An additional intensified wave of Islamophobic disinformation – or the deliberate spread of false information – comes amid a rising tide of Islamophobia across Europe.

Official data show that Islamophobic crimes in Germany more than doubled in 2023, with nearly one in 10 incidents involving violence, according to the German Alliance against Islamophobia and discrimination against Muslims (CLAIM).

Austria and other EU countries have also reported similar trends while racism and intolerance are rising in France, fuelled by the war in Gaza and far-right ideas in public debate, according to France’s human rights commission, the CNCDH.

It says reports of antisemitic and anti-Muslim acts have increased by 284% and 29% respectively, while other types of racist acts increased by 21%.

Anti-Muslim hate in the UK has more than tripled in the four months since Hamas’s attacks, says the charity Tell Mama which documented 2,010 Islamophobic incidents between 7 October and 7 February – a steep rise from the 600 it recorded for the same period the year previously.
It is the largest number over four months since the charity began in 2011.

Generally, anti-Muslim and anti-semitic attacks have surged in the UK following the Israel-Gaza conflict while in the U.S the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, received a staggering 3,578 complaints about discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or religion in the last three months of 2023.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is also concerned, saying that, “amidst an increase in prejudice and violence against Muslims in a growing number of countries, greater efforts are needed to build dialogue and counter anti-Muslim hatred.”

It hails the fact that all 57 OSCE states, including Uzbekistan, “have committed to fighting prejudice, intolerance and discrimination against Muslims and members of other religions. But it also called on all participating states “to intensify commitments and actions towards this crucial endeavor, striving to nurture an environment where every person can live free from hate and discrimination.”

The OSCE said, “There has been an upsurge in hatred against Muslims especially since the renewed outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East in October last year, with online and offline hate speech, threats and violence having a negative impact on Muslim communities, particularly women and girls.

The organization says all OSCE participating States have committed to combating discrimination and hate crime, adding: “Supporting countries across the OSCE region in combating anti-Muslim hate crime is a key area of our work, but victims across the OSCE area are reluctant to report their experiences to the authorities.”

This worrying trend is not confined to Europe or the U.S and was one of the issues of discussion by international scientists and scholars who got together recently in Uzbekistan to find ways to combat the problem.

Participants from 35 countries were attending the eighth annual Congress of the World Society for the Study, Preservation and Popularization of the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan (WOSCU) in Uzbekistan, with representatives of the International Organization of Turkic Culture, Muslim World Islamic League, the Al-Furqan Foundation, the International Turkic Academy, the Arab World Institute and others.

The event heard that there is a growing global concern related to islamophobia and how the international community, both in the West and beyond, should deal with it.

The conference focused on efforts by Uzbekistan – a Muslim country- to address the issue.

The event heard that the Uzbek focus is on education and “enlightenment”, an approach and policy which the country’s president outlined during his landmark speech in the 78th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in September last year in which he reaffirmed his commitment to freedom of speech.

He also spoke of the “need to strengthen our joint efforts in preventing the spread of the scourge of extremism.”

A declaration was issued at the end of the annual WOSCU congress by the 300 participants from 35 countries, including 15 academicians, 40 professors, 103 doctors of science, 54 directors of museums and libraries and others.

It said: “We are firmly convinced that the work on studying and preserving cultural legacy is of paramount importance for the sustainable development and prosperity of not only Uzbekistan, but also the entire world community.”

A resolution supporting Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s call for “enlightenment against ignorance” and for an end to Islamophobia was adopted.

Those attending agreed that education on Islam should be the main objective and agreed that improved understanding is vital for addressing the “irrational fear or hostility towards the religion of Islam and Muslims in general.”

In a letter to President Mirziyoyev, conference participants noted his broad support for the idea of a “humane Islam” that he expressed in his UN address and his emphasis on the importance of “spiritual enrichment”.

The letter said the congress “fully” supported his initiatives, including in large-scale projects to “preserve the cultural legacy of Uzbekistan for world civilization.”

The congress, held both in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent and ancient Samarkand, approved some 150 projects, including a forthcoming heritage project, developed around the world by the World Scientific Society on Preservation and Popularization of the Uzbek Heritage (WOSCU).

