Today in Islamophobia

Today in Islamophobia: In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced that the country will ban burqas and niqabs in schools, as well as limit the number of foreign students in classes, meanwhile in the Netherlands, The Contact Body for Muslims and Government (CMO) has established a nationwide reporting platform to document attacks, threats and vandalism targeting mosques and other Islamic institutions in the country, and lastly, in Japan, the country’s foreign ministry has come under fire after costumes used to depict terrorists in an anti-terror drill were criticised as stereotypical depictions of a Middle Eastern or Muslim “terrorist”. Our recommended read of the day is by Soumaya Ghannoushi for Middle East Eye, who argues that the “rescue” narrative erases the diversity and agency of Muslim women, treating them as a single oppressed figure in a way that echoes colonial paternalism. This and more below:

International

The world must stop trying to 'rescue' Muslim women | Recommended Read

There is perhaps no woman in contemporary political discourse who has been rescued quite as relentlessly as the Muslim woman. The image is familiar: the Muslim woman, particularly the woman in a hijab, appears as the passive victim of religion, tradition, family and patriarchy. Her clothing is treated as evidence: a visible confession of subjugation, rather than a religious or personal choice. A woman in a miniskirt may be making a choice. A woman in a bikini may be expressing herself. A woman who surgically alters her face or tattoos her body is exercising bodily autonomy. But put a scarf over a woman’s hair, and an extraordinary transformation occurs: apparently, she ceases to possess a will of her own. Someone must have made her do it. This is one of the peculiar contradictions at the heart of certain contemporary western ideas about women’s liberation. A woman is sovereign over her body - until she uses that sovereignty in ways liberal society finds insufficiently “liberated”. Then intervention becomes necessary. For centuries, patriarchal societies presumed the authority to regulate women’s bodies in the name of morality. Today, states regulate Muslim women’s bodies in the name of freedom. The vocabulary has changed; the entitlement has survived. The deeper problem is that the entire discussion rests upon an imaginary figure: the Muslim woman. She does not exist. read the complete article

Jews and Muslims lived together for centuries. Did Zionism tear them apart?

On Deja Vu, Rabbi Haim Sofer explores the history of the Neturei Karta movement’s opposition to Zionism. Can Judaism exist without Zionism? Rabbi Haim Sofer traces Jewish identity through exile and persecution to centuries of life alongside Muslims, from al-Andalus to Morocco and Iraq. How did the dream of a Jewish state and plans for a Third Temple reshape those ties – and why does Neturei Karta, an Orthodox Jewish anti-Zionist movement, oppose a Jewish state? read the complete article

United States

When George W. Bush Defended Muslim Americans

On September 17, 2001, George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. Six days had passed since the 9/11 attacks, and in that time, reports of harassment and violence against Muslim Americans had surged. He addressed the terrorist attacks: “These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith.” Citing a passage from the Quran, Bush described Islam as a religion in which “billions of people find comfort and solace and peace.” He then discussed Muslims’ being targeted, stressing that people “who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America—they represent the worst of humankind.” Bush’s message at the Islamic Center, which he echoed numerous times in post-9/11 remarks, now feels like a remnant from a bygone era. As my colleague Jonathan Chait recently argued, antagonistic, vicious rhetoric about Islam has become more and more widespread on the right. Donald Trump said in the Oval Office last month, in reference to the upcoming midterm elections, that “we have jihadists being elected all over the place.” Also last month, Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina wrote on social media that “every single Muslim holding public office in America” is “a threat to both national security and our republic.” When asked about her comment, Mace replied, “I don’t want to hear the call to prayer five times a day in an American city. I think it’s wrong; it’s not our values.” read the complete article

How Americanness Overcomes Islamophobia

Amen’s dog tags offer an early glimpse of what would grow into the widespread anti-Muslim sentiment that journalist Rozina Ali traces in her new book, Seasons of Fury: Four Families and the Rise of Islamophobia in America. For generations, Muslims occupied a small and largely overlooked place in U.S. life, even if the country rarely accepted or acknowledged their identity. But after 9/11, a small group of politicians and activists seized on the tragedy to scrutinize Muslims and openly question whether they should be in the United States at all. Ali’s book documents that shift, illuminating the policies and practices that shaped Americans’ suspicion of Muslims decades both before and after 9/11. Unlike much of the literature on the attacks and their aftermath, Ali does not ask whether the so-called war on terror succeeded or failed. Instead, she examines what it did to Muslims in the United States—and, in turn, to the country itself—through the stories of four families, all of whom experienced Islamophobia in different ways yet refused to relinquish their claims to American life. read the complete article

How anti-Muslim rhetoric is influencing the pivotal Michigan Senate race

Iqrama Zhar, 19, remembers her middle school classmates turning their heads and staring at her when their history teacher mentioned 9/11. She felt hot shame and rising tears for being implicated in an atrocity simply by virtue of her religion. The Michigan State University student of Pakistani heritage said she thinks of that moment when she hears Abdul El-Sayed, the man who could become the nation’s first Muslim senator, portrayed as close to terrorist sympathizers by his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, in the race for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat. To some of the roughly 240,000 Muslims in Michigan, the campaign against El-Sayed has landed in ways that feel familiar but nonetheless upsetting. It has also contributed to a heated race in an election cycle that has seen Republicans across the country evoke stereotypes about Muslims or openly embrace Islamophobia. El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants who was born and raised in Michigan, faces the challenge of an electoral environment where anti-Muslim rhetoric may resonate. GOP campaign groups generally do not explicitly criticize El-Sayed’s faith, but they often juxtapose him with references to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, terrorism and Islamist extremism, and Rogers has repeatedly called him anti-American. Three-quarters of Republicans’ $29 million worth of ad spending in the Michigan general election has gone toward attacking El-Sayed, with 1 in 3 of those dollars spent on ads that link him to terrorism, according to The Post’s analysis of data from AdImpact, a nonpartisan political advertising tracking firm. A separate Post analysis found that anti-Muslim language has surged about El-Sayed in social media posts, newsletters and podcasts by right-wing influencers in the weeks since his primary win. read the complete article

