Bill 9, titled An Act for the reinforcement of laïcité in Quebec, lays out several new measures that aim to prohibit religious practice in the public sphere. While the Act doesn’t single out Islam explicitly, Muslim religious practices are the prime target of this new proposed law.

Among the proposed restrictions in the new law are the banning of public day care workers and even private school workers from wearing religious garments such as the hijab. The secularism law from 2019 had already banned public employees such as teachers, judges and police officers from wearing religious symbols. This law further advances those restrictions. Public institutions would be restricted from offering halal meals exclusively and would be required to offer non-halal options on the menu as well.

Public congregational prayer will also be banned for the first time in Quebec’s history under this new law. Individual prayer or a religious gathering with a permit in a public space would still be allowed. However, permits are said to be handed out on a case-by-case basis if they respect Quebec charter rights, such as the equality of men and women. Depending on how compliance with Quebec’s charter is interpreted, Muslim groups would likely face obstacles in receiving such a permit, considering the separate prayer for men and women in the Islamic tradition. Fines for individuals could go up to $375 and up to $1,125 for groups.

There has been uproar over public prayer in Quebec ever since it became a regular sight in the streets of Montreal over the last two years. These prayers have been happening in the context of weekly pro-Palestine rallies to protest the genocide in Gaza. The rallies usually end with a public prayer for Gaza and garnered headlines when pro-Palestine marchers prayed in front of the Notre-Dame Basilica. There was also backlash when a Muslim group held Eid prayers in a public park last year.

The situation has led the Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge to declare that the “proliferation of street prayer is a serious and sensitive issue”. Furthermore, Premier Legault stated that “Seeing people praying in the streets, in public parks, is not something we want in Quebec,” and added that he wanted to send a “very clear message to Islamists.”

The most extreme measure proposed by Bill 9, however, is the plan to ban prayer rooms on university and college campuses. In defending his proposal, Minister Roberge explained that “Universities are not temple or church,” and argued that Quebec had “gone too far” in accommodating religious practices.

Prayer rooms on campuses are the centre of religious life for Muslim students across the province. They serve not only as a safe space for daily prayers but also as a hub for social programs like chaplaincy services, mental health counselling, and religious education. New students, especially those from abroad, use the prayer room to congregate and build social bonds that help them navigate the complexities of practicing faith in a secular environment.

Pragmatically, the prayer room also ensures that Muslims students, who are required religiously to pray five times a day, are not forced to pray out in the open. Samy Khelifi, president of Concordia’s Muslim Student Association, which hosts the biggest prayer facility on a Quebec campus, warned of students being pushed to pray in hallways: “People won’t stop praying because there’s not a prayer space. What happens to those 5,000 people if they all go pray out on random corners?”

Bill 9 will be subject to parliamentary commission hearings over the coming months; the government hopes to have it passed by next Spring. The provisions outlined in it are the latest in a long series of attacks, led by the CAQ, on the religious rights and liberties of Muslims in Quebec. Disguised in the name of secularism and presented with nationalistic overtones, the legislation is nothing more than an attempt to score political points by capitalizing on xenophobic sentiments in CAQ’s voter base for the upcoming elections.

Related:

– Poem and Reflection on Banning Prayer in Public Places | Ammar AlShukry

– The Duplicity of American Muslim Influencers And The ‘So-called Muslim Ban’

The post Quebec Introduces Bill To Ban Prayer Rooms On College Campuses appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE for short, sent a chill through much of the Muslim populace and many other citizens with its brazen imprisonment of a visitor with a visa for no other reason than that his pro-Palestine advocacy had riled up far-right pro-Israel media personalities, who both incited and celebrated the move even as it sent a wave of revulsion through much of the world.

An analyst of Tunisian and Algerian descent educated in Britain, Hamdi came into particular prominence as a pro-Palestine commentator after Israel’s genocide of Gaza began two years ago, where his advocacy, analysis, and encouragement of both Muslim and non-Muslim activism against the genocide earned a wide audience. He is a respected, longstanding commentator on international affairs, risk, and intelligence, and has spent the last decade analyzing and advising on political affairs in countries including Britain, the United States, Syria, Turkiye, Pakistan, Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and others. His frequent appearances on The Thinking Muslim podcast hosted by political scientist Muhammad Jalal have been particularly influential, with millions of viewers, and he has been invited to speak at both Muslim and other events in multiple countries, including the United States. Abducted at San Francisco Airport, it took two days before Hamdi could see a legal team; among the lawyers who have spoken in his favour are the well-regarded Hussam Ayloush and Mariam Uddin.

The ICE agency, led by Kristi Noem in the cabinet and Tom Homan, has been notorious in its overreach throughout 2025. Purportedly fulfilling a vow by Donald Trump to deport illegal residents in the United States, it has frequently overstepped its authority and been accused on numerous occasions of lawless targeting, racial profiling, and abuse, inevitably aimed at minorities. The ruling clique has made a virtue of deportations with the promise that these will retrieve stagnant wages and “put America first.” This is part of a general surge of ultranationalist posturing with very real consequences.

Among the major posturers are Laura Loomer and Amy Mekelburg, whose ultranationalist messaging in this trend of putting “America first” has an additional irony in its consistent slant toward Israel and its interests. Though both are Jewish-Americans who claim to be standing up for Jewish rights, they have also repeatedly attacked Jewish organizations that fail to share their political stance. In addition to copious amounts of racial vitriol, both have squarely targeted Islam and repeatedly directed calumny and slander at the faith, its prophets, and precepts.

Loomer and Mekelburg are part of a wider intersection between the international right-wing and Israel, particularly the Likud party, whose leader, Benjamin Netanyahu-Mileikowsky, has pushed similar anti-Muslim rhetoric for over forty years and now presides over the genocide on Gaza. Such “influencers” proliferated both with the “war on terrorism” and the subsequent financial crash, both of which incentivized far-right invective with a disproportionate focus on Muslims: Stephen “Tommy Robinson” Yaxley-Lennon and Douglas Murray in Britain are similar provocateurs whose far-right messaging explicitly attacks Islam and glorifies Tel Aviv, whose genocide is portrayed as a civilizational war against Islam.

In the aftermath of Hamdi’s abduction, Mekelburg took to social media to crow, “WE DID IT, LAURA! ONE DOWN….SO MANY MORE TO GO!” [sic]

Far-right provocateurs such as Loomer have long attacked any form of public Muslim activity as linked to the “Muslim Brotherhood”, against whom she also incited in her celebration of Hamdi’s abduction. Among the many targets of this alleged “Muslim Brotherhood” ring is the Council for American-Islamic Relations, whose representative Ayloush noted that Hamdi’s case is linked to pro-Israel incitement against Muslims, that the imprisonment violated the American principles of free speech, and that “this is not the time to be intimidated.”

Hamdi’s ordeal serves to highlight a key point that he himself has long made about the significance of pro-Palestine activism and the drastic, draconian steps that the Zionist lobby has urged to undermine them.

Related:

– Sami Hamdi: “Muslims Must Abandon Harris” | Transcript and Summary

– Why Mehdi Hasan’s “Lesser Of Two Evils” Election Advice Is Wrong

The post Prominent Journalist And Analyst Sami Hamdi Abducted By American State appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

In addition to the pioneering history of Muslims in Canada, we must consider more recent history as well: the realities of Muslims in a post-9/11 world, contending with the surveillance state, illegal detention and torture, and ongoing harassment of Muslims in Canada. Figures such as Maher Arar and Omar Khader must have their stories remembered, and lessons learned from, on just how fraught our existence as Muslims in Canada truly is. The work of people like Monia Mazigh must never be forgotten, as it is the work that so many of us will need to draw from in our own confrontations with state-led Islamophobia.

 – Journey of the Midnight Sun by Shazia Afzal

In 2010, a Winnipeg-based charity raised funds to build and ship a mosque to Inuvik, one of the most northern towns in Canada’s Arctic. A small but growing Muslim community there had been using a cramped trailer for their services, but there just wasn’t enough space. The mosque travelled over 4,000 kilometers on a journey fraught with poor weather, incomplete bridges, narrow roads, low traffic wires, and a deadline to get on the last barge heading up the Mackenzie River before the first winter freeze.

This stunning picture book makes the perfect Islamic History Month storytime choice!

– Minarets on the Horizon by Murray Hogben

This book gives us a detailed look at the Muslim presence in Canada, starting with the pioneer settlers from Syria/Lebanon and the Balkans in the early twentieth century and moving on to the more modern midcentury arrivals from South Asia and Africa. Told in their own words, the stories in this collection give us a rare insight into the lives of these pioneer Muslims.

Punjabi men in the timber mills of British Columbia; Lebanese Arab peddlers on foot or horse cart on the rural highways of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba; men venturing north on dog sleighs to trade for fur; young women arriving to start families and soon to become family matriarchs; shopkeepers serving small provincial towns and big cities; and finally, students and professionals arriving in the postwar urban centres.

Wherever they went, they bore the brunt of xenophobia and acknowledged kindnesses, as they adapted and sought out fellow worshippers and set up community centres and mosques.

