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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Australia, Muslims across the country are demanding stronger measures against anti-Muslim sentiment following threats targeting the community, meanwhile in India, a hard-line Hindu group’s call for the removal of the tomb of a 17th-century Mughal ruler has ignited tensions with Muslims in the western state of Maharashtra, leading to communal violence and the imposition of a curfew, and in Canada, the country’s largest Muslim organization is outraged over a bill introduced by the Quebec government (Bill 94) that would ban headscarves for school support staff and students. Our recommended read of the day is by Aleja Hertzler-McCain for RNS on the efforts by the wider Georgetown University academic community to petition for the immediate release of Dr. Badar Khan Suri, who according to the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) has “committed no crime” and that his detention is an “authoritarian weaponization of the legal system to attack political speech”. This and more below
United States
Georgetown faculty call for solidarity after postdoc Badar Khan Suri's detention | Recommended Read
The faculty at Georgetown University’s center for Muslim-Christian understanding is protesting the detention of Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow who has been detained by federal immigration authorities, calling his arrest and relocation to Louisiana an “authoritarian weaponization of the legal system to attack political speech that is protected by the First Amendment.” “Dr. Khan Suri has committed no crime,” said a statement from the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, founded in 1993 by Georgetown professor John L. Esposito. “Like Mahmoud Khalil, he was arrested in the context of a campaign by the Trump Administration to destroy higher education in the United States and punish their political opponents,” the statement said, referring to the Columbia University graduate student who was detained in New York earlier this month. According to Politico, which first reported Khan Suri’s detention, Khan Suri’s lawyer has filed a lawsuit asking for his immediate release and argued that Khan Suri is being punished for the Palestinian heritage of his U.S. citizen wife, Mapheze Saleh. Saleh and her studies at Georgetown’s Master of Arts in Arab Studies program have been targets of an online campaign by conservative and pro-Israel groups for several weeks, including the Middle East Forum, a think tank founded by anti-Islam activist Daniel Pipes, and an early February post by the Israeli Embassy in Washington. read the complete article
Georgetown researcher arrest escalates Trump speech crackdown, scholars say
Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown University, has been a vocal critic of efforts to silence pro-Palestine protesters and academics amid Israel’s war in Gaza. Those efforts reached new heights under the administration of President Donald Trump, which last week took the extraordinary measure of detaining and seeking to deport Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident married to a US citizen. Then, immigration authorities came for one of Hashemi’s own students. Earlier this week, agents detained Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which Hashemi directs. “It’s shocking, and it sort of confirms our worst fears that authoritarian repression on American universities is expanding under the Trump administration,” said Hashemi. Civil liberties groups and rights observers have decried — and challenged — Khalil’s attempted deportation, which Hashemi and other observers describe as an extension of the anti-Palestinian bias in the US government. Hashemi and his colleagues see the targeting of Suri, who is in the US on a student visa, as going a step further, given that he was detained not for public protests but for his alleged personal views. Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown who focuses on Palestinian-Israel affairs, said the Trump administration’s enforcement efforts appear to be entering “a different realm with this case”, extending beyond student visa holders and US residents sanctioned for their protest activity. “This person seems to have been targeted, not for his activism,” he said, “but simply for being suspected of holding certain views.” read the complete article
International
The rise and rise of hatred: Racism, Anti-Muslim sentiment surges in Europe
As divisive, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim policies gain traction globally, European countries have also seen a surge in racist incidents in recent years. Anadolu compiled data on racial attacks and rhetoric across Europe ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Friday. While racist attacks have increased in France and the UK, political rhetoric in the Netherlands and Bosnia and Herzegovina risks fuelling anti-Muslim discrimination. According to a report by France’s Interior Ministry Statistics Service, 16,000 racist, xenophobic, and anti-religious crimes were seen in 2024, up 11 percent from 2023. Of these, 9,400 were classified as high or medium-level offences. The majority of victims were men aged 25 to 54, often of African descent. The report also noted that racist crime rates in Paris were three to four times higher than in the rest of the country. Attacks targeting Muslims have also risen. Last year, a disabled Muslim woman was assaulted outside a shopping mall, and racist graffiti continued to appear on mosque walls. Over 1,000 people were attacked in the UK for being Muslim. read the complete article
