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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United Kingdom, attacks on mosques in the country have soared in recent months, the government’s Islamophobia monitoring partner has said, with more than 40% of incidents featuring British or English flags and Christian nationalist symbols or slogans, meanwhile in Germany, the government banned the Muslim group Muslim Interaktiv, accusing it of violating human rights and the country’s democratic values, and conducted raids against two other Muslim groups across the country, and lastly in the United States, after Zohran Mamdani made history in becoming New York City’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor-elect, Republican detractors in Washington DC say they are working on a plan to “prevent him from taking office”. Our recommended read of the day is by Shaheen Kattiparambil for, who argues the importance of using the term, Islamophobia, to describe the systemic hatred experienced by Muslims, noting that “Islamophobia captures how Muslims are radicalised; imagined as a distinct and inferior civilizational category.” This and more
United Kingdom
Let's call it what it is: Islamophobia, not 'anti-Muslim hate' | Recommended Read
The British Labour Party has reportedly abandoned its 2019 definition of Islamophobia, opting instead for a new formulation centred on “anti-Muslim hate”. According to a report in the Telegraph, the revised wording, yet to be officially released by the government, omits all references to “Islamophobia”. The new draft, replacing the term “Islamophobia” with the alternative “anti-Muslim hatred”, makes a distinction that is not merely linguistic, but politically and globally consequential. Terminology determines whether discrimination is approached as an issue of individual prejudice, or as a manifestation of systemic, racialised power embedded in national and international structures. The term Islamophobia has grown out of decades of advocacy, scholarship and lived experience among Muslim communities. It names a reality that victims themselves recognise; a reality that connects their everyday encounters of suspicion, exclusion and violence to wider systems of power. The proposed shift would erase that recognition, denying Muslims the political language through which they have made their experiences visible and credible. In comparable cases, such as antisemitism and anti-Black racism, the importance of naming has long been accepted. These other terms are not routinely questioned, replaced or redefined by government committees. Indeed, shortly before his election as British prime minister, Keir Starmer had no qualms using the term “Hinduphobia” in addressing the concerns of the British Hindu community. To strip the term Islamophobia of legitimacy would be to treat Muslim suffering as somehow exceptional - as something still up for debate, rather than something the world already knows how to name. The term “anti-Muslim hatred” individualises what is in fact a structural and collective phenomenon. It frames hostility towards Muslims by limiting it to moral or psychological terms, as an expression of intolerance or bias that can be remedied through education or hate-crime interventions. Islamophobia captures how Muslims are racialised; imagined as a distinct and inferior civilisational category. This framing allows for the recognition of Islamophobia as a form of racialised governance, in which Muslims are managed, surveilled and disciplined through political, media and bureaucratic institutions. read the complete article
Flags and Christian nationalist slogans feature in soaring attacks on UK mosques
Attacks on mosques in the UK have soared in recent months, the government’s Islamophobia monitoring partner has said, with more than 40% of incidents featuring British or English flags and Christian nationalist symbols or slogans. In the past three months, a mosque was set alight in East Sussex; in Merseyside the windows of a mosque were shot with an air gun while children were inside; in Greater Manchester, a paving slab was thrown at a window; and in Glasgow, a window was smashed with a metal pole. Data compiled by the British Muslim Trust (BMT) shows that between July and October, 25 mosques across Britain were targeted in 27 attacks – more than a quarter of which were violent or destructive. Other incidents included graffiti and the affixing of crosses and flags. Three mosques were targeted repeatedly. The BMT said 40% of incidents included the use of British and English flags or symbols and slogans including “Christ is king” and “Jesus is king” in a Christian nationalist context, reflecting how the hard right had attempted to weaponise Christian symbolism and idioms. read the complete article
Labour pushed to allow Maccabi fans despite police warning on threat to Muslims
West Midlands Police determined Maccabi Tel Aviv fans posed a risk to Muslim communities in Birmingham in their assessment before banning the fans from a fixture on Thursday at Aston Villa, Middle East Eye can reveal. The ban triggered a political furore and was denounced as antisemitic last month by the British government. Now MEE can reveal new details about the police assessment behind the ban which raises fresh questions about the response of government ministers, who said they would work to ensure Maccabi fans could attend the game despite the police assessment. Documents seen by MEE show that police concluded that there was a "medium risk to local Muslim communities" and a "medium risk to pro-Palestine protestors", as well as a "high risk to away supporters", who were considered likely to provoke trouble. The police said some Maccabi fans "were associated with a history of racist behaviour towards players and fans, and a well documented and concerning history of disorder and violence at both home and away matches" The police said they had engaged with communities across Birmingham, including Jewish and Muslim communities, football fans and other local residents. They noted that all groups expressed a fear of "attacks upon their communities and property", as well as the potential impact on community cohesion in Birmingham. read the complete article
The rise of Christian nationalism in Britain