– Al-Rashid Mosque: Building Canadian Muslim Communities by Earle H. Waugh

Al Rashid Mosque, Canada’s first and one of the earliest in North America, was erected in Edmonton in the depths of the Depression of the 1930s. Over time, the story of this first mosque, which served as a magnet for more Lebanese Muslim immigrants to Edmonton, was woven into the folklore of the local community.

Edmonton’s Al Rashid Mosque has played a key role in Islam’s Canadian development. Founded by Muslims from Lebanon, it has grown into a vibrant community fully integrated into Canada’s cultural mosaic. The mosque continues to be a concrete expression of social good, a symbol of a proud Muslim Canadian identity. Al Rashid Mosque provides a welcome introduction to the ethics and values of homegrown Muslims. The book traces the mosque’s role in education and community leadership and celebrates the numerous contributions of Muslim Canadians in Edmonton and across Canada.

– How Muslims Shaped the Americas by Omar Mouallem

In How Muslims Shaped the Americas, Mouallem explores the unknown history of Islam across the Americas, traveling to thirteen unique mosques in search of an answer to how this religion has survived and thrived so far from the place of its origin. From California to Quebec, and from Brazil to Canada’s icy north, he meets the members of fascinating communities, all of whom provide different perspectives on what it means to be Muslim. Along this journey, he comes to understand that Islam has played a fascinating role in how the Americas were shaped—from industrialization to the changing winds of politics.

Despite my distaste with the author himself, this book does an excellent job of exploring both Al-Rashid Masjid and the Midnight Sun Mosque (the very same one from the picture book!), as well as pausing to pay homage to the victims and survivors of the Quebec City Mosque Massacre in Grande Mosquee de Quebec.

– Hope & Despair: My Struggle to Free My Husband, Maher Arar by Monia Mazigh

This book traces the inspiring story of Monia Mazigh’s courageous fight to free her husband, Maher Arar, from a Syrian jail. From the moment Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was disappeared into the bowels of Bashar al-Assad’s dungeons, Monia Mazigh worked tirelessly against the Canadian government, security intelligence agencies, and media to bring her husband home and get him justice.

She began a tireless campaign to bring public attention and government action to her husband’s plight, eventually resulting in his release and return to Canada. Arar and Mazigh’s story is a chilling reminder to all Canadian Muslims of the realities of living under systemic Islamophobia, and is an important lesson to us all on resisting and holding our government accountable.

– Systemic Islamophobia in Canada: A Research Agenda

Systemic Islamophobia in Canada presents critical perspectives on systemic Islamophobia in Canadian politics, law, and society, and maps areas for future research and inquiry. The authors consist of both scholars and professionals who encounter in the ordinary course of their work the – sometimes banal, sometimes surprising – operation of systemic Islamophobia. Centring the lived realities of Muslims primarily in Canada, but internationally as well, the contributors identify the limits of democratic accountability in the operation of our shared institutions of government

– Under Siege: Islamophobia and the 9/11 Generation by Jazmine Zine

Under Siege explores the lives of Canadian Muslim youth belonging to the 9/11 generation as they navigate these fraught times of global war and terror. While many studies address contemporary manifestations of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism, few have focused on the toll this takes on Muslim communities, especially among younger generations.

Covering topics such as citizenship, identity and belonging, securitization, radicalization, campus culture in an age of empire, and subaltern Muslim counterpublics and resistance, Under Siege provides a unique and comprehensive examination of the complex realities of Muslim youth in a post-9/11 world.

This Islamic History Month, Canadian Muslim communities should take the time to honour our pioneering members, teach our youth about the Islamic history of Canadian Muslims, and educate ourselves on how to navigate living in this country that remains riddled with systemic Islamophobia.

Related:

From the MuslimMatters Bookshelf: Black (Muslim) History Month Reads

Muslim Women’s History: A Book List

The post Islamic History Month Canada: A Bookish Roundup appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

In recent years, Temu, a Chinese online marketplace, has skyrocketed in popularity, not only in the United States but also in countries like my own, Sri Lanka. Ranked the world’s second-best e-commerce platform, it’s known for its rock-bottom prices, ridiculously high and frequent discounts, and for the sheer variety of products it offers. It can attract customers with high-end taste as well as those with an appetite for aesthetic gimcracks, many of which can be purchased in bulk for half the price found elsewhere. Sounds too good to be true? Well, if you have any qualms, the arrival of the vibrant orange package at your doorstep —the item inside in perfect condition— will immediately squash it. 

By design, Temu is meant to beguile you, and, true to its slogan, you can shop like a billionaire.  I’ll admit, I too, was convinced in the beginning; I bookmarked products I wanted to buy in the future, products that reflected my Pinterest boards, products I could customise – it was easy to fall in love with this marketplace. That compulsion, however, was soon stifled when I learnt of its dark secrets. How does a large marketplace like Temu maintain its appealing price tags? 

Temu and Forced Labour

Fast fashion often comes at the cost of something, and while many of us may direct our attention to its ill effects on the environment, the allure of Temu whitewashes its complicity in human rights abuses. 

East Turkestan (or its colonial name ‘Xinjiang’, which translates to ‘New Territory’) is a region at the center of grave human rights abuses, an annexed region in China, and home to Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. These communities have been forced into labour by Chinese companies affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In turn, the CCP disguises these camps as projects to ‘alleviate the province’s poverty’ and has displaced labourers to other areas, some as far as 2,600 miles away from home, to avoid import bans. 

Yet, despite these concerns, Temu does not have a system in place to vet products in its marketplace. The company has even admitted to not barring ‘third-party sellers from selling products based on their origin in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region’. To make matters worse, its parent company, PDD Holders, was once accused of mandating its employees “to work 380 hours per month, which resulted in several deaths”. But the issue of human rights abuses does not end there.

Genocide in East Turkestan

China’s campaign against these communities is all-encompassing, and, as pointed out by Uyghur intellectual and activist, Mamtimin Ala, there’s a problem when we narrow the discussion to just forced labour. It deflects from a wider conversation that China is committing a genocide. 

Uyghurs and the other ethnic groups have faced violent crackdowns for adhering to their religion or maintaining their cultural heritage and traditions. They face imprisonment for basic practices such as fasting during Ramadan, wearing the hijab, abstaining from alcohol, or even engaging with the Qur’an. A report by The Guardian exposed these abuses, like the example of a 70-year-old Uyghur woman who was arrested and given a six-year prison sentence for “studying the Qur’an between April and May 1967, wearing conservative religious dress between 2005 and 2014, and keeping an electronic Qur’an reader at home”. In another ludicrous case, an Uyghur woman was sentenced to prison for ten years for “illegally studying scripture with her mother for three days […] when she was just five or six years old”.

Muslim trainees work in a garment factory at the Hotan Vocational Education and Training Center in Hotan, Xinjiang, northwest China. (CCTV via AP Video, File)

These crackdowns are ultimately a result of China’s deep-seated fear — an inability to maintain totalitarian control over people: mind, body, and soul. But through intensive surveillance, fear is then inversely permeated within these communities. Such nauseating anxiety of being watched becomes a punishment in itself. “[Islam] has to be gone completely [for the CCP],” Uyghur activist Arslan Hidayat said, “so that [Uyghurs] are not able to implement it into their lives, when they’re making decisions about what to eat, when they’re making decisions about how to do business, how to interact with individuals, who they choose to marry, what they choose to wear.”

But it’s not just religion. Using their own language, lacking zeal when using Mandarin, or being absent from “flag-raising ceremonies” also puts them at risk. 

Isn’t there a cruel irony in all of this? Through our purchases, we rob people of their freedom of expression just so we can own products that pander to our taste.

With identity markers labelled as “extremism”, these individuals are thrown into horrific “re-education” detention camps, where human rights abuses are rampant. In a 45-page report published in 2022 by former UN human rights commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, abuses against Uyghurs include “beatings with electric batons while being strapped in a “tiger chair”” (chairs which captives are tied to and kept in painful positions) as well as subjugation to extended periods of solitary confinement. Other forms of torture include rape, forced sterilisation, forced disappearances, and organ harvesting. 

China allegedly plans to increase its organ transplant centres by 2030. This expansion ultimately means that there will be a total of nine organ transplant centres for a mere population of 26 million. That’s alarmingly excessive and should raise a lot of questions, especially when official records show that the region generally has a low donation rate. Contrast that ratio with the Guizhou province in China: the province, as highlighted by The Telegraph, has only three transplant centres for its population of 39 million. 

The Chairperson of the ‘End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC)’ organisation has said, from marginalised prisoners alone, “[organs] were harvested forcefully, including from otherwise healthy prisoners against their will” and were sometimes done so while “the patients were still alive”.

Call to Action

When we bear witness to the Ummah’s suffering, what should our response be? 

To answer this, I’d like to highlight an incident that occurred during the life of Jabir ibn Abdullah .

It is reported that one day, Jabir was carrying some meat with him when he encountered Umar ibn al-Khattab . When the latter inquired about it, Jabir replied, “Amir al-Muminin. We desired meat, and I bought some meat for a dirham.” Umar then said, “Does one of you want to fill his belly apart from his neighbour or nephew? How can you overlook this ayat? ‘You squandered your good things in the life of this world and sought comfort in them.'”[Surah Al-Ahqaf: 46;20]

From this brief interaction, we observe how Umar   linked individual consumption with an awareness of the needs of others. Putting this into practice will undoubtedly instill a sense of contentment and empathy. But the lesson Umar conveys here can teach us a lot more and should shake us into introspection. If we are to be mindful of our purchases because others lack them, what can be said if our purchases directly affect them? 

