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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s closest allies in Muslim organizing have emerged as key parts of NYC’s political framework, meanwhile in the United Kingdom, Kemi Badenoch defended her argument that pro-Palestine marches should be banned alleging they platform antisemitism, but that marches organized by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson should be allowed, and in India, for the first time in its 46-year history, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won the state of West Bengal. Our recommended read of the day is by Nausheena Hussain and Young-Joo Lee for The Conversation about their latest research, which finds that Muslim women-led nonprofits remain active in advocacy work despite 72% of leaders reporting experiences of Islamophobia. This and more below:
United States
Muslim women‑led nonprofits are engaging in advocacy despite facing a surge in Islamophobia | Recommended Read
Nonprofits led by Muslim women remain extensively engaged in a wide range of civic activities, even though 72% say they have experienced Islamophobia in their work. That’s one of the main findings of the study that we conducted together. It is the basis of the applied research project – a type of dissertation – that one of us (Hussain) completed for her professional doctorate in philanthropic leadership. It will be posted online in mid-2026 to Indiana University’s scholarship repository. We surveyed 292 Muslim women who lead nonprofits across the U.S. We connected with these organizations through national networks, including the Muslim Women Leadership Circle and Islamic Schools League of America. We interviewed people who lived in 18 states; the largest numbers of respondents were in California, New York, Florida and Texas. About 19% of the nonprofits these women lead focus on religious and cultural programming. Another 17% are centered on education, while 16% focus on direct social services, such as family support and crisis intervention. The other most common issues the nonprofits address include gender, healthcare, mental health, civil rights, anti-racism efforts, housing and environmental protection. read the complete article
With Mamdani’s Rise, Muslim Democrats Become Power Players
More than a decade before their organizing in mosques and Muslim communities helped create an untapped groundswell of support for Zohran Mamdani’s run for mayor of New York City, a network of Muslim leaders rallied behind another cause: making Eid, among the most jubilant and holy days in Islam, a school-sanctioned holiday. It would take nearly a decade and two mayoral administrations before the effort paid off, making New York one of the first major cities to put Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha on the city’s public school calendar — a victory for the city’s Muslim communities and especially the Muslim Democratic Club, whose leaders were widely credited for the behind-the-scenes groundwork and persuasion that made it possible. Now, as Mr. Mamdani begins his fifth month as mayor, his closest allies in Muslim organizing have emerged as key parts of the city’s political framework. Founding members of the Muslim Democratic Club now lead citywide offices and top advisory committees; other Muslim political veterans fill high-ranking posts at City Hall, like the Office of Management and Budget and the city’s chief counsel. More candidates have sought the Muslim club’s endorsement for the 2026 primaries than in past election cycles; mosques and Muslim community centers, once largely skipped, have become must-stops for candidates, as more Muslim groups move to organize. read the complete article
Professor’s speech praising pro-Palestinian students sparks backlash at University of Michigan
The University of Michigan has issued a formal apology after a history professor lauded pro-Palestinian student protesters in a commencement speech over the weekend. The remarks — and the ensuing apology — have set off cascading recriminations, with pro-Israel advocates calling to slash the school’s funding as others accuse university officials of bowing to political and donor pressure. In a speech on Saturday at the universitywide commencement ceremony, Derek R. Peterson, a professor of East African history and outgoing chair of the faculty senate, credited “pro-Palestinian student activists who have over these past two years opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel’s war in Gaza.” The comments followed Peterson’s praise for Moritz Levi, the first Jewish professor at the University of Michigan, among others who he said had advanced causes of justice through the school’s history. read the complete article
Five Ways The War on Terror Empowered The ICE Assault
OVER THE WEEKEND, Jose Oliveres revealed in The Guardian that ICE has contracted with a security firm called MVM to hunt for undocumented people who entered the United States as unaccompanied children. "ICE says it wants to confirm the children’s location, school enrollment and overall wellness, including checking for signs of abuse or trafficking, according to the contracting document," Oliveres reported. If you're thinking to yourself that MVM sounds familiar, perhaps you're remembering its earlier incarnation from the War on Terror. Back then, it provided force protection for CIA and NSA officers in Iraq. In 2018, I reported on an earlier ICE contract with MVM, this one to ferry unaccompanied migrant children across the ICE network of warehoused-sized cages. They did so "using unmarked vehicles, commercial airlines, and makeshift detention centers," according to a recent lawsuit Jose reports on. That lawsuit, which is ongoing, was brought by two Guatemalan fathers who allege MVM complicity in "torture, enforced disappearance and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment." If only there had been warning signs about the company's willingness to do the dirty work of empire. The MVM contract is one example among many—seriously, someone should write a book—of the heritage of the War on Terror manifesting within the operations of ICE, an institution that war literally created. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Do immigrant candidates get the immigrant vote?
