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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, The New York Times has reported that the former head of New York City’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes said under mayor Eric Adams, he was discriminated against because of his religion and ethnicity, meanwhile in the Netherlands, against all odds, the liberal D66 party led by Rob Jetten, has tied in Wednesday’s national elections with the Islamophobic Geert Wilders, and in the United Kingdom, police have launched a probe after racially-charged graffiti was discovered at Glasgow Central Mosque on Adelphi Street. Our recommended read of the day is by Sindhya Valloppillil for Forbes, who argues that the silence of Sequoia Capital in response to a partner’s Islamophobic tweets reveals how Islamophobia is broadly tolerated—or at least insufficiently challenged—in the venture-capital industry, signaling a deeper moral failure. This and more below:
United States
Sequoia Capital’s Silence On ‘Islamophobia’ Exposes A Moral Crisis In Venture Capital | Recommended Read
When Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire posted tweets that many founders and investors as well as civil-rights organizations including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) condemned as Islamophobic, the venture capital industry’s most powerful firm stayed silent. A month later, Sequoia COO Sumaiya Balbale — its most senior Muslim American executive — departed the firm after an investigation by the firm resulted in no action. For a company that built its reputation on “long-term relationships and enduring values,” that silence spoke volumes. It wasn’t just a social-media controversy — it underscored how silence, when backed by performance, can pass for conviction. Maguire’s broader posting history reinforced the perception of his bias. He has previously called footage of dead Palestinian children “fake,” labeled the United Nations a “terrorist organization,” and amplified posts by far-right activist Laura Loomer, who has described herself as a “proud Islamophobe.” As Business Insider recently dubbed him, Maguire has emerged as “Silicon Valley’s most MAGA firebrand,” representing a larger cultural shift in venture capital — where ideological extremism and elite performance now coexist without consequence. CAIR and political activist Nadia Rahman have expressed concern Maguire’s initial anti-Muslim comments were dangerous and went unpunished, which normalizes such racism especially given his stature and influence. read the complete article
Former NYC hate crimes head sues mayor Eric Adams for discrimination: Report
The former head of New York City’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes said under mayor Eric Adams, he was discriminated against because of his religion and ethnicity, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Adams hired Hassan Naveed in October 2022 to combat “the scourge of hate” across the city. Naveed says he was subject to a “hostile work environment” during his one-and-a-half-year term as executive director, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday against Adams and New York City at the State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Naveed said in the lawsuit that things went south, particularly after the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, when he came under scrutiny on account of his Muslim identity. In his lawsuit, he mentioned how two of his superiors - one of whom is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit - pulled him aside and asked him what he thought of “beheaded babies”. Naveed and other Muslim colleagues met with Adams on 23 October 2023 to discuss their concerns over Adams’s aides sharing “anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian” content on social media. But say they were told by Adams that Muslims were experiencing hate as a consequence of failing to adequately condemn Hamas. They also said Adams compared pro-Palestine marches to “Klu Klux Klan protests.” read the complete article
Mamdani’s Rise Represents a Rejection of Fear
In the final stretch of New York City’s mayoral race, the attacks against Zohran Mamdani have crossed a line—not just politically, but morally. What began as disagreement over policy has hardened into something older, more familiar and more dangerous: the suggestion that a Muslim cannot be trusted to lead the most diverse city in the United States. The rhetoric has not been subtle. Former governor Andrew Cuomo recently laughed and agreed when a radio host suggested Mamdani would cheer another 9/11. Mayor Eric Adams warned that New York “cannot afford to become Europe"—language that has long functioned as political shorthand for demographic anxiety. Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa claimed during a televised debate that Mamdani supports “global jihad.” Political action committees have circulated push polls falsely suggesting Mamdani intends to make halal mandatory, and attack ads have darkened and elongated his beard to evoke the visual coding of menace. Conservative commentator Larry Elder circulated a cartoon depicting a plane labeled “Mamdani” flying toward the New York skyline—an unmistakable reference to 9/11. Even the way Mamdani eats has been mocked. When the attacks intensified, Mamdani did something rare in contemporary politics: he did not speak to his accusers, but to those who have lived under this shadow. He addressed the Muslims of New York—the subway rider who adjusts a scarf to avoid confrontation, the traveler pulled aside “randomly” every time, the student who learns early how a name can change a room. He remembered his aunt who stopped taking the subway after 9/11 because she no longer felt safe wearing hijab. “To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity,” he said. “But indignity does not make us distinct. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does.” read the complete article
Bronx Muslims Speak on how Islamophobia has Impacted the Mayoral Race
Kujegi, a Black, female Muslim, who said she is also a member of the Gambian community, and who Norwood News was directed to speak with by the Mamdani campaign, told us, “I think Islamophobia is a rising issue and has impacted Muslims, particularly Black Muslims in a different way as well because we have the compounding of already being Black in The Bronx and in New York City, and also being Muslim." Kujegi continued, “I think for many Muslims, when you are watching the television, whether it’s media outlets or political pundits, [they’re] saying things about the Muslim community, particularly about also Zohran Mamdani, and pointing and pitting Muslims against America, you know; to be American is to not be Muslim.” She added, “I think that really makes things really hard for Muslims to want to feel like this is a place that we can call [our home] and so we have a Muslim [mayoral candidate] who identifies with the [Muslim] community, but he’s also a New Yorker, and all of his issues are about being a New Yorker, and making New York affordable, and making New York accessible to all of us, no matter our background.” Kujegi said when Muslims see the assemblyman being pigeon-holed for his religious identity and other candidates being divisive about the topic, and “sort of pitting the community against each other,” it makes Islamophobia more pronounced. “I think many people navigate that,” she said. Asked if she feels Islamophobia has gotten worse since the assemblyman decided to run for mayor, she said, “Yes, in the media, and in the ways he’s being framed and even the position that he has been put in.” read the complete article