It is not enough to simply acknowledge the atrocities committed against the Uyghurs. This would make no difference, especially when one is a contributor to that pain. The Prophet said,

“A Muslim is a brother of another Muslim, so he should not oppress him, nor should he hand him over to an oppressor.” [Sahih al-Bukhari 2442]

Hence, I believe it’s time we reject marketplaces like Temu. In fact, some of the ‘ulema are active proponents of boycott movements. Sheikh Abdullah ash-Shanqiti, for instance, has said that if we declare ‘we will not import [China’s] products until they stop mistreating Muslims, that will be beneficial for the Muslims. […] It is as if [Muslims] are unaware of what is beneficial for them. Their enemies plan for them, and they execute these plans. Therefore, look at this weakness and this failure.’ To not do so, Sheikh remarked, would be a wasted opportunity.

Since 2023, there has been a robust amplification of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestine. Unfortunately, while people tend to boycott the goods, they freeze the principles behind such a movement. Palestinian writer Muhammed el-Kurd once highlighted the importance of creating analogies for people to understand causes better and the connections between them. “The fault in a lot of what we do,” he said, “is that we tend to exceptionalise Palestine and we tend to exceptionalise Zionism.” The principles gained from the BDS movement must transcend one cause as they are grounded in solidarity with the oppressed and are against the imperial rule it presides over. 

So, in a full circle moment, we go back to the trolley problem. Are we really willing to purchase from Temu, knowing fully well that the one dress we bought could have been the cause of much pain and suffering to a ‘faraway’ Uyghur Muslim? 

Related:

– Understanding Boycotts And Buying Within Our Communities

– Top Books To Read On Uyghur Cause

The post Is Your Temu Package Made With Uyghur Forced Labour? appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

This small mercy from someone who perhaps understood the significance of the journey I had just completed felt like a final blessing, an umrah that, in an attempt to cleanse my soul, had now, apparently, earned me a reprieve from excess baggage fees. Allah’s Blessing, I reflected, manifests in unexpected ways, sometimes through the kindness of strangers.

As she processed my check-in, I noticed her discreetly reach for her personal phone below the counter after tagging my bags. With practiced subtlety, a movement likely invisible to less observant travelers, she angled her device toward my passport, then toward her screen, capturing images without comment or explanation. I caught a glimpse of her sliding the phone lower, likely taking my photo as well. Nothing in her demeanor acknowledged this surveillance; it was simply part of an invisible protocol, an unspoken routine.

I’ve come to recognize these moments. Many travelers remain unaware that airline staff often use unofficial WhatsApp groups on personal devices for rapid intelligence sharing, creating shadow systems of surveillance that operate alongside official channels. These digital breadcrumbs follow you from checkpoint to checkpoint, discussed in messaging groups beyond any oversight.

Then, as if confirming my suspicions about what was happening beneath the surface of our interaction, the boarding pass slid from the printer with four innocuous letters that made everything clear: SSSS.

Secondary Security Screening Selection.

She hadn’t flagged me herself; these systems operate beyond individual control, algorithmic machinery grinding beneath the surface of human interaction. Her kindness regarding my luggage was genuine; the system’s suspicion equally so. I deliberately ignored the SSSS designation, maintaining the same cheerful appreciation for her help with my overweight luggage. I smiled, thanked her again, and walked away with my heart already accelerating, though a calm voice inside reminded me: the One who had protected me through my journey to the holy lands would surely protect me through whatever indignities awaited. Still, the duality of this moment crystallized a fundamental contradiction in our security apparatus: the human face of bureaucratized suspicion, the velvet glove on an iron fist.

The Algorithmic Architecture of Discrimination

To truly understand the SSSS designation is to comprehend not merely a security protocol, but an intricate system of social control disguised as protection. This is not hyperbole; it is structural analysis. The enhanced screening selection process operates through multiple vectors of surveillance:

PC: Timeo Buehrer (unsplash)

Government watchlists constructed through often questionable intelligence merge with travel patterns deemed suspicious (one-way tickets, cash purchases) without contextual understanding. National origin and travel history become proxies for threat assessment, while algorithmic flags built on biased training data reproduce and amplify existing prejudices. This system represents not random selection but targeted surveillance masquerading as objective security. Its genius—and its danger—lies in its opacity. There exists no meaningful oversight, no pre-travel appeals process (Pre-TSA and Global Entry may not always work), and no transparency regarding selection criteria. The burden of proof is inverted: you must prove your innocence rather than the system proving your guilt.

When administrations change, particularly when one with explicit nationalist or racially biased tendencies takes power, these systems become weaponized with frightening efficiency. Historical data bears this out: during the Trump administration, CBP detentions of travelers from majority-Muslim countries increased dramatically following the implementation of Executive Order 13769, commonly called the “Muslim Ban,” which barred entry for nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries and suspended refugee admissions. This order, which sparked national protests and legal challenges over religious and national origin discrimination, was later superseded by Executive Order 13780, which maintained many of the same discriminatory provisions while adding more waiver guidelines.

The institutionalization of bias continued with Executive Order 13815, which restarted the refugee program with new, stricter “extreme vetting” procedures. While the Biden administration formally revoked these policies on January 20, 2021 (Proclamation Ending the Muslim Ban, 2021), the underlying infrastructure remained largely intact.

This represents a critical insight: the infrastructure of surveillance doesn’t require rebuilding; it merely needs recalibration. The architecture remains, only the targeting parameters shift. This explains the rapid implementation of discriminatory practices following administration changes; the foundation was already laid, waiting only for new operators to turn theoretical racism into practiced policy.

The Empirical Failure of Profiling as Security

The evidence is not merely suggestive but conclusive: profiling based on race, religion, or national origin fails as security methodology. This statement is not ideological but empirical. Behavior detection programs typically show “limited basis in science” and cannot be proven effective. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), which has been the government’s official watchdog since 1921 (yes, long before DOGE and today’s tech billionaires discovered government waste), has repeatedly criticized the TSA’s behavior detection program (SPOT) for lacking scientific validation. A 2013 GAO report recommended limiting funding until TSA could prove the program works, and a 2017 follow-up testimony noted that while TSA had revised and reduced funding for SPOT, it still lacked scientific evidence for its effectiveness.

TSA’s behavior detection techniques are no better than random chance, with less than 0.01% of flagged travelers posing actual security threats. The “hit rate” for finding genuine threats through racial or religious profiling is statistically negligible, while resources concentrated on demographic profiling create dangerous blind spots in security systems.

The security apparatus has constructed what experts term a “classification error” at a massive scale: false positives (innocent people flagged) overwhelm the system while potential false negatives (actual threats missed) slip through precisely because attention is misdirected toward demographic categories rather than evidence-based risk factors. What these systems actually produce is not security but security theater; performative rituals that create the illusion of safety while potentially undermining actual safety. This theater serves political rather than security objectives, a distinction critical to understanding why ineffective practices persist despite evidence of their failure.

The operational inefficiencies of these security procedures are further exacerbated by mismanagement within agencies like Customs and Border Protection (CBP). A 2022 DHS Office of Inspector General audit found significant evidence of poor operational controls and mismanagement within CBP. Additionally, the technologies supposedly supporting these security efforts often fail to function properly. Reports from 2024 found that nearly one-third of surveillance cameras on the U.S.-Mexico border were not working, highlighting the gap between the perception and reality of border security.

Does any of this actually help with security? The clear answer is no; it’s not reasonable, and it doesn’t truly help with security. Targeting people based on race, religion, or ethnicity creates a false sense of security while distracting from real threats. It wastes resources on innocent people while allowing actual risks to go unnoticed because they don’t “fit the profile.”

Data consistently shows that racial profiling leads to more false positives without improving the success rate of detecting genuine security threats. Beyond its ineffectiveness, it damages trust and cooperation with communities that could otherwise be allies in crime prevention efforts. People become less likely to report concerns or cooperate when they feel unfairly targeted.

The Multidimensional Trauma of Targeted Communities

For those bearing the weight of these policies, the impact transcends mere inconvenience, constituting a form of state-sanctioned traumatization that operates across multiple dimensions. The uncertainty principle becomes weaponized; never knowing if you’ll be detained, for how long, or why, creating a persistent state of anticipatory anxiety. This manifests as clinically significant symptoms: hypervigilance, sleep disturbances, concentration difficulties, and intrusive thoughts. Many develop what psychologists identify as “secondary traumatic adaptation”,  modifying behavior, dress, speech patterns, and even names to avoid triggering the system. It creates a profound spiritual contradiction that weighs on the soul.

My faith teaches tawakkul, complete reliance on Allah’s Protection and wisdom, yet the system forces me into a state of perpetual hypervigilance. I find myself caught between two realities. In one, I surrender to divine protection with absolute trust. In the other, I must constantly scan for threats, monitor my speech, curate my appearance, and anticipate others’ suspicions. This duality fragments the spiritual cohesion that the pilgrimage had just restored. It requires me to simultaneously inhabit contradictory states of being: trusting in God’s plan while strategizing against man’s prejudice.