Understanding immigrant voting patterns is something all political parties are keen to do, and as we head into local elections this Thursday 7 May, party strategists from all sides will be fiercely courting any groups they think they can swing – the bad news for most of them is that “immigrants” don’t vote in predictable ways, and – surprisingly – they don’t even vote for each other. This may seem like a pretty wild assertion when it is evident that in some locations the elected representatives are members of dominant local ethnic and minority communities, but new research indicates that immigrant voters are often more sceptical about immigrant politicians than they are about non-immigrant politicians. One extraordinary pair of political bedfellows in recent times is the Green Party and the UK’s Muslim population – as evidenced in the recent Gorton and Denton byelection, where the Greens’ unequivocal support on the issue of Gaza appears to have swung support of Muslim communities despite the party’s other positions on issues such as gay rights that may not be generally supported among religious Muslims. The Muslim vote is a topic that generates much interest - with wild assertions of voting for both the extreme Right and Left, and common assumptions that Muslims prefer to vote for Muslim politicians. Research actually shows that in-group voting amongst Muslim voters is highly context dependent. read the complete article
Badenoch defends seeking a ban on pro-Palestine marches but not Tommy Robinson ones – as it happened
Kemi Badenoch also used her Today interview to defend her argument that pro-Palestine marches should be banned because they platform antisemitism, but that marches organised by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson should be allowed. When it was put to Badenoch that the Robinson marches were a platform for anti-Muslim hate, Badenoch said that the marches were “different”, and that two Jewish men were killed at Heaton Park synagogue last year and that another two Jewish men were almost killed in Golders Green last week. When it was put to her that Muslims might feel threatened by some of the things said at a Robinson event, she insisted that the two sorts of marches were “not the same”. read the complete article
Palestinian ambassador protests to Foreign Office over ’erasure’ by British Museum
The Palestinian ambassador to the UK has called for Foreign Office intervention after the British Museum removed references to Palestine from its exhibits. The UK recognised the state of Palestine in September 2025, but the same year the museum removed the name “Palestine” from a panel listing the present-day countries encompassed by the ancient Levant, and replaced it with Gaza and the West Bank. The ambassador, Husam Zomlot, has demanded its restoration, and called for discussions with the museum over the removal of “Palestine” and “Palestinian” from the explanatory panels of a number of exhibits in the ancient Levant and Egyptian rooms. Zomlot said it was a historical “erasure” at a time when Israel was conducting a campaign of destruction against Palestinians that several human rights organisations and a report by a UN independent commission have deemed is a genocide. read the complete article
Reform Watch: New report reveals extreme views of Reform’s local election candidates
A string of Reform UK candidates for this week’s local elections have made violent, Islamaphobic, racist and antisemitic comments, according to a recently-released dossier. As part of its local election campaign, the Labour Party released a report identifying Reform UK candidates “with views that are extreme, bizarre and offensive”. From supporting fascism and outright racism to anti-NHS sentiment, Reform Revealed: The People Behind Reform contains information on 45 candidates, including two who were covered by The Lead’s correspondents in Southport and Lancashire. At least 16 candidates had shared conspiracy theories, 12 had made Islamophobic comments, 10 supported fascist and far-right agitators like Tommy Robinson and Britain First’s Paul Golding, four expressed or endorsed homophobic and sexist views, three were antisemitic, and two posted pro-Russian propaganda. read the complete article
The Muslim Vote: Democratic threat or Islamophobic myth? | On the Ground
Politicians and pundits in the UK are fuelling a moral panic around “the Muslim vote." Once seen as a reliable base for the Labour Party, the Muslim community’s growing support for independent candidates and the Green Party is now being framed as a threat to democracy. As the country heads towards the local elections, Taj Ali investigates whether a singular “Muslim vote” exists, and examines how these divisive narratives around sectarian politics are shaping public debate and impacting communities across Britain. read the complete article
The Muslim victim who wasn't there: Golders Green and the 'ghost logic' of Islamophobia
"As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. I wish, I wish he’d go away." Scholars David Tyrer and Salman Sayyid open their 2012 essay on race and Islamophobia with this nursery rhyme about a haunting. Reading the British media coverage of the Golders Green stabbings, it is impossible not to think of it again. Last Wednesday, a man named Essa Suleiman, a British national reportedly discharged from a psychiatric hospital days earlier, was accused of stabbing three people in London. The first victim was Ishmail Hussein, a Muslim man who appears to have been an acquaintance of the alleged attacker. Then two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green: Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76. All three were allegedly victims of the same man, on the same day, in the same city. You would not know this from the coverage that followed. The Metropolitan Police’s official post on X (formerly Twitter) made no mention of Hussein. Media outlets including SkyNews, Channel 5, Reuters and the BBC reported Suleiman’s court appearance as being for the attempted murder of two Jewish men. Some observers took to social media to ask why police hadn’t mentioned the third Muslim victim. A fair question; nobody in authority rushed to answer it. read the complete article
India
How A Maharashtra Police Covert Op On India’s Largest Software Company Created Islamophobia
A police covert operation in Maharashtra led to accusations that a group of Muslim IT employees were part of a systematic effort to pressure Hindu colleagues to convert to Islam. National media quickly amplified these claims, claiming links to wider networks and foreign funding. A fact-finding report found that not a single person had been converted. The case illuminates the state of the police, the mainstream media, and the political common sense that now frames how cases involving Muslims are interpreted in public life. read the complete article
What Modi’s big win in Indian state elections could mean for its democracy
For the first time in its 46-year history, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won the state of West Bengal, arguably the Hindu nationalist party’s most consequential victory since 2014, the year Modi first came to power. Although annulled in 1911, the partition of Bengal catalysed a new political consciousness in the region that took various forms during the anticolonial movement, producing national figures of all hues, including several Hindu nationalist ideologues, the most prominent of them being Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, founder of the BJP’s precursor, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. Addressing his party workers on Monday night, Modi said the West Bengal win “would bring peace to his [Mukherjee’s] soul”. West Bengal is home to nearly 100 million people, 27 percent of them Muslims. The BJP, riding on a combination of anti-incumbency sentiment against Banerjee and its own tried-and-tested anti-Muslim rhetoric, won a stunning 207 seats, reducing the TMC to 80 legislators in the 294-member assembly – a remarkable rise for a party that until a decade ago had just three seats. According to political commentator Yogendra Yadav, the deletion of 2.7 million votes amounts to 4.3 percent of votes cast in West Bengal, in an election where the BJP’s lead over the TMC was about 5 percent. read the complete article