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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, a Berkeley, California business was vandalized with anti-Muslim graffiti on Saturday, the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, while a jury in the state of Illinois has convicted a man of murder and hate crime charges for the October 2023 stabbing death of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy, and in the United Kingdom, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has launched a new working group and has appointed former Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve with the task of developing a new official state definition of Islamophobia. Our recommended read of the day is by Mansoor Adayfi for Al Jazeera who writes on behalf of 16 former Guantánamo Bay prisoners who are now signatories of a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump condemning the detainment and imprisonment of undocumented migrants within the facility. This and more below:
United States
An open letter to Trump from former Guantanamo prisoners | Recommended Read
We, the undersigned former Guantanamo prisoners, strongly condemn US President Donald Trump’s executive order to expand detention facilities for undocumented people at Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo is not just a prison – it is a place where law is warped, dignity is stripped, and suffering is hidden behind barbed wire. We lived it. We know the clang of metal doors, the weight of shackles, and the silence of a world that looked away. We know what it means to be caged without charge, without trial, without hope. Now, the same system that stole years from our lives is expanding to imprison migrants, people seeking safety only to be sent to a place that exists outside the law designed to strip them of their rights. Guantanamo does not just allow abuse; it ensures cruelty. This executive order does not just enable injustice; it guarantees it. Detaining migrants at Guantanamo denies them constitutional protections, trapping them in the same legal limbo we endured. This deliberate ambiguity enables abuse, just as it did with us. We know firsthand what happens when a system is designed to break people. This is not about security; it is about power, control, and using Guantanamo’s darkness to conceal yet another injustice. This decision is a direct result of the impunity the US has enjoyed for the crimes committed at Guantanamo. The failure to close the prison and reckon with its legacy has not only allowed these injustices to continue but has now enabled their expansion. Guantanamo should have been shut down long ago; instead, it is being revived for new victims. read the complete article
Berkeley business defaced with anti-Muslim graffiti on first day of Ramadan
A Berkeley business was vandalized with anti-Muslim graffiti Saturday, the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, according to its owner. Negeene Mosaed told the Chronicle that vandals wrote “F— Islam” on the windows of her clinic, Berkeley Community Physical Therapy, on University Avenue near Martin Luther King Jr. Way. She said she reported the incident to Berkeley police. A spokesperson from the police department did not immediately respond to requests for more information. Mosaed said this wasn’t the first time her business, which has been in Berkeley for more than 40 years, was defaced. Posters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on the clinic’s windows have been defaced three times since the Israel-Hamas war began in 2023, she said. Anti-Muslim incidents in the U.S. reached a record high in 2023 after the Israel-Gaza war began on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Council of American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization. “I believe that I’m being targeted and that this is a hate crime,” said Mosaed, who is Iranian American and Muslim. She called on Berkeley elected officials to “stand against hate” and Islamophobia and said she hopes anti-Muslim incidents are given the same attention as antisemitism and other hate-related crimes. read the complete article
US man convicted in hate crime murder of Palestinian American boy
A jury in the US state of Illinois has convicted a man of murder and hate crime charges for the October 2023 stabbing death of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy. Joseph Czuba, 73, who was found guilty on Friday, faces life in prison when he is sentenced in May for a murder that prosecutors said was prompted by anti-Muslim hatred, and also left the boy’s mother critically injured, as stated in court records. The murder of the boy, Wadee Alfayoumi, and the attack on his mother, Hanan Shaheen, was one of the earliest and worst hate crime incidents in the US since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza. Czuba, who was the landlord for Shaheen and her son, stabbed the boy 26 times using a military-style knife with a 7-inch (18-cm) serrated blade, authorities said. Shaheen suffered multiple stab wounds in the attack that occurred in Plainfield Township, about 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Chicago. During the trial this week, Shaheen testified that Czuba told her, “You, as a Muslim, must die.” The case generated headlines around the world and deeply struck the Chicago area’s large and established Palestinian community.“All of us who are parents, who are Arab or Palestinian … who are Muslim, we all saw our children die in Wadee Alfayoumi, because this could have been any one of our boys, any one of our girls,” Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-Chicago’s Ahmed Rehab said, according to The Associated Press news agency. read the complete article
