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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United Kingdom, the Labour Muslim Network has slammed Prime Minister Keir Starmer for rowing back on Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s statement on Monday that Israel was breaking international humanitarian law, meanwhile in France, Prime Minister François Bayrou convened key Cabinet members on Tuesday after divisions among ministers over banning athletes from wearing hijabs during sporting events spilled into public view, and in Australia, the Islamophobia Register Australia has reported that between January 2023 and November 2024, they catalogued 309 confirmed in-person, or off-line reports of Islamophobia – more than double previous highest number. Our recommended read of the day is by Anna Betts for The Guardian on an exclusive interview with detained Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who said he was being targeted by the Trump administration for his political beliefs calling himself a “political prisoner”. This and more below.
United States
‘I am a political prisoner’: Mahmoud Khalil says he’s being targeted for political beliefs | Recommended Read
In his first public remarks since being detained by federal immigration authorities, Palestinian activist and recent Columbia graduate, Mahmoud Khalil, spoke out against the conditions facing immigrants in US detention and said he was being targeted by the Trump administration for his political beliefs. “I am a political prisoner,” he said in a statement provided exclusively to the Guardian. “I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law.” Khalil, a permanent US resident who helped lead Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests last spring, was arrested and detained in New York on 8 March by federal immigration authorities who reportedly said that they were acting on a state department order to revoke his green card. The Trump administration, he said, “is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent”, warning that “visa-holders, green-card carriers and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs.” “My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past 16 months as the US has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention” he said. “For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand US laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities.” He added: “That is precisely why I am being targeted.” read the complete article
Columbus Community Shelter Board fires employee with anti-Muslim YouTube page
The Community Shelter Board employee who posted anti-Muslim content on his YouTube channel has been fired, according to a video he posted on his channel. Thaddeus Billman, former operations administrator at the Community Shelter Board (CSB), announced his firing Sunday in a subscribers-only video on his channel, Reasoned Answers. The video was titled "Emergency Meeting on the future of Reasoned Answers." Early on the morning of March 13, The Dispatch published an article detailing the content of Billman's YouTube channel. When reached on Tuesday, Billman said he was placed on administrative leave later on March 13. He said he told the human resources manager that he wanted to say goodbye to people and make a generic statement about how he doesn't "hate Muslims" but was never given the opportunity to say goodbye or anything else or to clean out his desk and take his personal belongings with him. On Friday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Ohio called for Billman's firing, condemning the content on his YouTub and condemned his running of the channel and employment at CSB as something that should "alarm us all" and is "unacceptable." In previously posted free videos on the channel, Billman calls Muslims "crackhead clown individuals" and openly states that he is a fan of a man the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “one of America’s most prolific and vociferous anti-Muslim propagandists." Billman interviewed known anti-Muslim figure Robert Spencer in October on his YouTube channel. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Labour Muslims slam PM for rowing back on Lammy's Israel comments
The Labour Muslim Network, an organisation which promotes British Muslim engagement with the Labour Party, has slammed Prime Minister Keir Starmer for rowing back on Foreign Secretary David Lammy's statement on Monday that Israel was breaking international humanitarian law. Asked about the blockade and its consequences in parliament on Monday, Lammy said: "This is a breach of international law. Israel quite rightly must defend its own security. But we find the lack of aid – it's now been 15 days since aid got into Gaza – unacceptable, hugely alarming and very worrying." But Starmer's official spokesperson said on Tuesday afternoon that the UK government position remains that Israel's actions in Gaza are "at clear risk" of a breach. The Labour Muslim Network (LMN) told Middle East Eye the move was "shocking" and "disgraceful". "The horrific and barbaric attacks by Israel on innocent civilians overnight in Gaza are yet another flagrant disregard of international and humanitarian law," a spokesperson for the group said. "No British government with a conscience should continue to call Israel an ally or continue any form of military or economic relationship with an Israeli government that consistently and willfully disregards international law. "They added: "Foreign Secretary David Lammy was right to call the blockade of goods a breach of international law in the House of Commons. Attempts to row back and retract this assertion since are as shocking as they are disgraceful." read the complete article
International
How killing in Gaza enables attacks in Gloucester