Bishop Ceirion Dewar rejects the Church of England as heretics. Instead, he gathers his flock under a gloomy sky on a beach in Cornwall. More than 20 people answered the call he made on social media - one wears a T-shirt saying Jesus is King. Another wears a Union Jack anorak with a T-shirt emblazoned "UTK" - Unite the Kingdom - the movement organised by anti-Islam campaigner Tommy Robinson. Critics call Dewar "the far-right bishop" - a label he rejects. But he does represent a new type of Christianity - more militant, more political - and one that is on the rise. Several of those here came because they saw Dewar preaching fire and brimstone at Robinson's Unite the Kingdom march on 13 September. Dewar's appeal is not just religious - online he decries immigration and the influence of Islam, a message that "chimed". "We are a Christian culture, a Christian nation. And I do feel like we have lost a lot of that." It was not his first appearance with Robinson. The year before, he spoke at another rally in Whitehall and said: "This nation of ours is under attack! We are at war! We are at war not just with the Muslim, not just with wokeness." This is something new and growing - a movement that has long marched against immigration, against Islam, is now marching behind the cross. read the complete article
United States
Palestinian American hails Virginia win: ‘You can be bold on the Gaza genocide and still be victorious’
Sam Rasoul, the Virginia Democrat who is currently the longest-serving Muslim state lawmaker in the US and who faced accusations of antisemitism over language condemning Israel’s assault on Gaza as genocide, scored a resounding victory in Tuesday’s election that he believes shows voters are craving honesty from politicians. Rasoul, an American Palestinian state legislator since 2014, strengthened his majority as he was re-elected to an area of Virginia where the city of Roanoke leans Democrat and the surrounding areas are deeply conservative. In an election seen as a referendum on Trump’s policies, which have disproportionately affected Virginia, Rasoul increased his vote share from four years ago by more than 5% as Democrats trounced Republicans from the legislature to the governor’s mansion. “A 70% victory in the Bible belt of Virginia for a Palestinian Muslim is really a validation, beyond just Democrats winning, that you can be bold on the Gaza genocide and still be victorious,” Rasoul told the Guardian. Rasoul is part of the most progressive faction of the Democratic party, and like his friend and the newly elected mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, has put affordability at the centre of his politics. “The reality is that over the past 40 years, the Democratic party was so desperate to please special interests, that we’ve lost touch with middle- and working-class Americans,” he said. “The establishment voices are too often on the wrong side of history, and representing the wrong interests. What people are desperate for, as we saw with Zohran and locally in my race, are bold solutions that make them feel like we’re genuinely batting for them.” read the complete article
The bipartisan comfort with Islamophobia harms us all
This week, Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani made history by becoming the first Muslim mayor of New York City. His road to victory was anything but smooth. After he secured a historic win in the mayoral primary, he faced a landslide of attacks from across the political spectrum. In the months that followed, the hateful rhetoric from right-wing provocateurs, social media personalities, and even his three opponents mushroomed. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa claimed that Mamdani supports “global jihad”; independent candidate and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo agreed with a comment that Mamdani would celebrate “another 9/11”; and outgoing NYC mayor, Eric Adams, who dropped out and endorsed Cuomo, suggested that a Mamdani mayorship would turn New York into Europe, where “Islamic extremists … are destroying communities.” Sadly, as researchers of anti-Muslim bias, and Muslim individuals who came of age in a post-9/11 America, we know attacks of this nature – on someone’s character or fitness for a job because of their religious background or national origin – aren’t entirely unexpected. We know that Islamophobia spikes not after a violent act, but rather during election campaigns and political events, when anti-Muslim rhetoric is used as a political tactic to garner support for a specific candidate or policy. Worryingly, these attacks also reflect a general trend of rising Islamophobia, which our research has recently uncovered. The latest edition of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding’s (ISPU) American Muslim Poll, which contains our Islamophobia Index, released on October 21, reveals that in the last three years, Islamophobia has sharply risen in the US, across almost all demographic groups. read the complete article
Kidnapping skit in a high school club’s video draws outrage
The video skit opens with a student asking classmates whether they planned to go to a meeting of the Muslim Student Association the next day. When the pair answer no, other students pretend to kidnap them, throwing a kaffiyeh scarf over one’s head and grabbing the other before putting them in a plastic bin. When two more students appear, they quickly agree to attend. The students were removed from the classroom pending an investigation, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The organization said the students were being unfairly judged based on “racist tropes and stereotypes about Muslims and Arabs.” Parents of the students who made the video said their children, who range in age from 14 to 17, were not trying to make any kind of political statement. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect the identity of their children. In a letter to school officials, CAIR argued that the outrage and decision to remove the students from class arose only because of the students’ backgrounds, which the organization said violates antidiscrimination free-speech laws. Tthe parents emphasized that it seemed their children were being unfairly scrutinized when other students around the country had made similar videos — including the one posted by the MSA chapter at Langley High. read the complete article
Mamdani’s mayoral race was marred by unhinged Islamophobia. It’s not going away soon
