Article by Nesrine Malik

Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York’s mayoral primary has triggered a wave of Islamophobic backlash that exposes the deep-rooted prejudice Muslims continue to face in American politics. Rather than celebrating a democratic win driven by grassroots support and progressive ideals, many responded with hysteria, painting Mamdani as a dangerous outsider bent on imposing extremist agendas—simply because he is Muslim.

Islamophobia exploded in both subtle and overt forms. Public figures, media personalities, and Republican politicians launched coordinated attacks, portraying Mamdani as a threat to national identity. He was falsely labeled a “jihadist terrorist,” a “Hamas sympathizer,” and mockingly referred to as “little Muhammad.” Even the deputy chief of staff in the Trump administration used his win to reignite fears about immigration, while others imagined apocalyptic scenarios of Islamic domination, such as veiling the Statue of Liberty in a burqa. These grotesque portrayals weren’t fringe—they were mainstreamed and widely circulated, exposing how normalized anti-Muslim sentiment remains in American discourse.

More shocking is the silence from within Mamdani’s own Democratic Party. Senior leaders like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries failed to condemn the Islamophobic onslaught. This silence speaks volumes: that anti-Muslim hate, when politically expedient, is not only tolerated but structurally supported. It confirms that Islamophobia isn’t just individual ignorance—it’s a systemic force used to marginalize and discipline Muslims in public life.

Mamdani’s “crime” isn’t merely being a Muslim politician—it’s that he refuses to compromise his values. He has stood firmly for affordable housing, economic justice, and Palestinian human rights. While condemning antisemitism and supporting Israel’s right to exist, he has not bowed to pressure to distance himself from slogans like “globalize the intifada,” which he sees as calls for equality. For this, he is seen as beyond redemption by a system that demands Muslims continually prove their loyalty and docility.

This episode reveals the broader truth: anti-Muslim hate operates as a gatekeeping mechanism, barring dissenting voices and progressive politics from entering the mainstream. Mamdani’s victory threatens this structure—not because of who he is, but because he won despite it. His success has forced Islamophobia into the open, where its cruelty and absurdity are visible to all. And in doing so, Mamdani has become a symbol of both the challenges and the possibilities facing Muslim Americans who dare to lead.

Source: The Guardian

According to the complaint, Green was forced to remove her hijab for her booking photo and her photo identification card. The latter is pinned to the inmates’ jumpsuits and is presented to personnel every day to access all checkpoints and programs within the facility. Despite countless efforts to beg officials to let her keep her hijab on, Green states that she was prohibited from wearing it for more than 12 hours as she awaited arraignment. Although Green was permitted to take a new photo wearing her hijab “after several months of daily humiliation,” the thought of the old photo remaining in the system, where officials continue to view it every day, continues to cause her great harm.

The allegations also speak of occasions where facility officials “confiscated Green’s hijab and other religious items and refused to return them.” During a search of her cell, Green found that her misbahah, prayer beads often used by Muslims, had been destroyed, and in a subsequent search, her Quran was “tossed to the ground.” Moreover, the complaint asserts that Green was denied religious meals multiple times, specifically during Ramadan, during which inmates are allowed to apply for a modified meal schedule. This was particularly concerning for Green since she has Type 2 diabetes, and regular mealtimes during fasting are crucial in maintaining stable blood sugar levels.

Finally, the complaint emphasizes Green’s extreme “depression, overwhelming grief, and frequent emotional breakdowns that left her…confused about her faith and how to live her life.” In a press release, Green stated that because she was deprived of her hijab on so many occasions, she was “unable to pray” for herself and her family, including her mother, “who was dying from stage four cancer.” She said that she felt “traumatized and had a crisis of faith because of what happened.”

A CAIR-NY staff attorney said that “correctional officers are not above the law” and that “the right of incarcerated people to practice their religion must be respected.” Green asks for a trial by jury, seeking compensatory and punitive damages and injunctions to enjoin officials from committing repeat offenses.

Relatedly in 2010, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that police officers did not violate a Muslim woman’s religious rights by forcing her to remove her hijab. In 2020, a Virginia prison changed its clothing policies to allow religious head coverings. Whether prohibiting religious head coverings in prisons is constitutional remains to be observed.

Source: Jurist news

President-elect Donald Trump and a top adviser appeared to blame immigration for the New Year’s Eve massacre in New Orleans, linking ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ to one of his top political priorities.

Federal investigators said the suspect in the New Orleans attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who killed 14 people and left dozens injured was a Texas-born U.S. citizen and Army veteran.