A rise in Islamophobic street violence in Britain can be explained by locating it within a global racial architecture, which gives permission for Muslim people to be injured or killed, researcher of anti-Muslim racism, Dr Amina Shareef, explains. UK-based watchdog, Tell Mama, reported a 73% rise in Islamophobia last year, attributing the increase to the normalisation of Islamophobic rhetoric in political discourse, along with the spread of far-right conspiracies like the “Great Replacement” theory. Shareef says that whilst this is not untrue, it is an inadequate explanation as it doesn’t factor in the worldwise dimensions of anti-Muslim racism. Thus, to fully understand the 73% rise, it must be reinterpreted through a transnational perspective of anti-Muslim death-dealing. Shareef explains, “as the world views Muslims as a threat to be eliminated, they face rising violence on British streets”. “Only when we recognise this transnational dimension can we begin to explain the rise of anti-Muslim UK street violence”, Shareef says, “death in one context authorises death in another. Death in Gaza gives permission to kill and injure in Gloucester”. And unless we take a transnational perspective of anti-Muslim death-dealing into account, our explanations for the rise in anti-Muslim racial violence on the streets, across national contexts, will appear oblivious to the global architecture of Muslim death that sustains and reinforces this very violence. read the complete article
India
Curfew in India city after violence over Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's tomb
A curfew has been imposed in parts of a city in India's western state of Maharashtra after Hindu groups demanded the removal of the tomb of Aurangzeb, a 17th-Century Mughal emperor, sparking violence on Monday night. Vehicles were set on fire and stones were thrown in the Mahal area of Nagpur city. Police say the situation is now under control and are appealing to people to keep the peace. The tomb of Aurangzeb, who died more than 300 years ago, has in recent years become a political flashpoint amid growing calls for its removal by hardline Hindu groups. It is located about 500km (311 miles) from Nagpur in the state's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, which was earlier called Aurangabad after the emperor. Monday's violence broke out after two Hindu organisations, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, burnt the emperor's effigy and chanted slogans demanding the removal of his tomb, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the state assembly. read the complete article
Australia
The terrifying new reality faced by Muslim Australians
New research has highlighted the rising hatred directed towards Australia’s Muslim community, bubbling under the surface for over a decade. Founded in 2014 during a period characterised by global fear and suspicion of Muslim communities, the Islamophobia Register Australia catalogues, maps, reports and analyses instances of Islamophobia in Australia. The register focuses on both ‘online’ and ‘off-line’ instances of hate directed towards Muslims, and this year the numbers have risen. Between January 2023 and November 2024, the register catalogued 309 confirmed in-person, or off-line reports of Islamophobia - more than double previous highest number. The Register also recorded 366 verified online instances of Islamophobia. Head of CSU’s Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation, Professor Mehmet Ozalp, believes the report is “not just statistics,” but that it represents “real lives impacted by fear, violence and systemic discrimination”. “There is a growing sentiment within the Australian Muslim community that Islamophobia is not treated with the same urgency or seriousness as other forms of prejudice and discrimination,” he said. “That disparity exacerbates the harm caused by Islamophobia, fostering a sense among Muslims that their experiences and rights are undervalued.” read the complete article
France
French PM convenes Cabinet members after ministers spar over banning hijabs in sports
French Prime Minister François Bayrou convened key Cabinet members on Tuesday after divisions among ministers over banning athletes from wearing hijabs during sporting events spilled into public view. “There’s only one line within the government … no visible religious symbols should be worn in sports competitions,” French Minister for Gender Equality Aurore Bergé said in parliament after the meeting, seemingly settling the government’s position. Earlier this year, the French Senate voted in favor of a proposal to ban “symbols or clothing ostensibly displaying a political or religious affiliation” in sports due to their educational role in “teaching cooperation and respect for common rules.” The proposal — which received the government’s support — argued that the ban was necessary to uphold France’s model of a colorblind, secular republic. Though it passed in the Senate, the proposal must also be voted by the French lower house, the National Assembly. Last week, French Sports Minister Marie Barsacq appeared to downplay the government’s plans to push for legislation on the issue, saying that banning religious symbols in amateur sporting competitions in France was “not a priority.” Education Minister Élisabeth Borne, a former prime minister, said that it “was also up” to each individual sporting federation to determine its position on displaying religious symbols. The French football, basketball, and volleyball federations, for example, have already imposed religious neutrality in the competitions they organize. Barsacq and Borne’s positions were met with staunch pushback from Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, who went as far as accusing the sports minister of being “naïve.” He even threatened to resign in an interview with Le Parisien shortly before the meeting with Bayrou. read the complete article