The various institutions of postwar Europe were intended to keep the peace, bring warring peoples together and build a sense of continental attachment and even loyalty. From the growth of the European Union itself to other, softer organizations, dealing with culture or sports, the hope has always been to keep national passions within safe, larger limits.

But growing antisemitism, increased migration and more extremist, anti-immigrant parties have led to backlash and divisions rather than comity. The long war in Gaza has only exacerbated these conflicts and their intensity, especially among young Muslims and others who feel outraged by Israeli bombings and by the tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza, a large proportion of them women and children.

Those tensions were on full display in the recent violence surrounding a soccer match between an Israeli and a Dutch team in Amsterdam, where the authorities are investigating what they call antisemitic attacks on Israeli fans, as well as incendiary actions by both sides. Amsterdam is far from the only example of the divisions in Europe over the Gaza war and of the challenges they present to European governments.

The normally amusing Eurovision Song Contest, which was held this year in Malmo, Sweden, a city with a significant Muslim population, was marred by pro-Palestinian protests against Eden Golan, a contestant from Israel, which participates as a full member.

The original lyrics to her song, “October Rain,” in commemoration of the 1,200 Israelis who died from the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel’s response in Gaza, were rejected by organizers for their political nature, so were altered to be less specific. Her performance was met with booing and jeering from some in the audience, but she did receive a wave of votes from online spectators, pushing her to fifth place.

It was hardly the demonstration of togetherness in art and silliness that organizers have always intended.

In Germany, where supporting the existence of Israel is a “Staatsräson,” a fundamental principle of the German state, there have been numerous examples of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies. Palestinian supporters say they, too, have felt marginalized, their voices unheard or unheeded.

The police in Germany have shut down pro-Palestinian conferences and denied entry to pro-Palestinian speakers, while some German art organizations have withheld prizes to authors whom they have deemed to have been overly critical of Israel or of Israeli conduct in Gaza or the West Bank.

A year ago, the Frankfurt Book Fair was accused of “shutting down” Palestinian voices, after an awards ceremony to honor “Minor Detail,” a novel by a Palestinian author, Adania Shibli, was canceled because of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Just this week a documentary film about life in the occupied West Bank that won the Berlin film festival this year, “No Other Land,” opened in German cinemas with renewed charges that it exhibits “antisemitic tendencies,” according to the Berlin city website Berlin.de.
The director of the fair, Tricia Tuttle, rejected the charge, and the website changed its wording.

“The Gaza war has infected everything,” said Stefan Kornelius, a senior editor of the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. “The war causes people to position themselves and support a one-sentence verdict on the Mideast,” he said. “It often runs counter to German Staatsräson on Israel, which supports Israel whatever it takes, and that counterreaction, especially in the arts, causes people to back the Palestinians with some intensity.”

What took place in Amsterdam, however, was of a different order and shook many in Europe beyond the Netherlands.

The match last week between an Israeli team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Amsterdam’s Ajax, was part of the Europa League competition run by the Union of European Football Associations, best known as UEFA.

While soccer has always been a deeply partisan sport, stoking nationalism and sometimes related violence, the sport’s near universality also provides a common bond and players from one country often play on teams in others.

Fearing the kind of violence seen in Amsterdam, the authorities in France, which like the Netherlands has a significant minority of Arab and Muslim citizens, deployed an extra 4,000 police officers for a soccer match Thursday evening on the outskirts of Paris between the national teams of Israel and France.

President Emmanuel Marcon, his prime minister and two former French presidents attended the match in a show of solidarity against antisemitism, and though demonstrators protested nearby, there was only a minor skirmish in the stands that the police quickly controlled.
Passions have been running high. In Germany, Berlin police are investigating reports that a youth team of Makkabi Berlin, a Jewish football club, were chased by a crowd yelling “Free Palestine” and bearing sticks and knives after a match with another Berlin club. The police said that they were investigating the incident on grounds of breach of the peace, incitement and insult.

If Oct. 7 changed so much for Israel and Jews abroad, Israel’s asymmetric response, which has brought accusations of multiple war crimes and even genocide, has changed much for Arabs and Muslims in Europe, too. Many Muslims in Europe say they feel threatened themselves.