Police fatally shot Jabbar after he rammed a truck carrying an ISIS flag into a crowd of New Year’s Eve revelers on Bourbon Street early Wednesday.

Deputy Assistant FBI Director Christopher Raia on Thursday said investigators believe Jabbar acted alone to execute a premeditated “act of terrorism” that was “100% inspired by ISIS,” referring to the Islamic State terrorist organization.

Trump Turns to Immigration

As of mid-Thursday, federal investigators hadn’t drawn any links between the New Orleans terror suspect and the U.S.-Mexico border or immigration.

But in posts on his social network Truth Social in the wake of the attack, Trump linked the massacre to “criminals coming in” and drew links between “radical Islamic terrorism” and immigration.

Blaming what he called President Joe Biden’s “open borders” policy, Trump said, “Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe.”

“That time has come only worse than ever imagined,” he said.

The Trump transition team didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has frequently blamed immigration for a perceived increase in crime, amplifying heinous acts committed by immigrants and occasionally spreading false information tying immigrants to disorder, all to boost his signature campaign promise: cracking down on illegal immigration.

A Mistaken News Report

“It’s using tragedy and a serious problem to further his political agenda,” said Naureen Shah, an attorney at the ACLU. “He thinks vilifying immigrants is his blank check to cash, and in many ways he has been vindicated in his misuse of the facts.”

The immigration narrative got an early boost after FOX News, citing anonymous sources, erroneously reported Wednesday that the New Orleans suspect may have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump quickly blamed “the criminals coming in” before FOX corrected its reporting. The statement remained on Trump’s Truth Social feed and on Trump transition Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s X account on Thursday.

“When I said that criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our own country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake New Media, but it turned out to be true,” Trump said in the statement.

New Orleans Killer Declared His Support for ISIS

Raia, of the FBI, said 42-year-old Jabbar drove from Houston, where he lived, to New Orleans on Tuesday, Dec. 31. Shortly before the attack, Jabbar posted five videos on an online platform “proclaiming his support for ISIS,” Raia said.

The extremist group known as ISIS peaked as a fighting force overseas about a decade ago. It grew out of Al Qaeda elements who fought an insurgency against U.S. forces in Iraq and later claimed it wanted to establish an Islamist caliphate across parts of the Middle East.

Trump’s musings followed a post late Wednesday by aide Stephen Miller, his incoming deputy chief of staff for policy and Homeland Security adviser, drawing connections between “Islamist terrorism” and immigration.

“Islamist terrorism is an import,” Miller posted on X. “It is not ‘homegrown.’ It did not exist here before migration brought it here.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which bills itself as the country’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, denounced the violence in New Orleans.

“We strongly denounce this crime, we stand in solidarity with the people of New Orleans, we encourage anyone with relevant information to come forward immediately, and we pray for a full recovery of those impacted by this crime,” the organization said in a statement.

Among the victims was Kareem Badawi, a Muslim American native of Baton Rouge and a student at the University of Alabama, CAIR said.

“No one should rush to use a horrific crime like the New Orleans attack to advance a political agenda,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR national deputy director.

There are about 3 million Muslims of all ages in the U.S., accounting for about 1% of the U.S. population, according to estimates by Pew Research.

A majority of Muslim adults – 58% – are immigrants, a population that expanded after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act reduced restrictions on immigration from Asia, Africa and other regions outside Europe.

During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to “bring back the travel ban” that targeted Muslim-majority nations. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld a modified version of the ban, though Biden later ended the travel restrictions.

Source: USA Today

The 64-page document, which maps out more than 100 executive branch actions, comes weeks before the inauguration of former President Donald Trump, who imposed a travel ban on people from some majority Muslim countries during his first term that Biden rescinded on his first day in office.

It mirrors a comprehensive strategy to fight antisemitism released by the White House in September 2023, and comes more than a year after death of six-year-old boy Wadea Al-Fayoume, stabbed by a man who targeted him and his mother because they were Palestinian-American.

In a foreword to the strategy, Biden called the attacks on the Chicago boy and his mother “heinous acts” and noted a spike in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate crimes, discrimination and bullying that he called wrong and unacceptable.

“Muslims and Arabs deserve to live with dignity and enjoy every right to the fullest extent along with all of their fellow Americans,” Biden wrote. “Policies that result in discrimination against entire communities are wrong and fail to keep us safe.”

The Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, called the strategy “too little, too late” and faulted the White House for not promising any changes to a federal watchlist and “no-fly” list that includes many Arab and Muslim Americans, and for failing to end the war in Gaza, which has been driving Islamophobia.

Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, predicted the incoming Trump administration would disown the strategy, but welcomed the White House’s expansion to include anti-Arab hate instead of focusing solely on acts directed against Muslims.

The Trump transition team had no immediate comment on the strategy or whether it would support it.

Trump, who won support from some Muslim voters angry about Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, has said he will ban entry to the U.S. of anyone who questions Israel’s right to exist and revoke visas of foreign students who are “antisemitic.”

Tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups surged on some U.S. campuses after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, with human rights advocates warning of rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate.

Source: Reuters

CAIR asserts that the desecration of Islam’s sacred text further demonstrates that the Israeli actions in Gaza are targeting both Islam and the Palestinian people.

One video aired by Al Jazeera Arabic reportedly shows Israeli soldiers burning and tearing copies of the Quran in the Bani Saleh Mosque in northern Gaza. Another video allegedly depicts Israeli forces destroying the historic Grand Mosque in Khan Younis, one of the oldest mosques in Gaza. Al Jazeera said the footage was obtained from cameras of Israeli soldiers and from drones.

“By once again filming themselves burning Qurans and destroying mosques, the forces of the far-right Israeli government have confirmed that their war on the Palestinian people in Gaza is also a war on Islam itself,” said CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, in a statement. The group also called on United States President Joe Biden to denounce Israeli abuses. “The Biden administration must condemn this religious desecration and suspend weapons transfers to the Israeli government to force an end to its campaign of slaughter and starvation in Gaza.”

Hamas has called on Arab and Muslim countries and organizations to condemn and express outrage against Israeli forces for burning copies of the Quran and to take action to defend Islamic and Christian sanctities in Palestine. Additionally, Pakistan has condemned Israel’s bombing of the historic Grand Mosque in Gaza’s Khan Younis and urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to protect the Palestinians by putting an end to Israeli violations of international law, the Pakistani foreign office said.

Destroying or desecrating a Quran is a grave offense under Islam and an insult to the faith of some 1.9 billion Muslims worldwide. During the Israeli offensive on Gaza, Israel has completely destroyed 610 mosques and partially destroyed 214, as well as three churches, according to the Gaza media office. The “Al-Omari Mosque” of Gaza, which was 14 centuries old, was also destroyed. The Israeli offensive has killed more than 40,200 Palestinians and turned large parts of the besieged Palestinian territory into rubble.

Source: CAIR

“The Constitution guarantees the right to student-initiated, student-led prayer in schools, and that right must be respected by school officials,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.

CAIR offers a booklet, called “An Educator’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices,” designed to help school officials provide a positive learning

The Washington-based civil rights and advocacy organization urges community members to report any bias incidents to police and to CAIR’s Civil Rights Department at 202-742-6420 or by filing a report at: http://www.cair.com/report

Source: CAIR

The number of bias incidents in 2017 also increased by 24 percent compared to the first half of 2016. [NOTE: Bias incidents are defined as cases in which there was an identifiable element of religious discrimination. Hate crimes are criminal offenses against persons or property, or incidents that can be charged as such under relevant state or federal statute.]

“The presidential election campaign and the Trump administration have tapped into a seam of bigotry and hate that has resulted in the targeting of American Muslims and other minority groups,” said Zainab Arain, coordinator in CAIR’s Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia. “If acts of bias impacting the American Muslim community continue as they have been, 2017 could be one of the worst years ever for such incidents.”

The most frequent type of incidents documented by CAIR in the second quarter of 2017 were harassment, defined as a non-violent or non-threatening incident. The second most common type of bias incidents were hate crimes, and have involved physical violence or property damage. Episodes in which the complainant was questioned by the FBI or otherwise appears to have inappropriately targeted by the agency are the third most common.

The most prevalent trigger of anti-Muslim bias incidents in 2017 remains the victim’s ethnicity or national origin, accounting for 32 percent of the total. Twenty percent of incidents occurred because of an individual being perceived as Muslim. A Muslim woman’s headscarf was a trigger in 15 percent of incidents.

The report dataset is drawn primarily from the intakes CAIR conducts each year. With each case, civil rights and legal staff seek to ensure the highest possible level of accuracy. CAIR recently launched an app to share critical “know your rights” information and simplify the process to report hate crimes and bias incidents and is urging Muslims to download the app and utilize this resource to stay informed and empowered.

CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

READ the Full CAIR Quarterly Report on American Muslim Civil Rights here.

Source: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)