The projects, it was said, seek to foster recognition of “the great contribution of Oriental scholars who have made a significant contribution to world civilization.”

Participants went on to praise Uzbekistan’s investment in Tashkent’s Centre of Islamic Civilization and the Imam al Bukhari Spiritual Centre near Samarkand, both currently under construction, saying, “We consider it our most important task not only to join the activities of the Centre of Islamic Civilization, but also to create a powerful and rapidly developing scientific and cultural platform that will become a bright beacon of enlightenment and knowledge in the East.”

The declaration, adopted at the congress’s plenary session, recognizes the “importance” of the Centre, a “cultural and humanistic mega-project which will give a powerful impetus to fundamental research dedicated to the worthy contribution of great scholars and thinkers of the East to the development of world science and civilization.”

However, the declaration cautioned, “We are concerned about the situation in the world and believe that the ideas of the Uzbekistan president on the truly humanistic and educational essence of the religion of Islam are worthy of the closest attention.”

Established in 2017, the Tashkent-based WOSCU, sponsored by leading Uzbek businessman Bakhtiyor Fazilov, works to highlight the country’s cultural heritage around the world.

A conference in Baku, Azerbaijan in March heard similar concerns to those voiced at the WOSCU event, with Ilham Aliyev, the Azer president, saying, “Regrettably, Islamophobia trends across the world are on the rise.

“We are witnessing the portrayal of Islam as a potential threat, with doubt, discrimination and open hatred against the Muslims becoming increasingly widespread with each passing day.”

He said that Azerbaijan’s determination to combat Islamophobia was “one of the challenges of the modern era” and called for “concerted efforts” to combat Islamophobia and to “generate fresh initiatives aimed at promoting the culture of tolerance and peace found d on respect for religious and faith diversity”.

Source: EU Reporter

After six nights of anti-Muslim and anti-migrant rioting, with looting, assaults on police and hotels set on fire, imams and Muslim community leaders are working with police to increase security at mosques across Britain.

Far-right groups launched the violent protests after falsely alleging that a foreign-born Muslim was behind the July 29 knife attack that killed three young girls and injured eight other children and two adults in a north English town. Authorities have since identified the suspect as 17-year-old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff, reportedly to Rwandan Christian parents.

The riots have exposed divisions across the country over immigration and renewed concerns about the ability of far-right groups on social media to stoke unrest through misinformation.

In a now-deleted post on X, the killer was falsely identified as an asylum seeker named “Ali al-Shakati” said to be known to security services and to mental health agencies. These false claims were then amplified by other X accounts claiming to be “news outlets.” One of the accounts promoting this material, “End Wokeness,” has 2.8 million followers.

Over the weekend, the Home Office, the cabinet department responsible for domestic security, announced that mosques will be offered emergency protection if they are at risk, by way of a rapid security force that would aid local police.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to take legal action against the rioters. Over the past week, police arrested more than 375 people for what Starmer has called “far-right thuggery.”

“Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not protest, it is pure violence and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” he said Monday (Aug. 5) in a televised address after an emergency meeting with police and government ministers.

Hundreds more have participated in the violent protests, and police are still reviewing CCTV footage to identify suspects. Some of the first rioters to be charged appeared in court on Monday.

Meanwhile, British Muslims are increasingly concerned for their safety, with some staying home more for fear of being attacked. Muslim women in particular, often easily identified through their clothing, are particularly distressed about leaving home, said Abubakr Nanabawa, the national coordinator for The Muslim Vote, an organization that encourages Muslims to become involved in politics and vote.

In some areas affected by rioting, including the northern towns of Blackburn, Bolton and Liverpool, groups of young Muslim men have come out onto the streets, acting as street patrols, Nanabawa told Religion News Service.

“Community leaders have given them clear instructions to let the police do their job,” he said. “But we can show we are part of the community and won’t be pushed around.”

Research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit that works against disinformation, polarization and extremism, found that the lack of information immediately following the knife attack helped false allegations online go viral.

“False claims surrounding the attack quickly garnered millions of views online, galvanised by anti-Muslim and anti-migrant activists and promoted by platforms’ recommender systems,” the institute reported. “Far-right networks — a mix of formal groups and a broader ecosystem of individual actors — used this spike in activity to mobilise online, organizing anti-Muslim protests outside the local mosque.”

