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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In India, the provincial government of the state of Assam has scrapped a two-hour Friday prayer break for Muslim lawmakers, meanwhile in the United States, a Texas woman has been formally indicted by a grand jury in the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American Muslim girl in a May incident that police said was motivated by racial bias, and in Germany, a state government has deleted a controversial and provocative video about Muslims posted to X that has been slammed as echoing Nazi-era propaganda. Our recommended read of the day is by Sadia Khatri for The Butler Collegian who finds that “using Islamic language ignorantly perpetuates harmful stereotypes about Muslims; seemingly blissful ignorance for one person is a dehumanized reality for another. This and more below:
United States
Islamophobia in language: the fear of jihad and Sharia law | Recommended Read
There are a handful of words and phrases associated with and a part of Islam that strike the hearts of many with fear and anxiety. These terms — such as jihad and Sharia law — evoke negative emotional responses and are often used liberally and improperly. Non-Muslims tend to use terms we know very little about with the false authority of an expert; such an attitude upholds new and existing biases. Prevailing prejudices, coupled with very limited knowledge of Islam, is the perfect breeding ground for Islamophobia. Dr. Sholeh Shahrokhi, a professor in the Department of History, Anthropology and Classics, emphasized that there are real consequences associated with improperly using language. “Languages do matter,” Shahrokhi said. “Islamophobic language does hurt people. It’s an act of violence. It’s an act of erasure. It’s an act of systemic silencing and dehumanization and marginalization of voices, in this case, based on stereotypes about ‘the other.’” Referencing Islamic concepts out of context and with little genuine knowledge to support bigoted agendas can have major ramifications. Language is more powerful than we may think. Using Islamic language ignorantly perpetuates harmful stereotypes about Muslims; seemingly blissful ignorance for one person is a dehumanized reality for another. read the complete article
Digital Deception: Disinformation, Elections, and Islamophobia: Juan Cole et al.
Well, hello everybody. Good afternoon, Doha time. My name is Juan Cole. I’m a professor of history at the University of Michigan, and I’m moderating this panel on digital deception, disinformation, elections, and Islamophobia. The webinar is organized by the Middle East Council on Global Affairs. For Arabic speakers who are more comfortable in that language, we do have Arabic translation available in Zoom. You have to switch to the Arabic channel for that. The panel’s subject is a recent report on disinformation research by researchers Marc Owen Jones and Sohan Dsouza. This report revealed a multiplatform global influence campaign promoting anti-Muslim bias, sectarianism, and anti-Qatar propaganda. Jones and Dsouza’s report highlights the use of disinformation to spread a broad neoconservative agenda, including xenophobic, anti-immigration, and anti-Muslim propaganda and disinformation. Marc Owen Jones: The report is called “The Qatar Plot,” a short name, but the longer subtitle, which is important, is “Unveiling a Multiplatform Influence Operation Using Anti-Muslim Propaganda to Attack Qatar in the EU, the US, and the UK.” The Qatar element is important, but in some ways, a bit of a red herring. If I were to summarize this report in simple terms, it is an unknown actor using Facebook and Meta’s ad platform to deliver anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim propaganda to a large audience. When I say a large audience, Soan and I documented that this campaign reached at least 41 million people, primarily on Meta’s platforms, specifically Facebook. read the complete article
Grand jury indicts Texas woman in attempted drowning of 3-year-old Muslim girl
A Texas woman has been formally indicted by a grand jury in the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American Muslim girl in a May incident that local police said was motivated by racial bias. The suspect, identified as Elizabeth Wolf, aged 42, was charged by a Tarrant County grand jury in an indictment filed last month that included a hate crime enhancement, according to court records that came to light on Tuesday. The enhancement may raise the severity of Wolf's sentence if she is found guilty. Wolf, whose representative could not immediately be reached for comment, was charged with attempted capital murder of a person under 10 years of age and intentionally causing bodily injury to a child. According to a police report, the incident in May occurred at an apartment complex swimming pool in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Euless, when the suspect argued with the mother of the 3-year-old girl, who was also at the pool with her 6-year-old son, and asked where they were from. read the complete article
Germany
Islamophobic state government video causes outrage in Germany
A video depicting Muslims that was posted by Bavaria’s interior ministry in Germany has been condemned as Islamophobic. read the complete article
How German far-right wields Islamophobia to cash on east-west divisions
