Today in Islamophobia

Today in Islamophobia: In the United States, a federal judge in California has ruled that the Trump Administration violated the rights of students when it sought to punish them for criticizing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, while in New York City, rights groups expressed concern regarding the visit of Mohan Bhagwat, the leader of the RSS, a group which has targeted Muslims and Christians in India, and in the United Kingdom, a Muslim forum is demanding urgent allocated Government funding for mosque security after a man was jailed for sending death threats to two mosques. Our recommended read of the day is by Asma Uddin for The Conversation, on how elected officials in Texas are increasingly treating ordinary Muslim religious practice as evidence of a political threat, putting Muslims at risk. This and more below:

United States

In Texas, ordinary Muslim religious practices are increasingly being treated as political threats | Recommended Read

Elected officials across Texas are increasingly treating ordinary Muslim religious practice – prayer, dress, marriage counseling, even mosques themselves – as evidence of a political threat and saying so openly. “I won’t rest until every Muslim is gone,” Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, wrote on social media in June 2026. Since late 2025, Texas officials have investigated plans for a Muslim-friendly housing development outside Dallas, as well as a small Dallas organization that offers religious divorce counseling. Gov. Greg Abbott also designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country’s largest Muslim civil rights group, a foreign terrorist organization under Texas law. State Rep. Alan Schoolcraft, a Republican helping lead the “Sharia Free Texas Caucus,” has framed the distinction explicitly. He told the Houston Chronicle that his concern “has nothing to do with faith, with religion,” but rather with “cultural differences, refusing to assimilate, and trying to establish a parallel culture.” He has also said lawmakers intend to try to define what qualifies as a religion, arguing that Islam is “much more than a religion.” He has not explained where the line between Islam as religion and Islam as culture or politics would fall, or which Muslim practices would lose the protections ordinarily afforded to religious exercise. That effort arrives as the country marks 25 years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Suspicion of Islam in American politics predates that day, but 9/11 hardened it into something durable: an assumption that Muslims themselves are dangerous. read the complete article

US judge rules against Trump’s effort to deport pro-Palestinian students

A United States federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration violated the constitutional rights of international students when it sought to punish them for criticising Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. In California on Friday, District Judge Noel Wise heaped criticism on the US Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after the agencies attempted to deport noncitizens over protected speech. “Stated plainly, in the United States, freedom of speech belongs to the people,” Wise said in her 90-page decision. “It is not the government’s to take.” The ruling centred on how the second Trump administration revoked visas and detained international students studying in the US after they engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy. read the complete article

Muslim civil rights group launches safety guide for Michigan mosques and Islamic schools

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) has launched a safety toolkit for mosques and Islamic schools amid what the organization said is a rise in nationwide anti-Muslim threats. CAIR-MI’s Safe Spaces department met with local police departments to help guide the development of the toolkit. The organization said it's publishing the resource as Muslim communities across the country face safety concerns including physical attacks, violent threats, and vandalism at mosques. The organization also pointed to a deadly attack at an Islamic center in San Diego in May as part of the broader concerns facing Muslim institutions. The toolkit starts out with a self-assessment checklist that has participating institutions examine their physical security, people and responsibilities, community relationships, and existing plans and procedures. read the complete article

Guest Opinion: Lawsuit against Palo Alto school district fans prejudice

As a Palo Alto parent, I am dismayed at the recent lawsuit filed against Palo Alto Unified School District for sponsoring a high school field trip to a mosque. The lawsuit has already triggered an online avalanche of Islamophobic responses nationwide. At a time of surging anti-Muslim prejudice and right-wing backlash against diversity education, learning about local Muslim communities within a broad social justice framework is more important than ever. The field trip was an optional part of Paly High’s social justice pathway, a three-year program in which students may choose to participate. As students have explained in the Paly student newspaper, the visit to the mosque was part of a broader unit on religion that exposed students to multiple faiths, including Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. Students who went on the trip describe it as exposing them to Muslims and their faith rather than pressuring them to participate in any ritual or observance or favoring Islam over other faiths. A field trip to expose students to a minority faith community is appropriate even if the class doesn’t visit every other community’s place of worship. read the complete article