Trump wants to deport some foreign students. These activists want to help
President Donald Trump signed executive orders in January targeting foreigners who espoused hateful ideology and antisemitism, specifically international students involved in university pro-Palestinian protests. For activist groups ranging from Mothers Against College Antisemitism and the Chicago Jewish Alliance to the U.S. wings of Zionist organization Betar and the Shirion Collective surveillance network, the orders provided what they said was a long-awaited tool to help quash antisemitism on college campuses. Betar, labelled an extremist group by the Anti-Defamation League Jewish advocacy group, went further, saying it provided names of international students and faculty to the Trump administration for deportation. Betar did not provide evidence of such a list, but spokesperson Daniel Levy said of the promised deportations , opens new tab, "We are pleased this process has now begun." The orders have not yet had the impact of Trump's first-term travel ban when nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries were barred from the U.S., sparking chaos at airports before a federal court ruled it unconstitutional. But civil rights lawyers said the orders may violate constitutional rights to free speech, while Arab American groups have said they are prepared to challenge the policy in court. read the complete article
Local Pro-Israel Policies in Miami Beach Helped Normalize Zionist Vigilantism
Police alleged that on February 15, 2025, Jewish resident Mordechai Brafman shot two men, father and son Yaron and Ari Rabi. Brafman was driving south on Pine Tree Drive, minutes away from the heart of Miami Beach’s Jewish community at 41st Street. The police report stated that Brafman, unprovoked, made a U-turn before exiting his car and firing 17 times at the victims’ vehicle. According to police, in the interview room Brafman “stated that while he was driving his truck, he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both.” In actuality, Brafman seriously injured the two men who were in fact Israeli Jewish tourists. Police claim Brafman and his victims did not know each other. Given his alleged statement to police, the Florida chapter of the Council of Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) called for Brafman to be charged with federal hate crime charges. On February 24, Miami-Dade County prosecutors added a hate crime enhancement to Brafman’s charges. Brafman’s arraignment will take place on March 10. You might find it hard to believe that a Jewish vigilante shot two Israeli Jews he believed were Palestinian. But to Israelis, headlines of Zionists targeting Palestinians but mistakenly attacking Jews are quite familiar. The February 15 shooting is traceable to a longer history of systemic anti-Arab racism in Israel. Anti-Arab racism in Israel has not limited itself to Christian or Muslim victims. As far back as 1988, the scholar Ella Shohat published an essay on Israeli discrimination against Arab Jews, or Jews from the Arabic-speaking world. Her essay noted that, “‘the Semitic’ physiognomies of the [Arab Jews] led to situations in which they were mistaken for Palestinians and therefore arrested or beaten.” It might seem unlikely that the alleged shooter was unfamiliar with Arab Jews and the possibility that his alleged victims were Jewish. Arab Jewish life is quite prevalent in Miami Beach. The city is home to several synagogues catering to Arab Jewish congregants, it hosts Israeli restaurants serving food associated with Arab Jews, and a nearby Israeli radio station often plays Arab Jewish artists. But the visibility of Arab Jewish culture does not prevent Zionist vigilantism. In fact, it’s a liability. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Ex-Tory MP to lead review of Islamophobia definition
The government has appointed former Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve to lead a review into creating a new definition of Islamophobia. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner launched a new working group tasked with understanding and defining hate crime targeted against Muslims. Labour had promised a new definition, after the last Tory government rejected a cross-party proposal in 2019. Critics warned the current definition is too broad and could curb free speech. Grieve, who served as Tory MP from 1997 to 2019, said he hoped the review would "help support positive change in our country". Grieve said: "We know Islamophobia is as challenging to define as its existence is undoubted. "We need to balance addressing the lived experience of those who are victims of it and the right of British Muslims to feel heard and protected as equal citizens of our country, with the unwavering requirement to maintain freedom of thought and expression under law for all. read the complete article
Tories warn against endorsing Islamophobia definition as review group launched