The public humiliation functions as a disciplinary mechanism, reinforcing outsider status. Being singled out for scrutiny communicates a powerful subtext: “You do not belong here. Your presence is provisional.” Travelers describe the emotional impact in devastating terms: humiliation and shame from being searched, interrogated, or treated like criminals in front of others strips away dignity. Anger and resentment simmer, not just toward the officers, but toward the country or system they believed in. Many stop talking about these experiences out of embarrassment or fear, which leads to emotional suppression and disconnection from community support.

The body bears witness to this trauma as well. Long detentions, jet lag, missed flights, and sometimes lack of restrooms, all take a physical toll. Those with chronic conditions may be denied access to medication or medical support during lengthy questioning periods. The physical discomfort or violation of patdowns, bag searches, and digital strip-searches (phone and laptop scrutiny) can feel invasive, violating both bodily and digital autonomy. Stress hormones flood the system during these encounters, cortisol and adrenaline spiking with each additional security layer. Over time, this stress response becomes chronic, contributing to documented health disparities.

The material consequences cascade beyond the immediate encounter. Detentions and missed flights affect job opportunities, school admissions, and professional reputations. Some are denied visas or re-entry unjustly. Families watching their loved ones being mistreated suffer too, with children sometimes growing up fearing travel or resenting their parents’ countries of origin. Legal fees, rescheduled flights, or dealing with lost work days can lead to real financial strain. Most profound is the existential impact; what philosopher Frantz Fanon identified as the “ontological insecurity” of being perpetually suspect. The question becomes not merely “Will I be detained?” but “Am I ever truly a citizen? Will any amount of compliance ever be sufficient?”

The Coerced Complicity of Community Members

The most sophisticated aspect of this system is how it transforms potential resistance into reluctant participation. The young woman in niqab who printed my boarding pass embodies this contradiction, simultaneously part of a targeted community yet participating, however unwillingly, in the machinery targeting her own. This represents not personal failure but structural coercion operating through multiple mechanisms.

This dynamic raises a painful question: why would Muslim employees, themselves part of a targeted demographic, participate in the security apparatus targeting their own community? The answer lies not in individual moral failure but in structural coercion. At the individual level, employees face job pressure and fear of retaliation if they fail to comply with security protocols. Many feel trapped: “If I don’t report this person, I might be next.” Over time, even Muslim employees can internalize the biased security narrative they’ve been trained in, unconsciously beginning to see their own community through the lens of suspicion.

“The most insidious aspect of structural oppression: fracturing solidarity within targeted communities by forcing members to participate in systems that harm their own.” [PC: Charles de Luvio (unsplash)]

The answer reveals multiple layers of power dynamics. Airlines from Muslim-majority countries flag their own people not out of loyalty to them, but out of political pressure, business interests, and fear of being targeted themselves. To comply with U.S. and Western security demands, airlines like Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Turkish Airlines must follow U.S. rules, even outside U.S. soil, sharing passenger data, implementing “enhanced screening” protocols, and sometimes adopting U.S.-style watchlists. They face a stark choice: protect passengers’ dignity or protect profits and partnerships. Business almost always wins.

Some governments in the region (especially those with authoritarian or Western-aligned leadership) want to appear cooperative with the West, even at their citizens’ expense, fearing being labeled as “harboring extremism” or losing favor in international intelligence-sharing networks. Major airlines, often state-owned or state-backed, view international approval as strategic currency affecting not just tourism but foreign investment, diplomatic relations, and trade deals. Flagging a few “suspect” passengers becomes a sacrifice to maintain broader global access.

Perhaps most revealing is that just because a passenger is Arab or Muslim doesn’t mean the system sees them as worthy of protection. Class, citizenship, and politics often matter more: a Qatari citizen may be treated better than a Syrian or Palestinian refugee; a Turkish diplomat’s child may fly through security while a Turkish activist is flagged. It’s not about shared faith or identity; it’s about power, image, and alliances.

At the personal level, some employees feel they must overcompensate to prove they’re not biased or are “loyal” to the institution, going harder on their own community to avoid suspicion themselves. Power dynamics and ego sometimes play a role, where individuals with limited power use their authority to feel important, especially if they’ve felt marginalized. Not all frontline workers realize that the system they’re upholding is flawed or discriminatory. They see themselves as doing their job, following instructions, and checking boxes, without understanding the impact.

This represents the most insidious aspect of structural oppression: fracturing solidarity within targeted communities by forcing members to participate in systems that harm their own. The young woman in niqab who processed my check-in was not my opponent, but my fellow captive in a system designed to divide us.

The Strategic Political Utility of Discriminatory Security

If empirical evidence consistently demonstrates that these practices fail to enhance security, why do administrations, particularly those with explicit bias, embrace them? The answer reveals the actual function of these systems: not protection but political utility. This utility operates through distinct mechanisms that serve specific political objectives beyond the stated purpose of security.

Security theater provides tangible evidence that the administration is “protecting” supporters from exaggerated threats, creating what political scientists call “performative governance”, policies designed not for effectiveness but for visibility and emotional resonance with core supporters. Economic anxiety, healthcare concerns, and social instability get redirected toward visible “others,” employing what rhetoricians identify as “transfer” technique, attaching negative emotions from complex systemic problems to simplified human targets. Creating an atmosphere where certain communities feel perpetually observed modifies behavior beyond direct encounters with authority. This produces what philosopher Michel Foucault termed the “panopticon effect”: self-regulation due to the possibility of surveillance, even when no actual surveillance is occurring.

Administrations empower such policies not because they are effective, but because they serve political, ideological, or strategic purposes. Harsh immigration or security stances often play well with certain voter groups driven by fear, nationalism, or misinformation, a way to show they’re being “tough” and “protecting the homeland,” even when the policies are misguided. Blaming immigrants or minority groups for economic issues, crime, or cultural shifts diverts attention from policy failures or deeper systemic problems by giving people a target. A stricter security apparatus creates an atmosphere of fear and obedience, sending a message, especially to marginalized communities, that dissent or deviation from the norm will be punished. This becomes a tool of authoritarianism.

Some administrations have staff or advisors with strong nativist, anti-immigrant, or even white supremacist views. They see immigration and diversity as threats to their idea of national identity and use policy to shape the country in their image. Once these policies are in place, they can be hard to undo. Empowering DHS, CBP, and TSA with unchecked authority weakens civil liberties, which can be used later to suppress a broader range of dissent or opposition.

Historical data reveals the pattern clearly. During the Obama administration, DHS focused resources on specific threat profiles rather than broad demographic categories, resulting in a reduction in secondary screenings while maintaining security protocols. The Trump administration reversed this approach with a 2017 executive order explicitly targeting seven Muslim-majority countries and internal CBP memos expanding “discretionary screening” protocols. The Biden administration partially rolled back these policies with Executive Order 14012¹, which called for the review and removal of barriers in the legal immigration process, but maintained much of the infrastructure. The administration also emphasized more humanitarian approaches through Executive Order 14010², which directed DHS and the State Department to examine the root causes of migration from Central America and improve asylum access.

Now, with security policies shifting again under new leadership, we see the pendulum swinging back toward demographic profiling. An executive order issued on January 20, 2025, required intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the U.S. in order to detect national security threats. This order led to considerations of expanding travel bans to dozens of countries with “deficient vetting and screening information.” Although these orders did not explicitly instruct other countries to tighten their security measures, the implication was clear: to maintain their citizens’ access to the U.S., these nations needed to comply with enhanced security and information-sharing requirements. The resulting increase in SSSS designations for travelers from specific regions in just the first quarter of 2025 demonstrates how quickly these policy shifts translate to real-world impacts on targeted communities.

Perhaps most concerning is how temporary political movements embed their worldview into permanent structures through policy changes, personnel appointments, and procedural modifications that outlast administrations. This transforms fleeting political power into enduring institutional bias. The suffering of targeted communities becomes not an unfortunate byproduct but a central feature of the system, demonstrating the administration’s commitment to exclusionary governance. This suffering is the point; visible evidence that the machinery of the state has been turned against those defined as outsiders.

Control Through Fear and the Politics of Division

The political utility of discriminatory security extends beyond mere performance for supporters. It serves as a sophisticated mechanism of social control. By creating an atmosphere of fear and suspicion, it discourages dissent and political participation from targeted communities. Those constantly worried about their status or safety are less likely to engage in civic activities, organize politically, or challenge existing power structures. This suppression of political engagement serves to maintain existing hierarchies and prevent challenges to authority.

Discriminatory security also functions as a wedge issue, deliberately dividing the population along racial, religious, and ideological lines. By framing certain communities as inherently suspicious, it creates an artificial binary: those who belong and those who don’t. This division makes coalition-building between different demographic groups more difficult, preventing unified opposition to policies that might otherwise face broader resistance. The polarization serves political interests by ensuring that base supporters remain loyal through fear while potential opposition remains fragmented.