Milo Comerford, the institute’s director of Policy and Research for Counter-Extremism, said the ability to seize on polarization allows activists to blame vulnerable groups, especially migrants and Muslims.

“It doesn’t have to have any basis of truth,” he said. “It really is just about this sort of preexisting campaign, and a preexisting disposition towards assuming that all problems that are facing the U.K. have to do with specific groups.”

Among the media platforms that have been used to foment discord are X, TikTok and groups on the messaging app Telegram. Some local Facebook groups take information from influencers and then pass it on to their neighborhoods.

Many of those involved in spreading false claims online that the knife attacker is a Muslim have long opposed migrants arriving to the U.K. and claim that they are largely responsible for economic ills. Those making false claims also often exhibit a particular dislike of Muslims as the Muslim population has grown over the past decade.

One of the far-right voices stoking the riots is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the alias Tommy Robinson. Yaxley-Lennon is the founder of the English Defence League, an anti-Islam group considered part of Europe’s “counter-jihad” movement. Though he lives miles away in Cyprus, where he has denied claims that he is fleeing a contempt of court case against him in the U.K., he has encouraged his nearly 900,000 followers on X to protest following the knife attack.

“Innocent British people are under violent attack across our nation & the police are nowhere to be seen,” Robinson said on X on Monday. “Kier starmer has caused this. Whilst he promises protection for mosques those who attend the mosques violently attack any non Muslims.”

Another well-known influencer, the actor Laurence Fox, who has more than half a million followers on X, said on the platform the time has come “to permanently remove Islam from Britain. Completely and entirely.”

In a later post viewed 4.4 million times, Fox denounced Starmer, calling him a “traitor” and declaring “war.”

Many Muslims have expressed surprise by the suddenness and ferocity of the attacks on their communities and other ethnic minorities. But according to Azhar Qayum, chief executive of Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), which aims to combat Islamophobia, “there is no surprise that these communities have been targeted now, because we have just come out of an election campaign which was marred by racist and Islamophobic messaging, by the far-right Reform Party but also by both mainstream Conservative and Labour Parties.

“There are serious issues with unregulated content on social media. However, we have to ask where that content comes from and what enables and mainstreams extremist views. This occurs when politicians and media pander to this demographic for votes.”

Qayum said many Muslims are experiencing “real fear,” and some of their homes have been broken into during the riots.

But there have been some signs of hope. In Liverpool, about 50 demonstrators protesting about Islam gathered outside the Abdullah Quilliam Mosque, the oldest mosque in Britain. They were met by hundreds of counter-demonstrators. Some mosque worshippers attempted to talk to the protesters and offered them food, with some visiting the mosque.

“We shook hands with people, we hugged people, we gave out food to people,” Imam Adam Kelwick told Metro, a U.K. news outlet. “We also exchanged numbers in a promise to arrange an event in the mosque to have further discussions.”

According to Kelwick, the demonstrators are people who are struggling with their health and the costs of living and fear stories about “Muslims taking over.”

Source: Religion News Service (RNS)

In political communication, there is an issue called “illusory truth effect”, which happens when repetition of misinformation makes people more likely to accept a big lie as a truth.

Through media outlets and co-ordinated networks, Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian tropes and conspiracies are circulated. Eventually, they become regarded as social facts, especially in times of war, conflict and heightened political tensions.

Since 9/11, two billion Muslims globally have faced collective punishment. The ubiquity of Islamophobia has led to generalized stereotypes of Muslims as being prone to violence and terrorism.

Moreover, when racist narratives are espoused by politicians, they falsely instill fear and moral panic about the Muslim presence in this country and elsewhere.

Public belief in the vilifying narratives of violent Muslims can become second nature to people who watch biased news reports on mainstream media and a variety of social media platforms that circulate anti-Muslim narratives.

Widespread Islamophobic sentiments translate into anti-Muslim policies and practices. Harassment of Muslims, discrimination, killing of innocent people and ordinary citizens just because they are Muslims, etc. are only small part of the actions that the misinformation of people and Islamophobia creates for Muslims.

In the end, during these dystopian times, the public needs to be able to separate fact from fiction as fabrications masquerade as truth. The consequences are dire.

Source: Theconversation.com