EU Islamophobia chief warns about normalization of anti-Muslim hatred in Europe
The European Commission's coordinator on combating anti-Muslim hatred told Anadolu that Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip have contributed to the rise of Islamophobia in Europe in recent years and warned against normalization of anti-Muslim hatred in Europe. “Anti-Muslim hatred and other forms of racism and discrimination are unfortunately being normalized in discourse which may give a sense of impunity to hateful actors,” Marion Lalisse said in an email. “The polarized environment that we face, especially since 7 October, has had concrete consequences on the levels of hatred affecting several groups in society, including Muslims and Jews and people perceived as such,” she said. Lalisse noted that stereotypes affecting Muslims evolved after Oct. 7. “As in the aftermath of previous major terrorist attacks committed by Muslim actors, we can observe increases of anti-Muslim hatred, due in part to the conflation of Islam and Muslims with terrorism or extremism in the mind of some. It should be recalled that anti-Muslim hatred affects individuals, regardless of their actual faith or absence thereof. It is important to work on rebuilding and strengthening bridges between communities and citizens,” said Lalisse. Lalisse said since taking office Feb. 1, 2023, she has been advocating for a recognition of anti-Muslim hatred, more evidence-based policy and a great raising of awareness. read the complete article
'Terrorists eliminated’: The Israeli media coverage of Palestinian children killed
On one of the deadliest days in Gaza since the Israeli war began in 2023, air strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on Tuesday, including more than 180 children and 90 women, in a matter of hours. The attacks, which violated the ceasefire agreement, were carried out during the holy month of Ramadan. They were covered differently in Israeli media compared with the rest of the world. Avi Ashkenazi, a military correspondent for the right-wing Maariv newspaper, wrote that "Israel wanted to hit as many Hamas members as possible in the first strike of the attack". He added that the Muslim fasting month "helped to carry out the mission". Aside from the military perspective reported in Israeli media, the attack and its bloody results were covered without reference to the number of children killed. In some cases, all those killed were labelled as terrorists. Three senior Israeli military correspondents reported the bombing similarly, saying the army targeted "mid-level and senior Hamas commanders and officials". Orly Noy, a journalist from Israeli news site Local Call, told Middle East Eye that the biased Israeli coverage of the attacks is part of a broader phenomenon. "The Israeli media has invented alternative jargon to describe Palestinian resistance actions," Noy said. "For the Israeli media, there is no difference between attacking soldiers and attacking civilians." According to Noy, this terminology has expanded during the war. "The Israeli media has adopted the claim that there are no innocents in Gaza." According to Noy, the absence of Palestinian children killed in the media or their labelling as terrorists can be attributed to another reason. "The more Palestinians Israel annihilate, the more dehumanisation needs to be done to the Palestinians, because if this is not done, Israel will have to deal with the horrors it committed in Gaza." Noy continued: "The media cannot afford to portray the Palestinians as humane, otherwise the war will not be able to continue. The Israeli media is acting in the spirit of Communications Minister Shlomo Karei's legislation, which prohibits harming the morale of the people." read the complete article
India
INTERVIEW | Ignorance about historical Aurangzeb, anti-Muslim hate undergird calls to destroy his tomb: Audrey Truschke
Calls for the demolition of the seventeenth-century Mughal ruler's tomb by Hindu extremist groups Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad instigated communal violence in Maharashtra's Nagpur, roughly 490 kilometres from Kuldabad, causing massive destruction and alleged arbitrary police action against Muslims. These groups had earlier given an ultimatum to the state government threatening that the tomb would meet a "Babri Masjid-like" fate and "karsevaks" would take charge. However, in actuality, no tomb exists at Kuldabad for the "karsevaks" to demolish. The controversial king's grave lies within the courtyard of the shrine of a Sufi saint, faintly raising eyebrows against claims of him being an "orthodox Muslim." Aurangzeb, the longest reigning Mughal emperor who ruled over one of the largest empires in Indian history, has been a controversial figure and can be easily tagged as the "most hated" of Indian rulers. Such complex power dynamics, which according to historians shaped pre-modern India, find no mention in the Hindu right-wing's obsession with Hindu-Muslim binaries and blatant hatred towards Aurangzeb. Swaying away from usual demonic representations of Aurangzeb, eminent historian and professor at Rutgers University, Audrey Truschke, in her book titled Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King, had explored the life, politics and legacy of the much-loathed Indian ruler. The book opened new doors into understanding Aurangzeb, but was not received well In India with the Hindu right-wing unleashing a series of hate campaigns and targeted attacks against the author. read the complete article