The rise of extremist nationalist parties like the Alternative for Germany, which has numerous neo-Nazi members and has used racist language to condemn immigration and call for the expulsion of nonnative German citizens, has heightened those anxieties.
Aiman Mazyek, chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, said that there is “a climate of fear” among Muslims since Oct. 7.

“Many Muslims in our country are uneasy, they’re afraid to speak out at all, and feel intimidated by the debate,” he said. There have been attacks on mosques and “on Muslims and also those who are perceived to be Muslims at a rate like never before,” he said.

According to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, which monitors both antisemitism and anti-Muslim discrimination, nearly one in every two Muslims in the bloc face racism and discrimination in their daily lives, a sharp increase since 2016, it said in a report last month.

They are targeted, the report said, not just because of their religion, but also because of their skin color and ethnic or immigrant background. Young Muslims born in Europe and women wearing religious clothing are especially affected, the report said, and many face racial profiling by the police.

Given the heightened atmosphere, there is much attention on Thursday’s France-Israel match.

Hélène Conway-Mouret, vice president of the foreign affairs and defense committee of the French Senate, said that feelings among young Muslims were running especially high because of the horrors of the long Gaza conflict and confusion about where they belong.
“There is a real identity issue with second and third generation Muslim immigrants,” she said. “Their parents knew they were Moroccan, for example. But their children wonder, ‘Are they Moroccan,’ and yet they are not.” Nor are they always accepted as French, and face significant discrimination.

In a way, she said, support for the Palestinians “brings them together as a community.”

There have been nearly 70 arrests so far in Amsterdam, including 10 Israelis, for mostly minor offenses. Dutch officials have decried the attacks in Amsterdam as antisemitism, including what they said was an orchestrated effort to seek out Jews, as they also investigate inflammatory actions and vandalism by some Israeli fans.

“What happened over the past few days is a toxic cocktail of antisemitism, hooligan behavior and anger over the war in Palestine and Israel, and other countries in the Middle East,” Femke Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam, wrote to the City Council.

“Antisemitism can’t be answered with other racism,” she added. “The safety of one group cannot be at the expense of the safety of another.”

Source: The New York Times

Sheikh Qaradaghi said: “We must not leave Lebanon or Gaza easy prey for targeting and division, for the sake of a sectarian or political disagreement, as the enemy does not differentiate between Muslims in its genocide against them, as anyone who is not with them is against them.

“What is required by Shari’ah is to stand as one against the Zionist project and against the Zionist genocide in any country. What we are witnessing today in terms of attacks on Lebanon and Gaza is an attack on the dignity of our peoples and our lands, and we cannot allow it to continue.”

The International Union of Muslim Scholars was founded by Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradhawi and is headquartered in Qatar, but is comprised of leading scholars from around the globe.

Sheikh Qaradaghi is a renowned Kurdish scholar who is now based in Qatar.

Here is a translation of his statement from the original Arabic:

“In the name of God, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. What is happening in Lebanon today is a blatant aggression on land and people, the destruction of people’s homes, the killing of civilians including children and women, and part of the policy of Netanyahu and his extremist right-wing group to expand the State of Israel to include Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and parts of Lebanon and Jordan. The annexation of the Golan has actually been achieved.

“It is not just a disagreement with a political or partisan faction. Distinguishing between problems of a sectarian nature and issues that affect the Ummah as a whole is a duty upon all Muslims and free people of the world. We must not leave Lebanon or Gaza easy prey for targeting and division, for the sake of a sectarian or political disagreement, as the enemy does not differentiate between Muslims in its genocide against them, as anyone who is not with them is against them.

“What is required by Shari’ah is to stand as one against the Zionist project and against the Zionist genocide in any country. What we are witnessing today in terms of attacks on Lebanon and Gaza is an attack on the dignity of our peoples and our lands, and we cannot allow it to continue.

“Our disagreement with the partisan policies of some Lebanese or Palestinian parties does not give us the right to support any aggression targeting peoples. We must not rejoice when the Lebanese or Palestinian people are attacked under any pretext. This aggression is a blatant assault, and Muslims and their governments must work to prevent it.

“As the President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, I call upon our Islamic and Arab nation to do their duty in the face of the Zionist aggression and genocide, and I also urge that an urgent Arab-Islamic summit be held to discuss and stop this rampant Zionist madness that targets not only Gaza and Lebanon, but also extends to all Arab and Islamic capitals and countries.