Oneness or Hindu supremacy? RSS chief Bhagwat’s secretive New York hosts

A visit by India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat to the United States this week is being opposed by many activists, politicians and human rights groups in New York. Bhagwat is scheduled to speak on Saturday at an event called the “Universal Oneness Celebration” at Madison Square Garden in New York, and is expected to draw more than 5,000 attendees, including multifaith leaders. But while the event is being billed as an event for unity, the RSS – a Hindu majoritarian front that is the parent of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party – has repeatedly faced accusations back in India of contributing to the persecution of religious minorities, including Muslims and Christians. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told local media on Tuesday that he does not support the upcoming event and called the RSS’s ideology “exclusionary.” Many human rights groups in the US, such as Hindus for Human Rights, have said in a statement that “Mohan Bhagwat does not represent Hindus.” read the complete article

RSS chief’s visit to US denounced as ‘goodwill tour’ for Hindu nationalism

An event in New York City featuring a prominent Hindu nationalist is being promoted as an invitation to send a positive message that “the world is one family”. But an array of faith groups, advocacy organisations and unprivileged-caste organisations say they are not convinced. They fear Saturday’s rally, held at Madison Square Garden, is instead a high-profile effort to whitewash a record of discrimination and violence. At issue is the Universal Oneness Celebration, hosted by the American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue, a nonprofit that purports to advance “greater peace and harmony”. One of its keynote speakers, however, will be Mohan Bhagwat, the leader of the Hindu paramilitary organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). His organisation has been accused of embracing discriminatory policies and stoking violence against minorities, including India’s Muslim, Christian and Sikh populations. read the complete article

Islamophobia: A spreading hate on the Right

Conservative voters in Texas have a new bogeyman, said J. David Goodman in The New York Times: Muslims. Though only 1% to 2% of Texas residents are Muslim, the community is growing fast—and so is fearmongering from the Christian hard right about the spread of "sharia law" and a planned Islamic "takeover." A proposed mosque development outside Dallas was denounced by influencers as a threat to Western civilization and investigated by state authorities. Multiple conference panels at this summer's state Republican convention "warned of a Muslim invasion." And Gov. Greg Abbott has jumped on the bandwagon: He has designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national civil rights group, a terrorist organization; ordered the cancellation of a private water-park party celebrating a Muslim holiday; and earlier this month threatened to pull state funding from Texas airports that provide ritual washing stations for Muslim travelers. "We experience waves of Islamophobia," said Shaimaa Zayan of CAIR's Austin chapter. "This is the worst wave." It's not just Texas, said Asma Khalid in The Atlantic. Twenty-five years after 9/11, anti-Muslim rhetoric in the U.S. "has grown." In Washington, D.C., prominent GOP lawmakers "have made it clear that they don't see people like me as Americans." Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina recently posted that every "Muslim holding public office in America is a Trojan Horse," while Rep. Randy Fine of Florida has said, "We need more Islamophobia." I first noticed this shift in the run-up to the 2016 election, when Donald Trump called for a "Muslim ban" and claimed falsely that "thousands" of Muslims in New Jersey cheered when the Twin Towers fell. When a presidential candidate spouted Islamophobia, others felt free to join in the hate. read the complete article

Embracing blatant Islamophobia, CBS News makes bizarre attempt to tie El-Sayed to 9/11

CBS News published an August 31 article linking Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the latest example of the news organization’s rightward shift under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. In reality, El-Sayed's comments, which he made on social media, were sober and well within the bounds of typical political discourse. The piece’s headline appeared designed to suggest that El-Sayed, who is Muslim, had disrespected the victims of the attacks or had somehow justified them. Even by CBS News' account, El-Sayed simply invoked the 9/11 death toll while discussing surging deaths during the pandemic and hoped for a strong response across the country to help Americans. CBS News’ Islamophobic framing comes amid a rising wave of anti-Muslim animus in right-wing media, and illustrates how that kind of bigotry can easily migrate to once-respected media organizations. The outlet has lurched to the right under its new owner, David Ellison, and Weiss, a conservative journalist with no experience in broadcast news. read the complete article