Violence Flares as Hindu Group Calls for Removal of Muslim Ruler’s Tomb
A hard-line Hindu group’s call for the removal of the tomb of a 17th-century Mughal ruler has ignited tensions with Muslims in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, leading to communal violence and the imposition of a curfew. The violence, which occurred this week in the city of Nagpur, centered around the tomb of Aurangzeb, a Muslim emperor of India whom Hindu nationalists have vilified as a tyrant who brutalized Hindus. The clashes were contained by midweek, and the demand that the tomb be demolished has gone unheeded. But the flare-up showed how right-wing Hindus have seized on a long-ago history of Muslim rule of India to stoke grievances today against the country’s 200 million Muslims. Members of the Hindu group protested in front of a Shivaji statue in Nagpur on Monday afternoon and burned an effigy of the ruler wrapped in green cloth, a color that has spiritual significance in Islam, said Amit Bajpayee, a V.H.P. volunteer. Rumors that the cloth had verses from the Quran printed on it set off riots that evening, the police said. Mr. Bajpayee denied the rumors. read the complete article
Canada
Canadian Muslims outraged as Quebec moves to ban religious symbols at schools, including hijab
Canada's largest Muslim organisation is outraged over a bill introduced by the Quebec government that would ban headscarves for school support staff and students. Bill 94, tabled on Thursday, would cover not just teachers, as is now the case under the existing secularism law, but support staff, volunteers and students as well. The ban not only covers hijab, but also face covering, with the explanatory notes saying Muslim girls will "have their face uncovered when they are on the premises placed at the disposal of a school." The same rule applies to Muslim parents picking up their children from school. "In Quebec, we made the decision that state and the religion are separate," said Education Minister Bernard Drainville, CBC News reported. "And today, we say the public schools are separate from religion." But the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), who are challenging in the Supreme Court the original bill that forbids religious symbols being worn by teachers, say the new bill is another infringement on their rights and unfairly targets hijab-wearing Muslims. read the complete article
United Kingdom
UK anti-Muslim activist 'Tommy Robinson' challenges jail segregation
British anti-Muslim activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who counts U.S. billionaire Elon Musk among his supporters, on Thursday challenged a decision to hold him in segregation in prison, arguing it was because of his political beliefs. Yaxley-Lennon, known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, was jailed for 18 months last October after admitting contempt of court by breaching an injunction made after he was successfully sued for libel. He has been kept apart from other prisoners at Woodhill Prison in central England for more than 140 days since then because the governor said he was at risk of being attacked. The government said the prison had received intelligence that two inmates planned to assault him, and that he might be killed by another prisoner if moved elsewhere in the jail. "I believe this is politically motivated because of my activism and my beliefs," his lawyer Alisdair Williamson quoted Yaxley-Lennon as telling London's High Court. read the complete article
Australia
Australian Muslims receive disturbing threats, call for tougher action
Muslims in Australia are demanding stronger measures against anti-Muslim sentiment following threats targeting the community. The Lakemba Mosque in Sydney, New South Wales, shared a disturbing threat it received on TikTok. “Christchurch again, please,” a user named Wello commented under a post by the mosque, about the March 15, 2019, Christchurch attack when Brenton Tarrant, an Australian white supremacist, killed 51 victims and injured 40 others at the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in New Zealand. The Lakemba Mosque issued a statement that demanded immediate action against rising Islamophobia. “Over the past weeks, we have seen targeted attacks on mosques and Islamic schools across social media. Now, Lakemba Mosque has been directly threatened, with vile references to the Christchurch attack,” it said. The mosque emphasised the need for “stronger laws to recognise and criminalise anti-Muslim hate, media and politicians to stop fuelling division with misinformation, and Australians of all backgrounds standing up against Islamophobia” to ensure the safety of the Muslim community. read the complete article