“Our responsibility requires us to take immediate action to stop the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, and to demand an end to the brutal bombing of Gaza. We also call for providing our people in Gaza with everything they need to confront the siege, whether on the military, food, or economic level, or any type of support necessary for their continued steadfastness.

“Arabs and Muslims have many cards, including announcing the cutting off of oil and gas until the aggression stops, as well as the political and economic boycott of the Zionist entity, and the severing of diplomatic relations. Our silence in the face of this aggression deepens the tragedies of our peoples, and we must work according to the jurisprudence of priorities and awareness of the present and realise the meaning of God’s saying: ‘And hold fast, all of you together, to the rope of God,’ and His saying: ‘And do not dispute and [thus] lose courage. God is the helper.’”

Source: 5Pillars 

It comes amid a 365 percent surge in anti-Muslim hate incidents across the UK since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

She said: “There’s been an explosion of Islamophobia since October 7 – but there’s also a huge underreporting of the issue.”

“In my constituency, people report it to me but not the police. They kind of just put it down to the price you pay for being a Muslim in this country, (but) reporting is then what drives police policy, social policy and potential legislation. We all have a role to play.”

Ms Mahmood made the comments after the recent screening of HIJABI, a documentary created by BAFTA award-winning filmmaker, Samir Mehanovic, at the House of Commons.

The documentary charts the journeys of five British women who choose to wear the hijab and their experiences of Islamophobia in the UK and was unveiled to mark the International Day To Combat Islamophobia and International Women’s Day.

The heartwrenching story of a Muslim grandmother left devastated after an Islamophobic attack by teenagers and forced to flee Britain formed part of the testimonies heard in the film.

During a panel discussion after the screening, Ms Mahmood, who has been MP for Birmingham Ladywood since 2010, added: “Islamophobia has passed the dinner party test – it’s seen as acceptable. This is not just a Muslim problem, it should be addressed by all of society.”

According to Tell Mama, an organization dedicated to fighting Islamophobia, 65 percent of all incidents target women, with those who wear a hijab or niqab especially vulnerable.

Lee Anderson, the former Tory deputy chairman, was suspended from his party last month after accusing Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, of being controlled by Islamists.

Mr Anderson has refused to apologise for the remarks despite Rishi Sunak, Britain’s first Asian prime minister, labelling them “wrong”.

Speaking after the screening, Labour MP Afzal Khan said: “With Islamophobic hate crime having trebled since October and senior members of the Conservative Party spouting Islamophobia through the media in recent weeks, there has never been a more pressing time to listen to the testimonies of visibly Muslim women in Britain.

A government spokesperson told The Independent: “British Muslim women make a huge contribution to the United Kingdom and in strengthening the ties that bind our country together.

“It is unacceptable for anyone to feel unsafe while practising their religion and we take a zero-tolerance approach to anti-Muslim hatred.

“We expect the police to fully investigate all hate crimes and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to make sure the cowards who commit these abhorrent offences feel the full force of the law.”

Shaista Aziz, who was among the first Labour councillors to resign in protest over Keir Starmer’s response to the Gaza attacks said: “When it comes to Islamophobia, there’s rightly lots of focus on the government and what is they are doing and not doing. There’s no focus though, on the man who wants to become the next leader of this country: Keir Starmer.”

A recent poll by HOPE not Hate revealed that 58 percent of Conservative Party members think Islam is a threat to the British way of life while Labour’s support amongst British Muslims has plummeted amid major concerns about Sir Keir Starmer’s handling of the Gaza war.

London-based charity Islamophobia Response Unit (IRU) reports that many Islamophobia incidents have involved people being targeted over their support for Palestine, as the Israel-Hamas war spirals on.

Source: The Independent

The victim, accompanied by three young American Muslims, was driving home after participating in a pro-Palestine protest when Bert James Baker, a white male on a bicycle, attempted to tear a flagpole adorned with a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf reading ‘Free Palestine’ off their car.

According to the victims, Baker repeatedly screamed the n-word and other obscenities, opened the passenger door, pulled one of the victims out of the car and stabbed him in the chest.