The Human Enforcers: TSA and CBP Officers as Players in the System

At the frontlines of this security apparatus stand the individual officers: the human faces of an inhuman system. Their participation in this “game” of security theater is neither uniform nor simple. To understand why CBP and TSA officers participate in practices that harm innocent travelers requires examining the spectrum of mindsets that exist within these agencies.

Some officers genuinely believe in the mission. They’ve internalized the post-9/11 security narrative so completely that they see their role as the crucial barrier between America and potential threats. Their training has convinced them that certain demographic profiles legitimately correlate with risk, and they view their scrutiny not as discrimination but as necessary vigilance. They take pride in their thoroughness and view travelers’ discomfort as an acceptable price for national security. “Better safe than sorry” becomes the mantra that justifies any level of intrusion.

Others participate with clear awareness of the system’s flaws but feel powerless to change it. These officers often experience significant cognitive dissonance, recognizing the ineffectiveness and injustice of profiling while following protocols that require it. They are officers who whisper apologies while conducting searches, who roll their eyes at having to confiscate innocuous items, who try to make the process less humiliating through small kindnesses. Officers who know that this isn’t what they signed up for, but they need this job. Many in this category develop coping mechanisms; focusing on procedural correctness rather than outcomes, mentally separating their personal values from their professional actions.

“For policymakers with explicit bias, the calculations are coldly political, they view certain communities as acceptable collateral damage in service to larger political goals.” [PC: Claudio Schwarz (unsplash)]

Perhaps most troubling are officers who openly harbor racist or xenophobic views and find in TSA or CBP a legitimate outlet for these prejudices. Internal investigations and whistle-blower accounts have exposed text messages, social media posts, and workplace conversations revealing deeply concerning attitudes within segments of these agencies. Under biased administrations, these officers often feel emboldened, sensing tacit approval from leadership for more aggressive enforcement targeting certain groups. One former CBP agent described a culture where “certain accents or names would trigger extra scrutiny” and where “making jokes about travelers from specific countries was normalized.”

The different perceptions among officers sometimes manifest in how they interact with travelers. There are situations in secondary screening where two officers conducted the same process with markedly different approaches: the first was mechanical and cold, avoiding eye contact, treating the traveler as an object to be processed; the second maintained a professional but human demeanor, explaining each step, acknowledging the inconvenience, preserving dignity within an undignified process.

The system creates perverse incentives that reward certain officer behaviors. Performance metrics often prioritize processing speed and “compliance” rather than actual security effectiveness or respect for travelers’ rights. Officers who flag more travelers or find more prohibited items (however harmless) may receive recognition, while those who focus on treating travelers humanely risk being seen as “soft” or inefficient. The culture within these agencies often discourages questioning protocols or raising ethical concerns, creating an environment where “going along” becomes the path of least resistance.

When administrations change, particularly when one with xenophobic tendencies takes power, subtle shifts occur within these agencies. Memos circulate emphasizing “heightened vigilance” toward certain groups. Training materials are revised to expand “suspicious indicators.” Officers who might have exercised discretion in favor of travelers suddenly find themselves under pressure to demonstrate stricter enforcement. Those with predispositions toward bias feel validated and emboldened, while those with more moderate views face the choice between compliance and career consequences.

The mindsets behind these systems vary dramatically based on one’s position. For policymakers with explicit bias, the calculations are coldly political, they view certain communities as acceptable collateral damage in service to larger political goals. For career security officials, the mindset often involves professional detachment, viewing travelers as risk categories rather than individuals, and procedures as merely protocols rather than experiences with human impact. For officers on the ground, perspectives range from those who embrace discriminatory policies to those who implement them reluctantly, believing they have no choice.

For travelers from targeted communities, perceptions of these systems vary based on personal experience, religious outlook, and resources. Some adopt a fatalistic view: accepting discrimination as inevitable and focusing on survival strategies. Others maintain righteous anger, documenting abuses and challenging the system at every opportunity. Many, like myself, find ourselves navigating between faith in divine protection and practical strategies for minimizing harassment.

What unites all targeted communities is the recognition that these systems operate not from evidence but from prejudice, not from security necessity but from political expediency. This understanding forms the foundation for resistance, for refusing to accept discriminatory treatment as normal or necessary.

The Moral Imperative of Resistance

As I walked away from that check-in counter, boarding pass in hand, I recognized that the young woman in niqab and I were both caught in this machinery, her as reluctant enforcer, me as perpetual suspect. This realization demands not resignation but resistance. The system thrives on normalization, the acceptance that certain communities must endure degradation for collective “security.” This premise must be rejected categorically. The question is not how to make discriminatory security more palatable but how to dismantle it entirely in favor of evidence-based approaches that enhance actual safety without sacrificing fundamental rights.

For those not directly targeted, moral clarity demands action: bearing witness to these realities rather than averting your gaze, using privilege to document and challenge discriminatory practices, and refusing the comfortable fiction that these systems protect rather than harm. For those within targeted communities, the path requires strategic resistance: documenting encounters through formal complaints, building community support systems to mitigate trauma, engaging legal and advocacy organizations to challenge systemic abuses, and preserving dignity through refusing the role of compliant subject.

When my name was called for special screening before boarding, I stood, conscious of the public spectacle being created. The process unfolded with mechanical predictability: the enhanced pat-down, the explosive residue testing. I felt a profound calm, the certainty that Allah’s Protection surrounded me regardless of what this system demanded.

Toward Justice and Human Dignity

The journey home from sacred spaces should not lead through the machinery of suspicion. Yet, for many of us, it does. Perhaps there’s wisdom even in this; a reminder that the peace of sacred spaces exists alongside the struggles of everyday life, that our faith must withstand not just the ease of worship but the trial of worldly systems. In recognizing this reality, and in refusing its legitimacy while maintaining trust in a higher protection, lies the first step toward a security paradigm that protects all by degrading none.

True security comes not from performative screening or algorithmic suspicion but from justice, dignity, and the recognition of our shared humanity. It comes from systems built on evidence rather than fear, on targeting genuine threats rather than entire communities. For those not targeted, the call is clear: Witness this reality. Speak against it. Recognize that a system that violates the dignity of some ultimately diminishes the humanity of all.

Resistance as Survival: The Way Forward

For those of us from targeted communities, navigating these systems is not merely a question of convenience. It is a matter of survival, dignity, and collective liberation. Our path forward demands both intimate, personal resistance and bold, collective action.

“True security comes not from performative screening or algorithmic suspicion but from justice, dignity, and the recognition of our shared humanity.” [PC: Mike Von (unsplash)]

Yet individual resilience alone cannot dismantle structural oppression. Collective resistance becomes our oxygen, our sustenance. We must meticulously document every discriminatory encounter, building an irrefutable record that transforms isolated incidents into recognizable patterns. We must organize across ethnic, racial, and religious lines, recognizing that though the targets shift, the machinery remains constant. We must engage strategically with legal systems designed neither by nor for us, yet which contain tools we can repurpose for justice. Community healing circles, know-your-rights workshops, rapid response networks; these become our infrastructure of resistance.

The human elements within this system reveal critical pressure points for change. The TSA officer who refuses to make eye contact while conducting a “random” search knows what they’re participating in. The CBP agent who apologizes in a whisper while confiscating your phone recognizes the moral compromise they’ve made. These moments of human recognition, these fleeting acknowledgments of the system’s cruelty, reveal the fractures where resistance can take root.

Most telling are the encounters with officers from our own communities. The Black TSA agent who overcompensates with harshness toward fellow Black travelers, desperate to prove his allegiance to the system. The South Asian officer who slips into subtle solidarity through an extra moment of explanation, a discreet nod of understanding, recognizing the parallel between your experience and her family’s. The Latina agent mechanically following protocol while avoiding eye contact, the weight of her community’s similar scrutiny hanging between you. These interactions expose the system’s most insidious success: forcing the oppressed to participate in their own oppression.

These officers face impossible choices daily: between feeding their families and maintaining moral clarity, between professional advancement and community solidarity, between the safety of conformity and the risk of resistance. Understanding this complexity doesn’t excuse harmful behavior but illuminates the sophisticated machinery that transforms potential allies into reluctant enforcers.

In this recognition lies a profound opportunity. When we see these officers not as natural enemies but as potential collaborators trapped in impossible positions, we expand our vision of resistance. The most powerful challenge to unjust systems often comes from those working within them who choose, in critical moments, to bend rules, look away, warn, or whisper truths they’re not supposed to share.

Our resistance must therefore be as sophisticated as the oppression we face. It must operate simultaneously at the level of personal dignity, community solidarity, institutional challenge, and alliance-building with those inside the system whose humanity remains intact despite enormous pressure to surrender it.

This is not merely a strategy for survival but a reclamation of what these systems seek to destroy: our belief in the possibility of justice, our capacity for solidarity across difference, and our fundamental recognition of each other’s humanity.

The young woman in niqab at the check-in counter and I exist in the same system, both navigating its contradictions. Her kindness and the system’s cruelty coexist not as paradox but as evidence of the fundamental truth: human dignity persists even within structures designed to deny it. And above all, divine protection remains constant—whether manifested through the kindness of a stranger, the strength to maintain dignity under scrutiny, or the clarity to see these systems for what they truly are. This persistence is not merely resistance—it is the foundation upon which more just systems will eventually be built.