Far-right activist and unofficial Trump adviser Laura Loomer posted on X, for example, that “there will be another 9/11 in NYC” under Mamdani. New York City councilmember Vickie Paladino called the 34-year-old a “known jihadist terrorist”. Actor Debra Messing, meanwhile, has been having a Mamdani-induced meltdown on Instagram, posting story after story about how the puppy-eyed politician is a threat to civilization. She recently posted: “In Judaism and Christianity, we are commanded to speak the truth. In Islam, they are commanded to lie if it means spreading Islam … Now, take a look at Mamdani … He’s revealing their goal: mass conversion.” Mamdani’s goal, as he has made almost comically clear, is actually affordable mass transit and housing. One of the reasons his campaign was so successful is that it stayed laser-focused on affordability. However, Mamdani has addressed the attacks against him on a number of occasions, noting how common it is for Muslims to be branded as terrorists. And, it’s not just Muslims, I should note. Islamophobes don’t tend to differentiate between a Muslim of Indian descent who was born in Uganda, like Mamdani, and a Palestinian atheist like me. They don’t care if you’re a Christian Arab or even a Sikh. We’re all the same to them: brown barbarians. The incoming mayor has also called out how just how normalized Islamophobia is on both sides of the aisle. A couple of weeks ago Mamdani released a six-minute video addressed to Muslim New Yorkers in which he talked about how Andrew Cuomo “laughed and agreed when a radio show host said that I would cheer another 9/11”. He talked about how outgoing mayor Eric Adams said Mamdani and his followers wanted to “burn churches”. And he stated: “To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity. But indignity does not make us distinct – there are many New Yorkers who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does. In an era of ever-diminishing bipartisanship, Islamophobia has emerged as one of the few areas of agreement.” Amen to that. Islamophobia is so normalized that’s it’s not even seen as bigotry by many but, as conservative commentator and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly recently put it, “a sensible position”. It’s so normalized that trafficking in Islamophobia is not career-ending, but often career-elevating. Making breathtakingly racist comments about Muslims certainly didn’t stop Randy Fine from winning a special election earlier this year to represent Florida’s sixth district in Congress. Fine, by the way, is now leading a push to investigate Mamdani’s path to US citizenship in an attempt to denaturalize and deport him. read the complete article
Republicans push to strip Zohran Mamdani of US citizenship. Is it possible?
After Zohran Mamdani handily won the New York City mayoral election, becoming the city’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor-elect, Republican detractors in Washington, DC, said they would try to stop him from taking office. President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold federal funds to New York City if Mamdani won, lent credence to misleading questions about Mamdani’s citizenship and falsely accused the Ugandan-born 34-year-old of being a communist. Some Republican lawmakers requested investigations into Mamdani’s naturalisation process and have called for stripping him of his United States citizenship and deporting him, accusing him without evidence of embracing communist and “terrorist” activities. “If Mamdani lied on his naturalisation documents, he doesn’t get to be a citizen, and he certainly doesn’t get to run for mayor of New York City. A great American city is on the precipice of being run by a communist who has publicly embraced a terroristic ideology,” Representative Andy Ogles from the Republican party said in an October 29 news release, after asking US Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Mamdani. Randy Fine, the Republican representative from Florida, misrepresented Mamdani’s time in the US when he said on October 27 on Newsmax, “The barbarians are no longer at the gate, they’re inside. … And Mamdani, having just moved here eight years ago, is a great example of that, becoming a citizen. Look, it is clear with much of what I have read that he did not meet the definition to gain citizenship.” PolitiFact found no credible evidence that Mamdani lied on his citizenship application. Immigration law experts said they have seen no evidence to support Ogles and Fine’s assertions about Mamdani’s application. read the complete article
Germany
Germany cracks down on Muslim groups viewed as threats to its constitutional order
The German government on Wednesday banned a Muslim group, accusing it of violating human rights and the country’s democratic values, and conducted raids against two other Muslim groups across the country. The Interior Ministry said the organization which it banned, Muslim Interaktiv, represented a threat to the country’s constitutional order by promoting antisemitism and discrimination against women and sexual minorities. The group is known for a savvy online presence used to appeal especially to young Muslims who may feel alienated or discriminated against in Germany’s Christian majority society. The German government argued the group was a particular threat because it promoted Islam as the sole model for the social order and maintained that Islamic law should take precedence over German law in regulating life in the Muslim community, including in areas such as the treatment of women. The German government has in recent years been acting more forcefully against extremism, and banned several extremist groups — including several far-right and Muslim organizations. The crackdown comes after a spate of attacks, both by Muslim extremists and far-right groups plotting to overturn the country’s order. read the complete article
Canada
Parents, advocacy groups appalled by 'hateful' graffiti found at Ottawa high school
Parents and advocates are calling on the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to address anti-Palestinian racism after hateful graffiti was found last week at a local high school. “It's one thing to hear about it, but it's another to see the pictures,” said one parent of a Palestinian student at Brookfield High School. The images depicted in one of the school’s washrooms included a drawing of a pig with the word "Allah" written above it, derogatory and offensive language targeting Palestinians, and a swastika. “It felt extremely infuriating and disgusting to see so much hate in our school system,” she said, adding that her son is now afraid to enter the school washrooms. She added that she learned about the graffiti through social media before being informed by the school. read the complete article