Trump Confidante Laura Loomer Goes on Racist, Islamophobic Tirade Over Weekend

This past weekend, far right activist Laura Loomer, an informal adviser to President Donald Trump, made a series of posts on X targeting Democratic lawmakers and candidates for office, as well as progressive media personalities, using racist and Islamophobic terms. In one post, Loomer tagged Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon (D), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts), and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, claiming that her past criticisms of these individuals were wrongly labeled as racist. But even in that post, Loomer couldn’t resist describing those individuals using racist terms. “These women are all ghetto, entitled, race-obsessed, destructive black BITCHES who are completely unfit for the power they hold,” Loomer wrote in her post. Loomer’s Islamophobic comments targeted Muslims in general, too, including her expressing a desire to set up an illegal surveillance state system against Muslim Americans. “I want a Flock Camera outside of every mosque in America,” she wrote. read the complete article

Cisco probably violated Middle Eastern and Muslim employees’ civil rights, US agency finds

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency tasked with enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws, has found that Cisco, the global tech company, probably violated the civil rights of Middle Eastern, Muslim and other company employees. The determination, reached earlier this summer and first reported by Politico Pro, is believed to be the first by the federal agency finding a major company at fault in connection to pro-Palestinian advocacy that swept campuses and workplaces in recent years. Complaints filed by employees in December 2024 detailed how, following the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel, a Cisco internal communications platform was filled with racist and Islamophobic messages, which escalated after more than 1,700 employees signed a public letter challenging the tech giant’s ties to the Israeli government. The posts celebrated the killings of Palestinian civilians, called them animals, and targeted individual Cisco employees who had spoken up for Palestinian rights. read the complete article

Muslims push back as Texas Republicans sharpen attacks on sharia law

In political campaigns and the party’s platform, Texas Republicans condemn “sharia law” as a dangerous system of extremist Islamic rules and restrictions that threaten democracy, religious freedom and personal liberty — an affront to American values that must be stamped out. But when Shaimaa Zayan considers what “sharia” means to her, the Austin resident doesn’t see a hot-button political issue or a legal code that undermines the U.S. Constitution. She sees a set of daily practices that gradually lead Muslims like her closer to Paradise. Linguistically, she said, sharia means “a path to water.” Religiously, she added, the Arabic term describes “the path to success” or “how we should practice our faith.” As Texas Republicans escalate attacks on Islam based on opposition to what they call sharia law, Muslims are pushing back, saying the term has been distorted by ignorance, fear and political opportunism. It’s time, they say, to set the record straight on the meaning of sharia as a religious concept. read the complete article

United Kingdom

Muslim forum demands urgent security funding after man jailed for mosque death threats

A Muslim forum is demanding urgent allocated Government funding for mosque security after a man was jailed for sending death threats to two mosques. Gabriel Levy, from Wakefield, was sentenced to two years in prison for making two anonymous Islamophobic phone calls to the Al-Sunnah Mosque and Iqra Mosque in Manchester in October 2025. Using a withheld number, Levy told one of the call receivers: “I’m going to come to your mosque and kill you". He claimed it was in response to the Heaton Park synagogue attack two days earlier, when a terrorist killed two worshippers on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. The Forum of Muslim Organisations (FMO) in Greater Manchester is now calling on the UK government to urgently allocate security funding for mosques to protect worshippers. read the complete article

South Africa

Online anti-Muslim backlash collides with different reality in South Africa

In recent months, anti-Muslim rhetoric has become more visible online, intersecting with a heated national debate about immigration and anti-migrant movements. Posts have accused Muslims of attempting to take over South Africa, questioned their belonging in the country and accused Muslim organisations of using charity and poverty to convert Black South Africans to Islam. One social media post complained that humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers had been “getting on our nerves with their insistence on pushing their Muslim beliefs in South Africa”. Another claimed: “Most foreigners in South Africa are Muslim and if you look most countries experiencing war are Muslim countries not Christian ones.” Others have accused Muslims of “targeting poverty-stricken communities and converting them to Islam”. But in the rolling hills and villages of Nquthu, the picture is different. For Samukelisiwe Ngubane, her first encounters with Muslims came through Indian shopkeepers in a nearby town. “We have never had a problem. Some people are curious about what they [Muslims] do, but there have been no problems,” she told Al Jazeera. “In these communities, there’s harmony and respect. People really respect my religion,” he told Al Jazeera, standing alongside his grandfather’s gravesite. read the complete article

Think we missed something, or have suggestions for what you’d like to see here?
Contact us at: bridge@georgetown.edu