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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Canada, police in Peel Region are investigating an alleged hate-motivated incident after a Mississauga Islamic centre was vandalized, meanwhile in India, authorities are forcibly removing Rohingya Muslims from the country, in some cases putting them on boats and eventually forcing them into the Andaman Sea with life jackets, and in the United States, 85 Wisconsin organizations sent a public letter to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s leadership alerting them “to numerous anti-Arab and anti-Muslim posts, likes and shares” its chief of staff, Lauren Lasry, recently made. Our recommended read of the day is by Natalie Donback for Hyphen on Norway’s upcoming election and the fears of the Muslim community, given a surge by the far-right Progress Party — known for its anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. This and more below:
Norway
Why the upcoming Norwegian election matters | Recommended Read
On 8 September, Norway — where Islam is the largest religious minority, at 3.4% of the population — will vote in a parliamentary election that for the first time may deliver a right-wing coalition government in which the far right is the largest party. The Progress party, led by Sylvi Listhaug, has called for zero net immigration from allegedly “high-risk countries” in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia, arguing that immigrants from these regions are responsible for the country’s economic and social problems. The party is known for its anti-Muslim rhetoric. During her time as integration minister in 2016, Listhaug, 47, warned Muslim citizens: “Here we eat pork, drink alcohol, and show our faces. You must abide by the values, laws and regulations that are in Norway when you come here.” Badreddine Maizi, the deputy head of the Islamic Council of Norway, says the Progress party routinely uses immigrants as scapegoats. “The party always plays on the fact that [the number of] immigrants is growing, that immigrants are a threat to the welfare state,” he said. While historically, the majority of Norwegian Muslims have voted Labour, Maizi listed immigration, integration and asylum policy as important issues for the community in this election. Rising Islamophobia and discrimination are also growing concerns. In a 2017 population survey conducted by the Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities, 27% of respondents expressed anti-Muslim attitudes: 42% believed Muslims don’t integrate while 39% supported the claim that they pose a threat to Norwegian culture. Approximately 35% of Muslims questioned described being made to feel that they do not belong in Norwegian society. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Palestine Action lawyers accuse Yvette Cooper of ‘cynical media campaign’
Lawyers for a co-founder of Palestine Action have accused the home secretary of running a “cynical media campaign” which breaches her duty to the court in proceedings challenging the group’s proscription. In a letter sent to the government’s legal department on behalf of Huda Ammori, who has been granted permission for a judicial review of the decision to ban the group under the Terrorism Act, her lawyers say Yvette Cooper’s public statements are not backed by her disclosures at the high court. Birnberg Peirce write: “At the centre of your client’s media campaign is an attempt to persuade the public that Palestine Action was proscribed for reasons which she is unable to reveal publicly and which are centred on violence and injuries against people. “These claims about the reason for Proscription Review Group’s recommendation for the proscription of Palestine Action are misleading in light of open (public) disclosure. “It is clear from the open disclosure that the basis for the recommendation was serious damage to property caused by Palestine Action and not violence against people. read the complete article
'This is our flag... we are proud British Muslims'
A Muslim centre that found a union jack had been tied to its railings decided to fly it from its window to show its members pride in being British. Ibraham Syed, from The Wirral Deen Centre on Borough Road in Birkenhead, said its leaders felt it was a perfect opportunity to affirm their allegiance to this country. He said he believed the placing of the flag outside the centre - which includes a mosque - had been "intended to cause offence". "We thought strong and powerful response would be to show that this is our flag and we are proud British Muslims," he said. Mr Syed added: "My parents worked and lived here, my grandparents came here," he said. "So I think it's a common misconception that Muslims aren't regarded as British, we needed to address that." Union jacks and flags of St George have been appearing all over the country in recent weeks, tied to lamp-posts our placed in people's windows. read the complete article
Australia
Outlaw religious discrimination: Islamophobia envoy’s call
The imminent release of a landmark report by the nation’s first special envoy to combat Islamophobia is set to reopen a long-running and contentious debate about how to protect Australians against religious discrimination. The report by scholar Aftab Malik, whom the Albanese government appointed as the special envoy last year, is due to be released within days. Sources familiar with the report, but not authorised to speak publicly, said Malik’s blueprint would be strikingly different in style and substance to the sweeping and controversial plan issued in July by Jillian Segal, the special envoy for combating antisemitism. With polls showing one in three Australians hold negative views against Muslims, Islamic groups said they hoped Malik’s report would spark an overdue conversation about the root causes of Islamophobia. One of the key recommendations of Malik’s report, sources said, is that legal recourse is needed to protect Muslims, as well as Australians of all faiths, against discrimination based on their religion. Federal legislation currently bans discrimination based on race, sex and age, but not on the basis of religion, a loophole faith leaders have long argued should be closed. A July 2024 survey, the most recent by the respected not-for-profit Scanlon Foundation, which maps social cohesion, found 34 per cent of Australian adults said they had a somewhat or very negative attitude towards Muslims. This was up 7 percentage points from July 2023, before the October 7 attacks and war in Gaza began. read the complete article