The Austin Police Department promptly arrested the attacker on the scene for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

“We strongly condemn this apparent act of hate, we applaud these young men for bravely defending themselves, and we call on state and federal law enforcement authorities to file appropriate charges against the suspect, including hate crime charges,” Mustafa Carroll, director of the Dallas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement.

“No one should be targeted and attacked because they put Palestinian-themed items on their vehicle. Anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim bigotry have no place in Texas or anywhere else in our nation.”

CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell warned against the rising wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate.

“This apparent act of hate in Austin appears to be the latest incident of hate motivated by the rise in anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia,” he said.

“From the murder of six-year-old Wadea outside Chicago to the shooting of three college students in Burlington, Vermont, far too many incidents of violence against Muslims, Palestinians and others who support Palestinian human rights have occurred over the past several months. Those responsible for this violence must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and those fomenting the hate that leads to this violence must be condemned.”

The victim, who hasn’t been named, is the third Palestinian American to be targeted after the eruption of the Gaza war on October 7.

Last October, another Palestinian American was hospitalized after being hit by the driver of a dark SUV who shouted ‘Kill all Palestinians,’ ‘Long live Israel’.

Also in October, Palestinian American boy Wadea al-Fayoume was stabbed 26 times by a 71-year-old landlord who was allegedly upset about the Israel-Hamas war.

Source: AboutIslam

Months before the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war ramped up ethnic and religious tensions in many Canadian communities, a government task force rejected requests to recognize Muslim and Jewish public servants as separate groups facing systemic workplace barriers.

Muslim and Jewish public servants asked to be designated as employment equity groups under the Employment Equity Act nearly two years ago in submissions to the task force, set up by Employment and Social Development Canada.

“Discrimination and socio-economic barriers continue to exist for Canadian Muslims. These barriers will not disappear without intervention,” says the MFEN’s (Muslim Federal Employees Network) submission. “We recommend that Muslims are added to the Employment Equity Act as a designated employment equity group.”

The Employment Equity Act (EEA) was introduced in 1986 to knock down employment barriers facing four marginalized groups: women, Indigenous people, people with disabilities and members of visible minorities.

The legislation requires that federally regulated employers with more than 100 employees use data collection and proactive hiring to ensure that these groups are not under-represented in their workforces. No designated employment equity groups have been added to the EEA since its creation.

The Muslim Federal Employees Network (MFEN) and Jewish Public Service Network (JPSN) submissions were prepared in spring 2022, long before the latest deadly conflict erupted between Israel and Hamas in October of last year.

Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan shared the task force’s findings with the media last December, after his office initially received them in April 2023.

The task force said it decided “not to recommend the creation of a separate category for some or all religious minorities at this time,” but encouraged further study.

The MFEN said Muslim federal employees face various forms of Islamophobia. In its submission, it cited reports of Muslim women being subjected to comments “about their ability to do their federal public jobs because they wear a hijab,” and of Muslim men “who are seen to be terrorists and perpetrators of violence.”

It said Muslim federal employees have sometimes struggled to obtain security clearances “because of biases around their countries of origin or their names.”

Final decisions on adding more groups to the legislation will be made by O’Regan.

In a statement, O’Regan’s office said it might consider further changes to the EEA.

The statement said O’Regan “will continue to engage affected communities, including religious minority communities.”

The office said it looks forward to tabling new government legislation but did not offer a timeline.

Source: CBC News

Speaking to Sky News on Friday, Yousaf called on political leaders to “stop beating around the bush”, and that if recent statements from Israeli ministers were “not tantamount to ethnic cleansing, then I don’t know what is”.

Yousaf, told Sky News: “In the last week, we have heard statements from senior ministers in Netanyahu’s government, the finance secretary, the national security minister, very senior members of Netanyahu’s government.

They have made statements that the population of Gaza should be resettled, moved out of Gaza, and have gone as far as saying that Israeli settlements should now be in Gaza.

If that is not tantamount to ethnic cleansing, then I don’t know what is.

I think political leaders should stop beating around the bush, should call what they’re seeing in Gaza by what it is.

We are seeing not only a humanitarian crisis, but we’re now seeing senior members of the Netanyahu government making statements that are frankly the textbook definition of ethnic cleansing, and should be condemned in the strongest possible manner.”