Related:

– Surveillance, Detentions And Politics of Fear: Managing Kashmir The Palestinian Way

– WATCH: Bloomberg Claims Mass Surveillance Of American Muslims Was “The Right Thing To Do”

The post The Theater Of Security: How Kindness And Cruelty Coexist At Our Borders appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Let me start by saying the heinous crimes undertaken by deplorable men across towns and cities, mainly in the north of England, must be condemned in the strongest terms. Not only did they cause unspeakable harm to their victims, but they also stained the communities from which they came and gave ammunition to a far-right intent on besmirching Muslims and Islam. Their actions have nothing to do with the faith to which they may have been born; rape, alcohol, drugs, and violence – are all abhorrent actions to which Islam gave the labels ‘munkar’ (evil) and ‘fahisha’ (indecency). These horrific reports, subsequent prosecutions, and the Jay Inquiry findings in 2022 were met with absolute horror by the vast majority of Muslims and the immeasurable harm caused by those with Muslim names.

But Musk’s cynical attempt this past week to resuscitate this story and the virulence of this attack has been jaw-dropping. Basic facts have been embellished and misconstrued to give the false impression that Pakistani Muslims make up 84% of child rapists in the UK, despite the Pakistani community totaling just 2%. This figure had been previously debunked; it came from the discredited Quilliam Foundation, whose ‘partisan’ report was denounced by academic Ella Cockbain as ‘shoddy pseudoscience’, lacking the basic integrity of research. Yet its presence in the public domain has given the statistic a life of its own, and Musk lent it credibility by publicizing it. In reality, according to the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, British Pakistanis account for 2% of child abuse defendants. Incidentally, the white population makes up 83% of England and Wales and accounts for 88% of those accused of child abuse – all broadly in line with the ethnic makeup of the country.

Professor Alexis Jay, who presided over a seven-year-long public Inquiry, pointed out in her 2022 report that the disparity with which this crime is recorded by police forces across the UK “makes it impossible to know whether any particular ethnic group is over-represented as perpetrators of child sexual exploitation by networks.” She went further in a recent Radio 4 Today Programme interview, stating child abuse was not limited to any one group in society.

Musk’s claims, mostly made through trigger-happy reposts of questionable persons, suggest there was a reticence to deal with the horrors of these gangs because law enforcement would be labeled racist or Islamophobic, which Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson brands the “malevolent myth of multiculturalism”. It’s open season for Muslims. Sections of the political and media class have been salivating at the unrestrained assault Musk’s intervention affords them.

Musk implies that the Labour Party remained silent in the heartlands of Rotherham, Bradford, Telford, and elsewhere because they depended on the ‘Muslim block vote’. One would conclude the opposite if anyone followed the recent general election campaign. Labour could not care less about Muslim votes, predominantly in its safe seats. For sure, there has been a horrid block vote, but its importance has been overplayed – Gaza continues to show the indifference Labour has shown to its Muslim constituents.

The failed Conservative Party leadership contender Robert Jenerick, who on some days makes Nigel Farage look like a woolly liberal, opines, “We have seen millions of people enter the UK in recent years, and some of them have backward, frankly medieval attitudes to women”. This is not merely a dog whistle – Jenerick is using a bullhorn. Muslims are culturally uncivilized, a kind of language that has in the past justified imperialism and military intervention. It’s the same civilizational superiority that makes it perfectly acceptable to positively sit back when tens of thousands are massacred in Gaza. Another variety of Gallant’s ‘human animals’.

Jenerick’s party leader, Kemi Bedinoch, in the Conservative Party leadership race to the bottom, said, ‘all cultures are not equally valid’ and that ‘Western values’ are superior to others. At Prime Minister’s Questions this past week, she derided the All-Party Parliamentary Group’s definition of Islamophobia, claiming incorrectly that calling out the identity of grooming gangs would come under its classification of Islamophobia. Forgetting to mention that the APPG definition, albeit flawed, was the product of a collaborative effort by cross-party parliamentarians, including her own. But in a world of social media sound bites, her reference to Muslim, Pakistani, rape gangs, and Islam would be sufficient to earn plaudits from Musk.

Undergirding this media and political frenzy are the fundamental tensions that pervade Western societies, as summed up by the obnoxious Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson: “a self-loathing Western world which sees merit in every culture but its own.” The West has lost its way. According to this narrative, its ‘decline’—stagnated economies, lower living standards, failed wars, broken politics, and an epidemic of sadness and discontentment—can be attributed to its cultural impotence.

In this emasculated world, the sexually licentious barbarian, a common trope of old deployed against Muslims to justify conquest, has been resuscitated by resurgent white nativists. It’s a comfort blanket of an explanation to rationalize this crumbling Western order.

Andrew Tate, who loves to appeal to any passing profitable opportunity, has found another bandwagon to ride, “third-world migrants” that come to Europe, in Tate’s words, “would import high testosterone men” who could act as “fearsome predators” in an “emasculated West”. The language mirrors The Great Replacement Theory, which positions migration as a liberal plot to consolidate a project to dilute white civilization.

Musk, reeling from the backlash he recently received from the American nativist right when he called for an increase in high-skilled legal immigration and reform of H-1B visas, felt it necessary to over-compensate by unleashing his crusade. His language played to the Trump base by mirroring their talking points. The consequence is to make a particular kind of prejudice against Muslims an acceptable discourse. This past week in the UK, the so-called Overton window has tilted toward the racist Tommy Robinson, who has now earned a Nelson Mandela-like status in some quarters. The consequence is a frenzied, politicized, hate-driven public debate that further pushes Muslim voices away from the public square.

Decline is an ugly affair. And the decline of this empire, however slow and terminal, is leading to ruptures that require the othering of Muslims to give elites space to continue an economic and military order that feeds a few at the expense of the many.

[This article was first published here and has been reposted with the author’s permission]

Related:

– The Terminal Hypocrisy Of A Crumbling West And The Dawning Of A New Age for Muslims

– It’s Not Andrew Tate’s Conversion, It’s Some Muslim Men’s Reactions

The post The Elon Musk Anti-Islam Crusade appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

A Facade of Peace

In his historical account The Agricola, Tacitus quotes the words of Calgacus, a leader who stood against the Roman Empire’s expansion. His searing critique of imperial power—“they make a desert and call it peace”—reveals the truth about so-called “peace” achieved through conquest and devastation. This sentiment resonates strongly with the findings in the “Peace of a Graveyard” report, which exposes India’s portrayal of normalcy in Kashmir as a mask for the ongoing devastation of a people and their land. Like the Romans, who plundered and destroyed under the guise of empire, India’s occupation of Kashmir—marked by military violence, religious suppression, and demographic manipulation—seeks to create a peace built on silence and oppression. The desert that Calgacus describes has been reproduced in Kashmir today. 

Religious Suppression

The report paints a chilling picture of a region in the grip of unprecedented military occupation and socio-religious repression. It highlights religious freedom violations that cut at the heart of Kashmiri Muslim identity. From the unlawful detention of clerics like Sarjan Barkati to the arbitrary house arrests of Mirwaiz Dr. Umar Farooq, India’s actions are part of a broader strategy to quash Muslim religious life in the valley. Mosques, once vibrant centers of community, are routinely shut down during the most sacred of Islamic events—Ramadan, Eid, and Shab-e-Meraj. This year alone, congregational prayers were banned in Srinagar’s Jamia Masjid, the spiritual heart of Kashmir. The Indian government’s selective allowance of Hindu festivals in the region while curbing Muslim worship is nothing short of institutionalized Islamophobia.

An elderly Kashmiri man is prevented from passing by Indian paramilitary forces [PC: AP Photos]

“Accidental” Erasure

Military repression extends far beyond religious suppression. The report documents the brutal reality of military vehicles literally running over civilians. This human rights violation is seldom spoken of, it is not even registered or imagined as part of India’s repressive actions in Kashmir. These so-called “accidents” are frequent and horrifying—Kashmiris, including children, have been crushed under the wheels of military and police convoys. Yet, these deaths are rarely reported in Indian media, and no prosecutions are pursued against the soldiers involved. This is not surprising as regimes of occupation are inherently incapable of carrying out such prosecutions, rather, they construct a culture of impunity. It is a grim metaphor for life under occupation.

Under surveillance and military occupation [PC: DunyaNews]

The report goes on to expose the Indian government’s war on Kashmir’s cultural and intellectual heritage. By renaming schools and public roads after Indian military officers and restricting academic freedoms, India seeks to erase Kashmiri history and memory. This calculated erasure is part of a larger strategy to replace Kashmir’s rich identity with a forced, alien narrative of Indian nationalism. For India, then, the only good Kashmiri is either a dead Kashmiri, or a Kashmiri who no longer identifies as one, but is subsumed through forced assimilation. 

A Graveyard Peace

In every respect, this report lays bare the hypocrisy of India’s claims that life in Kashmir is returning to normal. How can one speak of peace when human rights violations are a daily reality? Arbitrary detentions, custodial torture, internet blackouts, and economic strangulation have all been normalized under Indian rule. The so-called peace in Kashmir is, in fact, a peace of the graveyard, built on fear, death, and the systemic silencing of an entire population. 