Germany, home to the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe, saw a far-right party become the dominant force in a state parliament for the first time since World War II. While data revealed earlier this year shows the number of crimes against the country’s five million Muslims has more than doubled last year, the far-right surge goes hand in hand with the growing intolerance toward minorities and immigrants. And old divisions between east and west Germany have made matters worse. “Anti-immigration sentiment is much stronger in the East than in the West. The ongoing debate over the AfD's success may, therefore, expose the remaining gaps in German reunification,” says Oliviero Angeli, Chair of Political Theory and History of Political Thought at the Technical University of Dresden. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), a prominent force behind the far-right surge in the European Parliament elections this June, isn't just another far-right party, Angeli tells TRT World. “It's particularly extreme in its political stance and taps into issues that resonate deeply with East Germans.” read the complete article
German state govt removes 'anti-Muslim' video compared to Nazi propaganda
A state government in Germany has deleted a controversial and provocative video about Muslims posted to X that has been slammed as echoing Nazi-era propaganda. The video posted by Bavaria's Interior Ministry purported to warn against the alleged dangers of Salafism — a Muslim movement perceived as being intolerant and puritanical. The cartoon depicts a woman in a headscarf watching a video on whether it is permissible for women to wear makeup. As she watches the explainer, the woman is seen being swallowed up into the mouth of a cackling, bearded man wearing a skullcap. The woman's religious clothing is then seen becoming progressively more pervasive, until she re-emerges from the man's mouth wearing all black and a niqab full face covering. Another scene shows the woman crying while sweeping the floor, while a man — presumably her husband — embraces another niqab-wearing woman. The video warns that "the Salafism trap happens faster than you think". Many took to X to slam the video. “The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior (!) is agitating against Muslims with caricatures that are reminiscent of the times of Nazi propaganda against Jews,” said Berlin house of representatives member Ferat Koçak. Left Party Bundestag member Nicole Gohlke described the video as "thoroughly racist". “Instead of exclusion and incitement, we need to take a stand against anti-Muslim racism, ” she wrote on X. read the complete article
India
Anger in India as province scraps Friday prayer break for Muslim lawmakers
The provincial government of an Indian state has scrapped a two-hour Friday prayer break for Muslim lawmakers, kicking off a controversy that has echoed in the corridors of power in the country’s federal government in New Delhi. The change in Assam – a north-eastern state close to Bangladesh and China – breaks an 87-year-old tradition in the Assam Legislative Assembly and was ostensibly done to discard a “colonial practice” that allegedly divided society along religious lines. However, the move seems to have deepened the communal divide in the Hindu-majority—but constitutionally secular—country that’s home to the largest Muslim population after Indonesia and Pakistan. “The two-hour break is a time-honoured tradition of the Assam assembly. All that the ruling alliance has demonstrated by scrapping the provision is their anti-Muslim bias,” says Ashraful Hussain, a regional lawmaker from the opposition All India United Democratic Front—the third-largest party backed mostly by Muslim voters in Assam. Speaking to TRT World, Hussain said Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wants to achieve a two-fold objective by stirring up this controversy: to curry favour with the right-wing nationalist Hindus who now dominate politics at the state and central levels and to put Muslims in their place by using majoritarian tactics. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Evidencing a rise in anti-Muslim and anti-migrant online hate following the Southport attack
Far-right[1] riots in the UK in the aftermath of the Southport attack resoundingly demonstrated the role of social media in facilitating the viral spread of misinformation, hate and extremist mobilisations. The riots did not appear from nowhere but occurred against the backdrop of widespread anti-Muslim and anti-migrant prejudice on social media. Across both large mainstream platforms such as X and more fringe messaging services such as Telegram, ISD evidenced how users and channels with large followings shared harmful stereotypes about Muslims and migrants in the immediate aftermath of the attack. This article quantifies the growth of hate on both Telegram and X following the Southport attack. Leveraging bespoke automated detection software at a large scale, it shows both a rise in hateful online content and provides an initial analysis of the narratives used to spread it on both Telegram and X. Analysts also investigate the hashtag #TwoTierKeir – a hashtag suggesting that Prime Minister Starmer supports a two-tier policing system – as an example of borderline content, which was used to spread anti-Muslim and anti-migrant stereotypes in a covert manner, thereby reaching huge audiences. read the complete article