Addressing the United Kingdom, Yousaf said the government must clarify to “Israel” that its conduct in Gaza has surpassed what is considered a “legitimate response”.

He also called the UK’s stubborn refusal to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza “shameful”, as he tried to urge for the employment of its influential power to halt all Israeli attacks and hold Israeli officials, including PM Benjamin Netanyahu, accountable for the killing of over 22,000 Palestinians.

Moreover, he advocated for sending aid to Gaza to curb the unfolding humanitarian crisis, as 85% of the population has been internally displaced and faces imminent threats of famine and disease.

Yousaf declared that it was “essential and urgent” that the UK government tell “Israel” and the world that “only Palestinians can have authority in Gaza.”

Source: Sky News

An estimated 70 percent of respondents said they knew someone who experienced religious intolerance since October 7, when the Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, killing 1,140 people.

Israel has since led a military offensive against Gaza, a Palestinian enclave, killing more than 21,000 people. That response has raised human rights concerns, with United Nations experts warning of a “grave risk of genocide”.

While Palestinians are an ethnic group — and not a religious one — the University of São Paulo’s Professor Francirosy Barbosa found that the events of October 7 resulted in incidents of religious intolerance in Brazil, as Palestinian identity was conflated with Muslim identity.

She led November’s survey of 310 Muslim Brazilians. Respondents, she explained, reported receiving insults that reflected tensions in the Gaza war.

“Many Muslim women told us they are now called things like ‘Hamas daughter’ or ‘Hamas terrorist’,” she told Al Jazeera.

The survey, conducted online, also found that many of the respondents also had firsthand experience with religious intolerance.

“About 60 percent of the respondents affirmed that they suffered some kind of offence, either on social media or in their daily lives at work, at home or in public spaces,” Barbosa said.

Women in particular, the study noted, reported slightly higher rates of religious intolerance.

Brazil is predominantly Christian, home to an estimated 123 million Catholics — more than any other country in the world. But it has a long-standing, if smaller, Muslim population. Academics believe Islam arrived in the country with the transatlantic slave trade, as kidnapped African Muslims continued to practice their religion in their new surroundings.

One group of enslaved Muslim Brazilians even launched a rebellion against the government in 1835, called the Malê uprising — a term derived from the Yoruba word for Muslim.

Brazil’s Muslim population grew with waves of immigration in the late 19th and 20th centuries, particularly after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Arab immigrants, particularly from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, came to know Brazil as their home.

The exact number of Muslims in Brazil today is unknown. The 2010 census counted 35,167 people identified as Muslim, but in the years since, other estimates have come out, setting the population as high as 1.5 million.

More information on: AlJazeera

While many in the West grapple with an existential anxiety stemming from their belief in a creation without purpose, the unwavering faith of Gazans who have endured every conceivable misery has strongly resonated with those living with the perpetual angst of a meaningless universe.

Despite facing a barrage of bunker-busting missiles and being deprived of every material comfort, their ability to patiently bear calamities by showing gratitude for God’s blessings has galvanized millions of people to decry Israel’s genocide, express solidarity with Gazans and inquire deeper into the beliefs which foster such a mindset.

As a result, internet searches for the Quran have spiked and many non-Muslims have taken to online forums to parse through its passages on salvation and redemption to make sense of why Palestinians do not dread mortality and exude such optimism when their lives have been shattered.

Not only are Palestinians acknowledging the mental health benefits of faith in a transcendent reality which many implicitly desire, they are appreciating the intrinsic value of being God-conscious in a materialistic world and turning to Islam to anchor their psychological well-being.

Source: 5pillars

Among those who spoke at a rally near the Vollmer Complex in LaSalle, where students gathered after leaving their second-period class, was an individual who has lost 16 family members in Gaza.

The goal of the walkout was to show solidarity and urge local leaders to take action to provide support. Organizers also called for a ceasefire and for Canadian government officials to stop providing military aid to Israel. Additionally, they emphasized the need for mental health assistance for Palestinian students and efforts to counter antisemitism and Islamophobia in schools.

The walkout was part of a coordinated effort by Ceasefire Now, a coalition of 42 high school student groups in Ontario, to call for an immediate ceasefire.

Source: CTV NEWS