For the international community, the report is a wake-up call. It challenges the acceptance of India’s claims of normalcy and demands accountability for the suffering imposed on Kashmiris. As long as the global community remains silent, India’s military might will continue to crush the bodies and spirits of the Kashmiri people.

The time for superficial narratives of peace is over. This report shows that there can be no true peace without justice, no normalcy without the end to an abnormal occupation. The world must recognize Kashmir for what it truly is: not a region enjoying peace, but a graveyard of aspirations buried under military boots.

The report can be read here. 

Related:

– Blatant Panopticon: Enforced Surveillance In Kashmir

– Two Kashmirs: Suffering And Spirituality

The post The Graveyard Of Normalcy – New Report Uncovers Egregious Human Rights Violations In Indian-occupied Kashmir appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

These helpers had very limited resources to offer and share. Yet, despite living with simple means in the harsh desert environment, they were willing to embrace the newcomers with an attitude of compassion and utmost generosity. The emigrants as well understood that they were in no position to take this for granted. In a similar posture of selflessness, they contributed their best in advancing their new community. Conflict and concord were a reality of human relationships then as they are now. They muddled through the messiness of being in a community and ultimately made it work. The difficulties of creating a new sustainable social entity are acknowledged by the Qur’an itself,

“In His mercy God has turned to the Prophet, and the emigrants and helpers who followed him in the hour of adversity when some hearts almost wavered: He has turned to them; He is most kind and merciful to them.” [Surah At-Tawbah: 9;117]

However nostalgic this might sound, their mutual love, embrace, constant sacrifice, and tireless communal work were the seeds that launched the new expansion of the Islamic empire.  

Challenging the Dehumanizing Public Discourse on Immigration

I am an immigrant myself. Today, as I look back to this profound event that shaped the global Muslim community in profound ways, I am reminded that it takes both sides – immigrant and receiving communities – for societies to flourish. The climate crisis, global wars, and worldwide poverty force us to rethink our understanding of what it means to truly belong: Are national, territorial constructs, borders, and slim passports sufficient to capture the emergence of hybrid, fluid, and transnational identities? In the face of mass displacement, forced immigration, and the global refugee crisis, could we transcend seeing a human being from a simply utilitarian perspective? Are immigrants and refugees either a burden or a benefit  – socially, economically, and politically? Could we refrain from the dehumanizing, degrading, and otherizing public discourse and arrive at one simple fact: the immigrant and refugee is a stark and embodied reminder that life is fragile, stability and certainty are illusions, and that each of us can lose their livelihood and home within a moment.

Those of us who claim adherence to the Abrahamic religions, very well know that we were at the margins of society and that our very origin stories are rooted in the painful experiences of exile, refuge, and immigration. This is all the more reason that religious communities need to wake up from this historical amnesia and claim their responsibility in taking care of the newcomer and welcoming the stranger. It pains me that the fundamental dignity and worth of human life get lost in the dehumanizing public discourse on immigration.         

Towards a Holistic Approach – Sacred Responsibilities of both Migrant and Host

As an immigrant child myself, I have witnessed that these communities are the most loving, hardworking, resilient, and selfless people who deeply care. True, some too can fall into romanticizing their countries of origin while cultivating nostalgia for the past and embracing a so-called paradigm of rejection. Such an attitude does not allow for a view that their new place has to offer something valuable. Everything and everyone was always better “back home.” I know very well that such sentiments can be common and understandable in the early years of an especially forceful and involuntary immigration experience. They need to be acknowledged and worked through. Trauma, pain, sadness, and grief over so many loved ones, losses, and memories left behind are a reality. 

The hijra tells the story that in loss there can also be gain; that hardships can be blessings in disguise; and that in absence, abundance can be found. Both – receiving and immigrant communities – must display an openness to new possibilities. Acting in mutuality, solidarity, and unity can indeed be a reality when done holistically in calling all parties to their sacred responsibilities toward one another. In the words of Muslim theologian Bediüzzaman Said Nursi we must strive to emulate the cosmic brotherhood and sisterhood displayed throughout the creation. We can and must embrace one another (teanuk), support one another (tesanüd), respond to each other’s needs (tecavüb), and help one another (teavün). At our core, we are social beings intricately connected and interwoven. What affects one will affect everyone.

Anti-Immigrant Riots: A Contrast To The Teachings Of The Hijra

The recent anti-immigrant riots in the UK offer a stark and troubling contrast to the principles of mutual support and solidarity illustrated by the hijra and the teachings from the Qur’an and Islamic tradition. These riots, marked by violence and xenophobic rhetoric, reveal a disturbing trend of fear and hostility towards immigrants and refugees, highlighting the urgent need for a more compassionate and inclusive approach to these issues.

In the context of the hijra, the early Muslim community’s experience underscores the possibility of flourishing through mutual support despite adversity. The Ansar’s welcoming attitude towards the Muhajirun exemplifies how communities can overcome difficulties through empathy and cooperation. In contrast, the recent riots demonstrate a failure to uphold these values, with many immigrants facing hostility and dehumanization rather than the support and solidarity they need.

The events in the UK reflect broader challenges in addressing immigration, often fueled by economic anxiety, political rhetoric, and misinformation. These riots reveal how fear and prejudice can overshadow the principles of mutual aid and understanding.

Addressing the root causes of such hostility requires a commitment to fostering understanding and empathy, rather than succumbing to fear and division. The hijra’s lessons teach us that with openness, cooperation, and compassion, communities can transform challenges into opportunities for growth and solidarity. It is through embracing these principles and actively working to bridge divides that we can begin to counteract the negative trends seen in recent events and build a more inclusive and supportive society for all.

The first Muslim migration was an early success story showing that the human family must act with the full consciousness and deep understanding that we are part of an interdependent whole and that each of us is an important unique piece in the sacred fabric of life. Each of us is called to do our part in making community work through sharing our God-given selves and skills, our divinely entrusted wealth, the God-given land and resources as echoed in the Qur’an, 

“Those who believed and emigrated and struggled for God’s cause with their possessions and persons, and those who gave refuge and help, are all allies of one another […] But if they seek help from you against persecution, it is your duty to assist them, except against people with whom you have a treaty: God sees all that you do.” [Surah Al-Anfal: 8;72]

Related:

– Traditional Islam, Ideology, Immigrant Muslims, and Grievance Culture: A Review of Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe by Abdal Hakim Murad

The post The Hijra : Lessons From The First Muslim Migration For Today appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

When Only God Can See – The Faith of Muslim Political Prisoners

by Walaa Quisay and Asim Qureshi

“When Only God Can See: The Faith of Muslim Political Prisoners” by Walaa Quisay and Asim Qureshi is a painful, powerful book that functions as bearing witness to the oft-untold stories of Muslim political prisoners held in the horrors of Guantanamo Bay, Egypt, and other “black sites” of illegal imprisonment and torture, and as an exploration of Islamic spirituality in the “University of Yusuf” . 

This is a book about faith, geopolitics, prison, torture, the intensely personal and the blatantly public, and an ongoing reality for so many Muslims around the world. It is a book that all Muslims – especially those of us in the privileged West – need to read, to understand both the larger geopolitical picture at play, and what it means to truly experience tests of faith.

Muslim political prisoners in Guantanamo, Egypt, and America (and elsewhere) are not your “average” prisoner – they are guilty of nothing but being victims of a global War on Islam, a geopolitical and Islamophobic campaign of terror and torture. Many of these prisoners were at the wrong place at the wrong time, literally sold into prison by greedy Pakistani military or Afghan warlords, or picked up as part of a regular practice of squashing political & religious dissent against vicious dictators.

This book highlights who these otherwise anonymous prisoners – male and female – really are: what they endure(d), how they endure(d), and how Islam became their ultimate form of resistance against an injustice that is not held accountable in this dunya but absolutely will be in the aakhirah. From their dedication to their salah (Moazzam Begg tells an anecdote about praying in jama’ah with other Muslim men who were bound and threatened by American soldiers on their first rendition flight to Bagram Prison) to prisoners teaching each other Qur’an through the bars of cages and whispering through pipes, the faith of these prisoners holds lessons for every single Muslim.

One could easily write hundreds of khutbahs about iman, sabr, developing a relationship with the Qur’an, personal crises of faith, resistance against oppression, understanding qada and qadr, and more – and we’d still have more to learn from what these prisoners go through. The theme of “the University of Prophet Yusuf” echoes throughout this book, reminding us that as Muslims, we have a spiritual tradition of believers being unjustly imprisoned and tortured… a tradition meant to teach the rest of us that freedom, not just imprisonment, is a test from Allah of our own faith. 

The stories of the men and women, boys and girls (teenagers as young as 13 and 15!), who endured and continue to endure the torments of both Eastern and Western nation-states do not exist in a vacuum. Qureshi and Quisay provide detailed context to the “War on Terror,” the history of Islamophobia fueling the violence against Muslim prisoners, and the complex ways that systems of incarceration are connected across the world. The book sheds light on the ways that the West and governments of Muslim countries are intimately allied, the systems of power and Islamophobia that span continents, and impact our everyday lives.

