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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, a new survey released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), revealed that Muslim voters overwhelmingly favoured Democratic candidates in last week’s election, meanwhile in Israel, dozens of Maccabi Haifa football fans attacked Palestinian
Australia
‘Drop in, have a coffee’: Bendigo’s Muslims celebrate milestone for new mosque – and community cohesion forged after backlash | Recommended Read
On a bush block on the industrial outskirts of Bendigo, a minaret rises from the facade of a mosque. There are no fences, making the site of the central Victorian city’s first mosque visible from adjacent roads. This is no accident. Sameer Syed, who has been involved in the Bendigo Islamic Community Centre’s inception from its start, says the vision was an “open mosque”. “We wanted something very welcoming … very open, very visible,” he says. “We want people to feel the same way. Just drop in, have a coffee." More than a decade ago, fierce pushback against the vision to create a place of worship for Bendigo’s Muslim community made international headlines after the project became a rallying point for rightwing extremists, many of them from out of town. A mock beheading staged by the United Patriots Front leader and far-right extremist, Blair Cottrell, and two supporters outside the council chambers led to Victoria’s first racial vilification conviction. In 2016 a high court challenge to stop the mosque failed. Syed credits the combination of a grassroots campaign – Believe in Bendigo – and outreach work by Muslim leaders for changing community sentiment, although a handful of protesters still demonstrate. Ten years later, the centre is preparing to begin using its first completed building in coming weeks. The mosque is still under construction. read the complete article
United States
US Democrats recovered support from Muslim voters, poll suggests
Muslim voters in the United States overwhelmingly favoured Democratic candidates in last week’s elections, amid mounting anger at President Donald Trump’s policies, a new exit poll suggests. The survey, released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Monday, shows 97 percent of Muslim voters in New York backed democratic socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Virginia’s Democratic Muslim American Senator Ghazala Hashmi also received 95 percent of the Muslim vote in the state in her successful bid for lieutenant governor, according to the poll. Non-Muslim, more centrist Democratic candidates received strong backing from Muslim voters as well, the CAIR study showed. Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill – Democratic congresswomen who won the gubernatorial races – both received about 85 percent support from Muslim voters, according to the survey. “These exit poll results highlight an encouraging truth: American Muslims are showing up, speaking out, and shaping the future of our democracy,” the group said in a statement. read the complete article
Dick Cheney may be gone, but the wars he waged are forever
After news broke that former US Vice President Dick Cheney, 84, died on Tuesday of pneumonia and cardiac disease, tributes came pouring in from across the political and media spectrums. Establishment Democrats, including Bill Clinton and Kamala Harris, praised Cheney - a die-hard Republican - on a life well lived. Mainstream American news outlets also honoured Cheney, who, in addition to serving as George W Bush's vice president from 2001 to 2009, had served as the White House chief of staff in the 1970s and the secretary of defence in the 1980s. Joe Scarborough of MSNBC said that Cheney "kept his bearings when it came to democratic norms… he was on the right side… we all should be grateful to him for that", while the New York Times called him a "consummate Washington insider" who sought to advance "the cause of democracy abroad". Based on these evaluations, one could be forgiven for thinking Cheney was a good man - or for not knowing that he was a hardened war criminal responsible for some of the worst atrocities in modern world history. As Bush's vice president, Cheney became a key architect of the US "war on terror", which included the 2002 invasion of Afghanistan, the 2003 war on Iraq, and sweeping intelligence, surveillance and torture programmes. Most notoriously, Cheney helped the Bush administration construct an elaborate double lie as a pretext for the invasion of Iraq. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Legal experts and politicians criticise process used to ban Palestine Action
Legal experts, former government ministers and an ex-MI6 director have criticised the process used to ban Palestine Action. The members of an independent commission set up by the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law said the definition of terrorism was too broad and better parliamentary oversight and judicial scrutiny was needed. Palestine Action became the first direct action group to be banned under the Terrorism Act after officials concluded that it met the criteria for proscription. These include “serious damage to property” designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public for a political, religious or ideological cause. It said the ban on Palestine Action highlighted “several of the features of and concerns about the power to proscribe”. “A [terrorism] definition that relies heavily on executive discretion risks inconsistency, perceptions of unfairness, and the treatment of legitimate protest as terrorism,” said the commission, which heard evidence from more than 200 experts and stakeholders. “To ensure clarity and proportionality while maintaining operational effectiveness, the commission recommends a more focused statutory definition. read the complete article