Canada
Muslim community concerned for safety after alleged hate-motivated incident at Mississauga Islamic centre
Police in Peel Region are investigating an alleged hate-motivated incident after a Mississauga Islamic centre was vandalized. Surveillance video shows a man using his skateboard in the early hours of August 15 to break the glass doors of the Mississauga chapter of the Islamic Circle of North America. The president of the centre tells OMNI News the man in the video had been seen passing by the location several times and waving at them in a friendly manner prior to the incident. “They told us that they saw this person a number of times here on his skates, and even some people said they said hello to them,” said Minhaj Quershi, who adds the Muslim community remains concerned for their safety in the wake of the attack. “This is a hate crime and Islamophobia, because we had nothing before this. After this, the community feels very harassed …even the number of children not coming here for evening schools, for the morning Quran classes, they are afraid.” read the complete article
India
'India put us on the boat like captives - then threw us in the sea'
Three months after they were removed from India's capital, the BBC managed to contact the refugees in Myanmar. Most are staying with the Ba Htoo Army (BHA), a resistance group fighting the military in the south-west of the country. "We don't feel secure in Myanmar. This place is a complete war zone," said Soyed Noor on a video call made from the phone of a BHA member. He spoke from a wooden shelter with six other refugees around him. The BBC gathered testimonies from the refugees and accounts from relatives in Delhi and spoke to experts investigating the allegations to piece together what happened to them. We have learnt that they were flown from Delhi to an island in the Bay of Bengal, put on a naval vessel and eventually forced into the Andaman Sea with life jackets. They then made their way to shore and are now facing an uncertain future in Myanmar, which the mostly-Muslim Rohingya community had fled in huge numbers in recent years to escape persecution. "They bound our hands, covered our faces and brought us like captives [on to the boat]. Then they threw us in the sea," John, one of the men in the group, told his brother by phone soon after reaching land. "How can someone just throw human beings into the sea?" asked Mr Amin. "There is humanity alive in the world but I have not seen any humanity in the Indian government." Campaigners have often flagged that the condition of Rohingya in India is precarious. India does not recognise the Rohingya as refugees but rather, as illegal immigrants under the country's Foreigners Act. India has a sizeable population of Rohingya refugees, although Bangladesh, where more than a million live, has the biggest number. Most fled Myanmar after a deadly army crackdown in 2017. Despite having lived there for generations, Rohingya are not recognised in Myanmar as citizens. read the complete article
Netherlands
Muslims: Dutch ‘Others’ - Episode 7: Prejudices
“Since Islamophobia is growing so much in the Netherlands, (Muslims) are looking for a safe environment for their children” Asma Claassen highlights another aspect of rising Islamophobia in the Netherlands in her interview with TRT World, giving examples of some schools imposing restrictions on Muslim students' prayers. read the complete article
France
French court sentences student to 6 months in suspended prison for posting anti-Muslim stickers
A French court has sentenced a student to six months in suspended prison for posting anti-Muslim stickers, the Collective for Countering Islamophobia in Europe (CCIE) said on Friday. "A 19-year-old man was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence on Thursday by the criminal court in Orleans for putting up anti-Muslim stickers in the city and on the university campus in May 2025," the CCIE wrote on the US social media company X. The CCIE noted that the court cited the student's "diminished capacity for judgment," resulting in a sentence that was less than what prosecutors initially requested. read the complete article
United States
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s staff chief’s “blatant anti-Arab, anti-Muslim” social media posts draw criticism
Eighty-five Wisconsin organizations, all members of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, sent a public letter Wednesday to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s leadership alerting them “to numerous anti-Arab and anti-Muslim posts, likes and shares” its chief of staff, Lauren Lasry, recently made. (Screenshots of a sample of her posts are on the WCJP website; Lasry has removed the posts.) “To be associated with such blatant and repulsive racism from one of the highest members of your team should be cause for considerable alarm,” the letter said. “To see such virulent anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice puts your entire mission into question … We are concerned that Muslim and Arab women, or even young college students opposed to a genocide, who not receive equitable treatment from a Planned Parenthood facility in Wisconsin.” “A lot of people saw the posts and were horrified and offended (although ‘offended’ is not a strong enough term); they brought them to our attention,” Rebecca Salawdeh, a WCJP executive committee member, said Thursday in an interview with Wisconsin Muslim Journal. “It is astonishing to me that somebody in that position would be posting these things. read the complete article