Indeed, perhaps one of the most important lessons of this book is that it is not just one kind of Muslim – male, overtly religious, and politically involved – who is at risk of being picked up by security apparatuses as part of the “War on Terror”… any Muslim, male or female, even those who aren’t “practicing” are at risk – it is you and I who could just as easily find ourselves behind bars, alongside the prisoners of this book. 

Their stories are our stories. Will we make sure our voices are heard?

The Power of Du’a

by Aliyah Umm Raiyaan

Aliyah Umm Raiyaan strikes again with her latest book, “The Power of Du’a“! Just as with her first book, Ramadan Reflections, Aliyah brings classical Islamic knowledge and presents it to readers in a manner that is both easily digestible and relatable, and most importantly, practically applicable. (Perhaps a little too easily digestible at times – I found this book a little fluffier than Ramadan Reflections, and became impatient at being addressed as “Dear reader” constantly.)

Each chapter addresses an element of du’a – approaching Allah , having the correct mindset, good deeds to accompany du’a, and more – alongside individual dua stories, a “Develop your du’a” segment that includes practical tips on incorporating the chapter’s suggestions, and “Allah , transform my du’a” with a written out du’a for you. The structure of each chapter makes it easy to spend time focusing on its content, reflecting on your personal experiences with du’a, and developing effective dua strategies to apply in your life.

I underlined and tabbed numerous parts of this book that resonated with me deeply, and those which I knew I’d be returning to regularly in my (many) times of struggle and need. I don’t think I’ve ever tabbed a non-academic book this much! I did find the book repetitive at times, and I wished that many of the du’as from the Sunnah had been written out in Arabic as well.

Even so, I know that this book is incredibly valuable in making this topic accessible and applicable to so many readers who yearn to deepen their connection with Allah . 100% worth ordering for yourself and giving as a gift!

Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion

by Evelyn Alsultany

What does DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) really mean? As universities and corporations fall over themselves to prove just how “inclusive” they really are, Evelyn Alsultany examines where and how Islam and Muslims fall into this framework of “diversity.” 

Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion takes a critical look at what diversity has come to mean, particularly in the contexts of Hollywood entertainment, violent hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs, and Zionist targeting of pro-Palestinian students on college campuses. 

Alsultany does an excellent job of pointing out the flaws of token “diversity” as a way of addressing (or rather, not really addressing) racism and prejudice, particularly against Muslims or those perceived to be so. She introduces the phrase “crisis diversity”: when a crisis produces a domino effect of responses, namely, the public remembering that a problem exists (e.g. Islamophobia), “experts” showing up to pontificate on the problem, and if we’re lucky, organizations issuing hollow statements and announcing “new initiatives” that vaguely acknowledge the problem. 

Alsultany analyzes the ways in which Hollywood has moved forward, and backwards, in its representations of Arabs, Iranians, and Muslims in general. From adding more actors of colour to movie casts, to creating new tropes that don’t actually break stereotypes (e.g. “the patriotic Muslim” who gives their life for America, by fighting against the “bad Muslim terrorists”), Alsultany highlights that “inclusion” isn’t always actually good for us as a community. 

Given that this book is an academic work, there is unfortunately no discussion on how “inclusion” in Hollywood is already a spiritually dubious endeavor for Muslims. However, readers should certainly take the time to reflect on the material that the author provides regarding the entertainment industry, and consider whether or not we really want to be included in it to begin with. Scratch the surface just a little, and I think we can all agree that there is almost no way to avoid exponential levels of haraamness in the industry!

Of more significance to the bigger picture are the chapters on racial gaslighting, racial purging, and “flexible diversity.” Racial gaslighting refers to when violence against Muslims, such as the Chapel Hill shooting, are acknowledged as violent crimes – but not acknowledged as hate crimes, and thus stripped of the context of Islamophobia. Alsultany also pushes readers to consider whether there is value in asking law enforcement and the justice system to acknowledge hate crimes to begin with, when these institutions are themselves Islamophobic and perpetuate Islamophobia at a widespread scale. She recognizes that this is a difficult question with no easy answers, and perhaps with no definitive answers at all – but it is a question worth thinking about, especially for those of us involved in grassroots activism and anti-Islamophobia advocacy. 

In “Racial Purging,” Alsultany highlights the American phenomenon of “free speech” vs “hate speech,” the politicization of free speech as an excuse to perpetuate Islamophobia, and the way that corporations build their brands by either condemning or uplifting individuals involved in such public scandals. This chapter is particularly useful for understanding individualized vs institutional Islamophobia, and provides important framing for understanding these recurring incidents in the public eye (whether at the mainstream media level, social media, or both). 

“Flexible Diversity” is perhaps the most relevant chapter of all: an examination of how “diversity” and “inclusion” are rendered meaningless in the context of the Palestinian cause on university campuses, and how Zionists seek to co-opt the language of DEI as they target pro-Palestinian activists. With a focus on the University of Michigan and notable incidents that took place on UM’s campus, Alsultany shows us how social justice becomes erased in the name of diversity. 

“Replacing social justice with diversity changes the approach from rectifying the persistence of legacy of inequality and racial violence to ensuring that everyone is included as if everyone is equally marginalized” (p. 193, Elsultany, 2022). It is by weaponizing the language of inclusivity that Zionists can level accusations of anti-Semitism against those who advocate for the Palestinian cause. “When Zionisim intersects with DEO on college campuses, it perpetuates anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism and undermines the inclusion of MENA and Muslim students” (Ibid). Alsultany reminds readers of the dangers of falling into DEI-speak, at the risk of losing sight of important principles of justice and anti-oppression. 

“Broken” is a book that aptly reflects its title: showing us all that years of pursuing “inclusion” has done very little for the Muslim community, other than putting us in further positions of weakness. The book’s analysis shows us that whether in Hollywood or on campuses, pursuing diversity for diversity’s sake does nothing for our rights – instead, we must change our approach and expectations to a stronger foundation… one of fiercely fighting oppression, and tirelessly seeking meaningful justice instead.

Related:

From The MuslimMatters Bookshelf: Palestinian Literature For All Ages

From The MuslimMatters Bookshelf

The post From The MuslimMatters Bookshelf: Prison, Prayer, And The Politics Of Diversity appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Most Canadians appreciate the University of Windsor’s effort to come to a peaceful resolution demonstrating a commitment to human rights, justice, and transparency. It is an institution that defends the right to freedom of expression (a freedom that Avi Benlolo would love to quash in his blind defense of Israeli massacres). The University of Windsor has lived up to its own values and standards of academic freedom, equity, and diversity. It is commendable that the university did not shut down the encampment and it has established itself as a leader in the fight for social justice. Unlike Avi Benlolo, the University of Windsor has taken a stand against Israeli human rights abuses. Other academic institutions should follow the leadership of President Robert Gordon and adopt similar policies and practices.

Avi Benlolo slanders the brave students as trying to “demonize, defame, and destabilize a fellow democracy – the State of Israel.”

Firstly, if it was a democracy it would allow Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to vote in its elections. If it was a democracy it would not have abducted 9,600 Palestinian hostages since October 7th without charge and subjected them to vile torture methods including rape and vicious physical beatings. 

Secondly, Israel has demonized, defamed, and destabilized itself by conducting a brutal Nazi-style massacre of tens of thousands of Palestinians, carrying out a plethora of human rights abuses, and committing acts of terror against innocent civilians.

The agreement acknowledges a United Nations database of “companies whom it has identified are engaged in illegal Israeli settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory.” A real human rights advocate would encourage Israeli settlements to conform to international law so that they can remove themselves from the UN database. Avi Benlolo fails to do so.

He loses all credibility when he whines against recognizing anti-Palestinian racism. He makes clear that all he cares about is discrimination against Jews and not discrimination against Arabs, Palestinians, or Muslims.

Although over 100,000 Palestinians have been either killed or injured by barbaric Israeli terror, Avi Benlolo focuses on hate crimes against the Jewish community, the numbers of which have been artificially inflated by Jewish groups counting criticism of Israel as anti-semitism. Other communities don’t inflate their numbers just to mislead the public. Muslims don’t count criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record as Islamophobic. Russians don’t count criticism of Russia’s invasion as Russophobic. People like Benlolo inflate the anti-semtism stats, by counting legitimate criticism of Israeli invasion, occupation, and human rights abuses.

In line with inflating numbers, he continues with the erroneous statement: “1,200 Hamas victims killed on October 7.” Almost half of these were Israeli soldiers (Palestinians have a right to defend themselves after all), and many of the Israeli victims were killed by Israeli tanks and helicopters in an indiscriminate Hannibal Directive to limit how many hostages were taken.

This historic University of Windsor agreement follows Canadian values, Avi Benlolo does not, as he ends his article promoting the racist policy of hiring pro-Israel students. It is sickening that the National Post would publish such hateful viewpoints by giving a pulpit to Benlolo to spew his racist rhetoric.

Related:

– “What Did You Just Say?”: Introducing The New MM Open Letter Series I Dear Mr. Fareed Zakaria

– “What Did You Just Say?”: The MM Open Letter Series I Dear Ms. Julia Hartley-Brewer

The post “What Did You Just Say?”: A MuslimMatters Open Letter Series I Dear Avi Benlolo appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.