In a letter addressed to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French lawmaker and former Minister Nadine Morano accused professor Şehmus Demir, the rector of Gaziantep Islam, Science and Technology University (GIBTU) of “being close to Hamas” and urged the EU to cut off its relations with the school “immediately.”

The letter, including signatures of other French politicians, claimed the university supported Hamas and said EU’s Erasmus+ partnership with it was “scandalous” in light of its support of Palestine against Israel’s occupation.

Islam plays a central role in the university’s educational program, the letter argued, slamming Demir for his criticism of Israel.

The letter comes at a time when Islamophobic sentiments and far-right parties have been strengthening across Europe and the European Parliament, revealing that anti-Islam policies are not limited to security but spreading to cultural and academic cooperation, too.

The French politicians’ letter is based on claims published in Journal du Dimanche, a popular French weekly.

Turkish universities were among hundreds of other institutions around the world that organized encampments to protest Israel’s brutal offensive in Gaza earlier this year.

Türkiye has been a vocal critic of Israel since the start of the war and a staunch defender of the Palestinian cause, including holding talks with Palestinian, Israeli and Hamas officials.

President Erdoğan has called Israel a “terrorist state” and accused it of carrying out a genocide in Gaza. He has expressed full support for Hamas and rejected the Western stance of classifying it as a terrorist organization.

Israel’s brutal onslaught in the Gaza Strip is nearing its first anniversary, which began on Oct. 7 following Hamas’ incursion into southern Israel and has since spread to Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East.

In the past year alone, Israel’s bombing killed at least 41,800 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, and more than 700 others in the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967.

Israeli estimates indicate that around 720,000 Israelis now live in illegal settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The international community, including the U.N., considers these settlements illegal under international law, and the U.S. has said that Israel’s expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank is inconsistent with international law.

The Lebanon escalation follows a landmark opinion in July by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that declared Israel’s decadeslong occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Source: Daily Sabah

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.

Critics also highlighted what they saw as a double standard in the treatment of public figures. Several people posted about Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who faced backlash and censure for her use of the phrase “from the river to the sea”.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organisation in the US, along with its Florida chapter, has called for the Florida legislature to censure Fine for his tweet.

“We struggle to think of another time in modern American history when an elected official openly celebrated the murder of an American by a foreign government and encouraged more such killing. Randy Fine has made it clear where his priorities lie, and it is not with the American people,” stated Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s national deputy executive director, on Monday.

“We urge the Florida House of Representatives to censure him for this hateful, un-American rant,” the statement added.

His account on X is filled with posts using hashtags like “#MuslimProblem”, “#BombsAway” and “#MuslimTerrorists”.

Cair has highlighted various instances of Fine using langauge that “dehumanises all Palestinians and uses Islamophobic tropes,” including a comment that read: “Proud to stand with my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, in condemning the Islamic terrorism coming out of Gaza. I fully support Israel using maximum force to punish these animals. #NoMercy.”

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 16,825 children, in Israeli attacks since 7 October.

Source: Middle East Eye