Zohran Mamdani’s unlikely coalition: Winning over NYC’s Jewish voters
Sitting in a room of hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers, Zohran Mamdani received cheers and applause at the Erev Rosh Hashanah service of progressive Brooklyn synagogue Kolot Chayeinu on a Monday evening last month. This was one of the Democratic mayoral nominee’s recent appearances at synagogues and events over the Jewish High Holy Days, and a visible step towards navigating a politically charged line: increasingly engaging the largest concentration of Jewish people in any metropolitan area in the United States, and holding firmly anti-Zionist views before the general election on November 4. Mamdani received endorsements and canvassing support from progressive Jewish organisations like Bend the Arc, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), organisations that have each confronted Israel’s role in the war in Gaza through statements on their websites. Simultaneously, he has sustained attacks from far-right activists, Jewish Democrats on Capitol Hill and Zionist activist groups for his firm support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and refusal to call Israel a Jewish state. But despite mixed responses, the polls are clear: Mamdani is leading among Jewish voters overall in a multiway race. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Yousaf: Glasgow mosque graffiti shows anti-Muslim hate 'normalised'
Humza Yousaf has said that a graffiti attack on Glasgow's main mosque shows anti-Muslim hate is being “normalised.” Police have launched a probe after racially-charged graffiti was discovered at Glasgow Central Mosque on Adelphi Street. The vandalism occurred between 5pm on Sunday, 26 October, and 9am on Monday, 27 October. Former First Minister Yousaf condemned the attack, highlighting the mosque’s role in supporting the city during crises. The SNP MSP posted on social media, saying: "Glasgow Central Mosque offered tea, coffee and shelter for emergency workers during the Clutha disaster. They opened their doors to vaccinate us during the pandemic. "Dreadful, but utterly predictable, to see this vandalism as a result of anti-Muslim hatred being so normalised." read the complete article
Netherlands
Liberals and the far right tie in the Netherlands with a major setback for Islamophobic Wilders
Surprise in the Netherlands. Against all oddsThe liberal D66 party, led by Rob Jetten, has tied in Wednesday's Dutch elections with the Islamophobic Geert Wilders. The progressive liberals won 26 seats, 17 more than in the previous elections. This significant increase contrasts sharply with that of the far right, which in the elections two years ago was the most voted party by a wide margin, obtaining 37 seats. This year, despite polls predicting another comfortable victory, it lost 11 seats, falling to 26. Thus, despite the virtual tie, the most likely scenario at this point is the return of a centrist government to the Netherlands. At this stage, 98% of the votes have been counted, and it is still unclear which of the two leaders has won the election, even by a narrow margin. In the Netherlands, the winner of the elections is crucial, as that party is automatically tasked with forming a government. Regardless of the final outcome, however, Wilders faces a very difficult path to governing, as all the major Dutch parties have vetoed him. In contrast, parliamentary arithmetic strongly favors a new government led by Jetten, with various center, center-left, and center-right parties highly willing to form an alternative government to the one previously led by the far right. read the complete article
India
The ‘Taj Story’ and the Hindu right-wing’s politics of erasing India’s Muslim past
A forthcoming Hindi film, The Taj Story, starring veteran Indian actor Paresh Rawal, claims to expose “the truth” behind the Taj Mahal, the 17th-century marble mausoleum considered one of the most iconic odes to love. The film’s premise is familiar: that India’s most recognisable monument was once a Hindu temple called Tejo Mahalaya before being “seized” by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. It is not a new theory. It resurfaces every few years, louder than before—presented as patriotic revelation rather than recycled fiction. Its endurance reveals less about history than about the political use of myth in today’s India. The temple theory was put forward by Purushottam Nagesh Oak, a self-proclaimed “revisionist historian,” whose 1980s book Taj Mahal: The True Story claimed—without evidence—that Shah Jahan had converted a Shiva shrine. Even the Archaeological Survey of India dismissed the claim as “an unfounded fantasy,” and no peer-reviewed research has supported it. Yet Oak’s theory endured because it met a demand, not for accuracy but for affirmation: a narrative in which India’s Muslim rulers could be portrayed as usurpers of Hindu glory. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), such pseudo-histories have moved from the margins to the mainstream. read the complete article
International
Wife of British journalist ‘abducted by ICE’ speaks out: ‘We’re being kept in the dark’
The wife of a British political commentator who was detained by immigration authorities while on a speaking tour of the US said she had only been able to speak with him for “30 seconds” since he was taken into custody on Sunday over his pro-Palestinian advocacy. Soumaya Hamdi told the Guardian she first learned her husband, Sami Hamdi, was detained at San Francisco international airport when a friend asked her to confirm rumors he had been “abducted by ICE”. When he was finally able to briefly call her, Hamdi only had enough time to say he had been taken to an immigration detention center in McFarland, California, where he remains. “We’re being kept in the dark,” Soumaya said, adding that all she knew was that her husband was given a November court date as the US government seeks to deport him. The couple have three children, including a 10-month-old baby. “Sami is a British citizen, he has been travelling regularly and often to the United States on a valid visa that’s not due to expire anytime soon,” she added. “To hear through a third party that he has been abducted, effectively, by the United States government is incredibly distressing.” read the complete article