Work to create an official definition of Islamophobia would risk “a chilling effect on free speech”, the Conservatives have warned. Ministers have launched a “working group” aimed at forming an official definition of what is meant by Islamophobia or anti-Muslim hatred within six months. The group has been created as incidents of hate crime in England and Wales aimed at Muslims is at an all time high, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government. The working group will be chaired by former Conservative minister Dominic Grieve KC. But the Conservatives have claimed using the phrase Islamophobia carries a risk to free speech, and have urged the Government to focus on the phrase anti-Muslim hatred instead. Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow communities secretary, said: “The ‘Islamophobia’ definition risks creating a chilling effect on free speech, legitimate and lawful debate and hindering criticism of Islamist extremism. “‘Anti-Muslim hatred’ is a more appropriate term as it reflects existing UK hate crime legislation." Tory frontbenchers have previously claimed endorsing the definition of Islamophobia agreed by an all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims would create a “blasphemy law” by the backdoor. read the complete article
White supremacist beliefs predict discrimination but not implicit bias towards perceived Arab Middle Eastern Muslim men
In recent decades, prejudices against Arab/Middle Eastern Muslim individuals have risen alongside surging white supremacist hate speech and violence. Perpetrators often subscribe to white supremacist ideology, which overtly supports hate against Arab/Middle Eastern Muslim individuals and attracts followers worldwide. However, research exploring biases against Arab/Middle Eastern Muslim individuals remains limited, leaving gaps in understanding these prejudices and the potential role of white supremacist beliefs. In a pre-registered study involving White non-Hispanic Americans varying in white supremacist beliefs, we examined if these beliefs influenced spontaneous evaluations and hiring bias towards perceived Arab/Middle Eastern Muslim and non-Muslim White men. Results showed negative spontaneous evaluations of perceived Arab/Middle Eastern compared to White men, regardless of white supremacist beliefs. However, those endorsing such beliefs exhibited more explicit hiring biases against Arab/Middle Eastern men, even after accounting for spontaneous evaluations. Thus, while white supremacist beliefs may not heighten implicit biases, they predict explicit biases against perceived Arab/Middle Eastern Muslim individuals. read the complete article
International
Israeli-Palestinian film No Other Land wins Oscar for best documentary
No Other Land, a film about Palestinians fighting to protect their homes from demolition by Israel’s military, has won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. The film, produced between 2019 and 2023, follows activist Basel Adra as he risks arrest to document the destruction of his hometown, Masafer Yatta, which Israeli soldiers are tearing down to use as a military training zone, at the southern edge of the West Bank. Adra’s pleas fall on deaf ears until he befriends a Jewish-Israeli journalist, Yuval Abraham, who helps him amplify his story. Accepting the award, Adra said No Other Land reflects the harsh reality Palestinians have been enduring for decades. “About two months ago, I became a father, and my hope to my daughter that she will not have to live the same life I’m living now, always fearing settlers, violence, home demolitions and forcible displacements that my community is living and tasting every day under Israeli occupation,” said Adra. He also called on the world to “take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people”. Abraham criticised the Israeli regime that destroys Adra’s life, and said there is a different path, a “political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people”. But the United States’ foreign policy is helping block that path, he said. read the complete article
Australia
Two years of inaction: Will the Albanese Government’s Special Envoy address Islamophobia?
Will the appointment of a special envoy to combat Islamophobia address the Albanese government’s failure to address the rising rates of Islamophobia in Australia? Since Israel’s forceful invasion of Gaza on 7 October 2023, the number of Islamophobic incidents has skyrocketed. In 2023 during the peak of the Israeli attacks in Gaza, the Islamophobia Register reported over 363 Islamophic incidents in just 3 months. In 2024 alone there were over 932 incidents reported, almost doubling 2023 recorded incidents. To tackle this ongoing epidemic of Islamophobia, the Albanese government proposed a special envoy to address the concerns of the Muslim community in aiding the decrease of hate crimes towards Muslims. However, since the appointment of Mr Aftab Malik, a recognised global expert on Muslim Affairs by the UN Alliance of Civilisations, Islamophobia continues to grow and hate continues to flourish. The Government introduced a special envoy to allow members of the Muslim community to communicate and raise their concerns regarding Islamophobia and religious discrimination. Mr Malik will act as a mediator between the people and the Government voicing the concerns of the community and facilitating change. Over 2 years of inaction against the fight to tackle rising Islamophobia rates by the Albanese Government is an appalling effort. The Albanese Government has failed to address the concerns and safety of the Muslim communities in Australia. read the complete article