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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In India, a year after being forced from his home by extremist Hindu nationalists, Mohammad Salim, like many Indian Muslims, fears for his family’s future, meanwhile in the US, Randy Fine, the Republican state representative for Florida, is facing a wave of anger and accusations of Islamophobia after celebrating the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish-American
Germany
Germany's psychodrama runs deeper than AfD and the far-right | Recommended Read
Last week the world was shocked that Germany, of all places, voted in the far-right for the first time since World War II. But for Germany's Muslims, Palestinians, and anti-Zionist Jews, who've known for years something is rotten in Germany, this was scarcely news. As the clock struck twelve, their suspicions were proven right. On the same day a party led by a politician convicted for using Nazi slogan was elected into Thuringia, another video was published on the Bavarian Interior Ministry's X page, showing a hijabi woman searching for religious advice online and ending up being brainwashed by TikTok Imams, ending up wearing a niqab and an unhappy second wife. The Islamophobic floodgates have opened. And despite the video being hastily deleted, it is yet another example of a state apparatus emboldened by a nationwide climate of Islamophobia. Angela Merkel said that "Islam belongs to Germany", but her successor now rants about the "little Pashas" from migrant families who disrespect female teachers and spread dodgy statistics about the supposed frequency of 'gang rapes' committed by migrants. In Germany, commentators who parrot Islamophobic talking points about cultural integration are now awarded lucrative contracts in the booming "deradicalisation" industry, with 5000-word long reads about Greta Thunberg's supposed antisemitism and state-funded video essays that associate the Palestinian Keffiyeh with the Nazis — conveniently forgetting the lederhosen — increasingly common mainstays in the press. Ten years after Pegida began its anti-Muslim marches in Dresden, the marchers' rhetoric has spread into the German mainstream and the state itself. Now one in two Germans sees Islam as a threat. read the complete article
United States
Florida lawmaker sparks outrage for celebrating Turkish-American activist's killing in West Bank
Randy Fine, the Republican state representative for Florida, is facing a wave of anger and accusations of Islamophobia after celebrating the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish-American activist who was fatally shot by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank. "Throw rocks, get shot. One less #MuslimTerrorist. #FireAway," Fine wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to a post announcing Eygi's killing last weekend. Eygi, a US citizen, was shot in the head by Israeli forces during a peaceful protest against illegal Israeli settlements near Ramallah. Eyewitnesses said she was unarmed and "standing there doing absolutely nothing with one other woman" when she was shot. Fine’s comments have sparked widespread condemnation, calling attention to growing concerns about Islamophobia from US officials. Many expressed outrage at his apparent endorsement of the killing of an American citizen by a foreign military. read the complete article
Anti-Arab, Muslim hate crimes in Chicago rise by almost 200 percent since 7 October: CAIR
Hate crimes against Muslims and Palestinians in Chicago have risen by 196 percent since 7 October, according to a US Muslim group. Speaking to Anadolu, an official at the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Chicago branch (CAIR) said the growing number is "raising concerns". Maggie Slavin, operations manager at CAIR-Chicago, said incidents are happening in places of work, schools and public spaces, with many facing consequences for expressing their pro-Palestine views. While some police departments have been cooperative, Slavin says their response to the increase in hate crimes is "uncertain", and some require persistent chase-ups. Slavin also notes the rise in federal surveillance, comparing the current atmosphere after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. read the complete article
Anti-Muslim Extremist Laura Loomer Flew To Debate With Trump
Laura Loomer, the well-known anti-Muslim extremist and Donald Trump sycophant, rode in the former president’s jet to the debate Tuesday, a shocking, if not surprising, embrace by Trump of one of the most blatant, open bigots in American public life. Fox News broadcast footage of Trump’s campaign plane touching down for the debate in Philadelphia, with Loomer exiting the plane a few minutes ahead of the former president. Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. Trump has been close with Loomer for years and has repeatedly praised her, including when she won the Republican primary for an ultimately-doomed 2022 congressional race. Loomer has called Muslims “savages,” celebrated the deaths of migrants and called Islam a “cancer” and has used the hashtag “#proudislamophobe.” “I’m pro-white nationalism,” the anti-Muslim activist, who is Jewish, said in 2017. She added that “this country really was built as the white Judeo-Christian ethnostate” and that immigration and calls for diversity were “starting to destroy this country.” read the complete article
Muslim advocacy group files civil rights complaint against University of Georgia
The Council on American Islamic Relations advocacy group said on Tuesday it filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of some students at the University of Georgia alleging differential treatment of people of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim descent. The complaint alleges the University of Georgia's actions violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars federal funds recipients from allowing discrimination based on race, religion and national origin. It was filed with the U.S. Education Department and urges a federal probe into the university. The council said pro-Palestinian students have been the target of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic harassment since Israel's war in Gaza began, adding the university did not do enough to prevent the harassment or remedy its effects. The university said it supports free speech and does not discriminate based on race or religion while also enforcing its rules and holding accountable those who violate policies. read the complete article
23 Years After 9/11, Are We Any Safer?
It is hard to forget the burning stares of people in the airport that look at you with suspicion and disdain, to the point that your eyes close in shame. I remember feeling deeply embarrassed as a teenager when the Transportation Security Administration officers took my family and I aside to do a secondary screening at the airport. It wasn’t until many years later I realized that this was just a small cost of being Muslim in America after 9/11. It has been 23 years since September 11, 2001. The phrase “Never Forget” is echoed nationally to memorialize the nearly 3,000 lives lost that day. Instead of building a safer world after 9/11, the United States government responded with misplaced vengeance on multiple civilian populations, the consequences of which continue to be felt at home and globally. Following the attacks on 9/11, the U.S. government launched an international military campaign, called the “Global War on Terror,” under then President George W. Bush’s leadership. It was a campaign with no end date that included “large-scale surveillance measures in the U.S., torture, global drone strikes, blacksites, and the Guantánamo Bay military prison.” The U.S. government’s response included wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan that killed 940,000 people directly, while 3.6-3.8 million people died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones. The names of the people killed may never be known and memorialized. At the same time, 38 million people in and from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Libya and Syria were forcibly displaced. Over 7,000 U.S. service members also lost their lives due to our government’s foreign policy since the 9/11 attacks. read the complete article
India
India's Muslims fear for future as Hindu nationalism rises
A year after being forced from his home by extremist Hindu nationalists, Mohammad Salim, like many Indian Muslims, fears for his family's future. The campaign that pushed Salim from his hometown hasn't gone anywhere, with activists still seeking to drive Islam from what they consider a Hindu 'holy land'. Critics say this Hindu-first ideology has been cultivated by India's ruling BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. read the complete article