrachi brand, which covers it with an Islamic veil in a provocative advertisement," wrote Lisette Pollet, an MP with the far-right National Rally, adding that the ad was an offence to French "republican values and heritage". "This is a terrifying political project, an unacceptable provocation!" posted Jerome Buisson, another representative from National Rally. Others said the ad was a sign of the impending "Islamist takeover" of France, and some called for a ban on "Muslim immigration". Some social media users, however, welcomed the ad, praising it as a "creative" and "brilliant" marketing approach that they said would draw attention in France and challenge the country's policies on Muslim women's religious practice. read the complete article
International
French far-right leader to make unprecedented Israel visit
Jordan Bardella, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party, is to make an unprecedented visit to Israel later this month to attend a conference on fighting anti-Semitism, a party source said on Wednesday. Also attending will be Bardella’s fellow European Parliament MP Marion Marechal, the niece of Marine Le Pen, who leads a separate far-right movement, she told AFP. They are both expected on March 26 and 27 in Jerusalem on invitation of the Israeli government to address the conference. Since the attack led by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, the RN has sought to present itself as a bulwark against anti-Semitism. The party was co-founded as the National Front (FN) by Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year and was known for his anti-Semitic remarks. In an invitation letter, the Israeli government said that “this major conference will bring together political leaders, international organizations, special envoys, and prominent figures from around the world to discuss and address the global threat of modern anti-Semitism.” Israel is also planning “special visits” for the two MEPs, “to Israel’s southern and northern borders to better understand the geopolitical landscape.” This is the first time that figures from the French far right have been invited to this type of conference. read the complete article