Confronting the Shadows: Islamophobia in the UK and the urgent need for Awareness
Islamophobia Awareness Month isn't merely an event; it's a movement. This year the urgency feels sharper than ever. With hate crimes against Muslims surging to record levels, and political rhetoric increasingly laced with division, 2025 demands we ask: how did we get here, and what will it take to move forward? According to the latest Home Office figures, anti-Muslim hate crimes in England and Wales climbed to 3,199 offences in the 12 months ending March 2025 - a staggering 19% increase from the previous year. Muslims are the target in nearly 40% of all religious hate crimes, despite comprising just 6% of the population. Campaign group TellMAMA reported nearly 6,000 incidents of Islamophobia in 2024. Physical assaults surged by 73%, and threatening behaviour in general increased by a staggering 328%. These aren't abstract numbers; they're lives upended. In healthcare, a British Islamic Medical Association survey revealed that over a third of Muslim doctors have faced or witnessed Islamophobia at work, with 44% contemplating leaving the NHS due to discrimination. In schools and streets, children as young as five have been targeted, their schoolbags defaced with slurs or worse. Islamophobia didn't emerge overnight; it's an insidious growth, watered by historical grievances and contemporary crises. The post-9/11 "War on Terror" era sowed seeds of suspicion, but they've flourished under Brexit-era immigration debates, the Covid-19 blame game, and now, geopolitical flashpoints. read the complete article
Canada
Opinion: Honouring our Palestinian martyrs is not hate, it’s simply grief
On October 7, 2025, we stood quietly, watching history repeat itself — silence meant for remembrance, once more labelled as hateful. Outside UTM’s Student Centre, students gathered with bowed heads and cold hands, mourning over 69,000 lives lost in Gaza. A land acknowledgement was read. An equity statement promised safety. Then came two minutes of silence — for the murdered, the families erased, and the names silently buried. Not a rally or protest, but a eulogy — a small act of mourning in a world that keeps saying “never again,” while watching genocide repeat in Rwanda, Darfur, and now Gaza. As we whispered prayers and wiped quiet tears, a line of police lingered, postures tense as though waiting for something to happen. There was no hate, no disruption — only grief that institutions of power refuse to see as peaceful. read the complete article
Former Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce called the vigil
a “hateful, antisemitic, and anti-democratic mob” and the student organizers a “morally degenerate group.” I believe that Lecce’s sentiment reflects a world that is quick to label Palestinian mourning as hate, where simple acts of empathy are punished as if they are crimes. As an attendee, I can say that it wasn’t hatred that filled the crowd, but a desperate plea for peace. Neutrality in the face of injustice isn’t a virtue; it is complicity. Those who gathered at UTM understood this. I believe that by portraying such mourning as violent, Lecce exposed the anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia beneath the accusation — the fear of Palestinian grief itself. read the complete article
International
Maccabi Haifa fans attack Palestinian restaurant goers after match ends in draw
Dozens of Maccabi Haifa football fans attacked Palestinian restaurant goers with knives, sticks, and bottles; minutes after their match against Bnei Sakhnin, in the predominantly Arab town of Sakhnin, ended in a 3-3 draw. Residents and eyewitnesses told Middle East Eye that several people were injured after Israeli fans, wearing the club's green and black colours, stormed the Amigo restaurant late on Saturday, near Bnei Sakhnin's Doha Stadium, shortly after the match ended. "We were standing in the shop when suddenly they attacked us - around 80 of them," Ayham Abu Rayya, the restaurant's owner, told MEE. "They started hitting [us] with sticks, knives, glass bottles, and beer bottles. It was a sudden attack. They came prepared. The police were with them - and didn't arrest anyone." Ayham's brother, who suffered a deep head wound that required 14 stitches, said the scene "looked like a battlefield", with several people treated for cuts, bruises and fractures. read the complete article
UK commentator detained by ICE after Israel criticism to be released, family says
The family of British political commentator Sami Hamdi, who was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in late October while on a speaking tour in the US, say he is set to be released and will be able to “return home soon”. “The government has agreed to release Sami,” the family said in a statement on Monday. “He will be able to return home soon insha’Allah.” Hamdi was detained on 26 October at San Francisco international airport. At the time, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) said his detention appeared to be in retaliation for the Muslim political commentator’s criticism of Israel while touring the US, calling it a “blatant affront to free speech”, and called for his release. In an interview with the Guardian in late October, Hamdi’s wife called the allegations against her husband “outrageous” and said the videos were “edited in a way to frame Sami in a horrible light and produced by an organization that is very well known to be anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, Islamophobic and out there to target people who are speaking up against the genocide against Palestinians”. read the complete article