Trump's war on dissent uses powers tested on Muslims

The US invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and military campaigns in Pakistan, Syria and Yemen, left almost a million people dead - and were followed at home by two decades of surveillance, entrapment and discriminatory immigration policies. After such a devastating toll, we would expect the United States-led "war on terror" to be banished to history as one of its most shameful chapters. Instead, 25 years after then-US President George W Bush declared a "war on terror" on 20 September 2001, we find ourselves in a reboot, a new phase of a chapter that was, and still is, ultimately a war on dissent. Since 9/11, every US president has reaffirmed the "war on terror" to rationalise US military campaigns abroad. Over the last two decades, its logics and justifications have expanded at home, coming to define not just how we view and tolerate dissent, but what we understand as the limits of state power. The US government is in the midst of applying terrorist labels to targets as varied as civilians in fishing boats in international waters, domestic demonstrators against the US healthcare system, protesters against a police training centre in Atlanta and those opposing the cruel and inhumane treatment of migrants. read the complete article

United Kingdom

Manchester United Muslim supporters group calls for co-owner Jim Ratcliffe to go over 'unacceptable' comments

Manchester United's Muslim supporters' Club (MUMSC) has called for club co-owner Jim Ratcliffe to resign after he doubled down on anti-immigration views in an interview with the BBC this week, saying that the UK was in decline. Ratcliffe, who lives in Monaco, has previously stated that the UK is being "colonised" by immigrants, and has railed against benefits claimants. "We had the greatest empire in the world. We were a great people," Ratcliffe said. "We won two world wars. We're good, honest folk. But unfortunately, at the moment, I think the UK is on the slide. It's quite difficult to see how we arrest it." Speaking on immigration and the UK's welfare system, Ratcliffe said that "nobody's tough enough" to deal with the "problem". read the complete article

‘The fears begin to fall away’: why Britain’s mosques are opening their doors to public

At one mosque in north London, a woman shouted at worshippers that more of their children should be killed, as children had been in Gaza. On another occasion, gas pipes were ripped from the building and reconfigured so leaking gas built up inside it. These are among a series of incidents the London Islamic Cultural Society has faced in the past three years. But rather than retreat behind closed doors, the mosque has opened them wider. It is one of more than 100 across the UK, including in London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, Southend and Cardiff, that have invited in members of the public this weekend to learn more about Islam and British Muslims. As part of Visit My Mosque, they have offered tea, cultural food, talks, multi-faith activities and art exhibitions as well as workshop discussions with members. The event, hosted by the Muslim Council of Britain, is now in its 11th year and organisers say it has taken on added importance amid rising anti-Muslim hatred. Dr Wajid Akhter, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “In the current climate, far too many people are getting their information about British Muslims and their neighbours from an algorithm and foreign-funded billionaires fuelling toxic hate towards faith communities, both online and on our streets in Britain.” read the complete article

Italy

Meloni promises to ban burqas, niqabs in Italy’s schools

Italy will ban burqas and niqabs in schools, as well as limit the number of foreign students in classes, said far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with immigration expected to be a central issue in next year’s general election. Meloni outlined the proposed changes on Sunday at a gathering of the youth wing of her nationalist conservative Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, adding that they would also make Italian language lessons compulsory for parents of foreign students having “serious difficulties integrating into the school system”. “For us, anyone who comes to Italy and wants to build their future here must learn our language, understand our culture, and respect our rules,” she said to a standing ovation at the Gioventu Nazionale national festival in Rome. “It is the only serious way to welcome them.” read the complete article

Netherlands

Dutch Muslims launch national platform to track mosque attacks

A leading Muslim umbrella organization in the Netherlands has launched a nationwide reporting platform to document attacks, threats and vandalism targeting mosques and other Islamic institutions, aiming to address underreporting and push authorities toward stronger measures against anti-Muslim discrimination. The Contact Body for Muslims and Government (CMO), which represents Muslim communities in the Netherlands, said mosques and Islamic organizations across the country can now report incidents through the newly established National Reporting Center for Incidents Against Islamic Institutions. CMO Chair Muhsin Köktaş told Anadolu Agency (AA) that existing reporting channels have received too few complaints, despite concerns over attacks and discrimination affecting Muslim communities. read the complete article

Japan

Japan foreign ministry criticised over costumes used in anti-terror drill

Japan’s foreign ministry has come under fire after costumes used to depict terrorists in an anti-terror drill were criticised as stereotypical depictions of a Middle Eastern or Muslim “terrorist”. The ministry shared pictures of the 10 September drill showing people playing terrorists wearing a headscarf resembling a traditional Arab keffiyeh, a headdress featuring a distinctive woven pattern. One picture showed a person playing a terrorist wearing the scarf-like cloth as he placed a bag over a hostage’s head. The images drew criticism online, with some users saying the resemblance to a keffiyeh was hard to miss and accusing the ministry of reinforcing stereotypes linking Arabs or Muslims with terrorism. read the complete article

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