All posts tagged: Islamophobia

How a Rallying Cry Became a Curriculum

How a Rallying Cry Became a Curriculum

Published by Sam Flores

Republican leaders across Texas are repeatedly warning that Sharia is an urgent threat to the state — making it a rallying cry as we head into the midterm elections. The Muslim community, which has long stayed quiet, is now organizing and speaking out.  Today: how the drumbeat of Islamophobic language became school curriculum, and how the small population of Muslim Texans begins to use American strategies to work for their place in Texas. To understand what is happening in Texas we are joined by RNS journalists Fiona André and Ulaa Kuziez.   This transcript was generated using AI tools and may contain minor transcription errors. AUDIO CLIP TONY ROBERTSON: Today, as you closely consider what our books in Texas allow children to read, we ask that you reflect back on why you took this position, the promises you made, the action plans you campaigned on, the stated values of the Republican Party of Texas. We as Texans, we need to have the courage of our stated convictions, and we need to look at Western European …

The post-9/11 infrastructure of Islamophobia

The post-9/11 infrastructure of Islamophobia

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — This week, Republicans are gathering for a midterm convention in Dallas, in my own backyard, immediately before the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. But angry demonstrators outside our mosques are not something that arrived with the convention. On Fridays, even without a national political gathering nearby, members of our community regularly encounter protesters when they come to pray. As an American Muslim imam, I consider this setting as we approach this anniversary. Alongside the somber commemorations and historical retrospectives are the ordinary concerns of people wondering whether they can enter their mosque without being harassed. For us, the legacy of Sept. 11 is not confined to a terrible morning. It includes the institutions, organizations and assumptions that took shape afterward. Six days after the attacks, President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., and declared: “Islam is peace.” He spoke about Muslim Americans as neighbors and warned against intimidating women wearing headscarves. Sadly, that reassurance was not the whole record. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq he launched in the …

Islamophobia Has Corroded American Values

Islamophobia Has Corroded American Values

Published by Sam Flores

Every July, I take my boys back to my hometown in Indiana so we can watch the Independence Day parade. They run around in American-flag shirts and devour far too many rocket pops as vintage cars, tractors, and an Abraham Lincoln in shorts make their way down Main Street. I’ve always loved that parade, but it’s not the same one I recall watching as a girl. In recent years—in between the marching bands and Girl Scouts—comes a camouflage military Humvee, a papier-mâché bald eagle flying at a jumbo-size Bible, and a tribute to “Indiana’s fallen heroes,” during which photos of so many, too many, young Hoosiers who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq are carried out on banners. It’s a somber scene. The shadow of September 11, the wars that followed, and the culture that shaped us all hangs over the parade. I’m not usually one to read much into the symbolism of anniversaries, but this year marks both 250 years since the founding of the United States and 25 years since 9/11. I can’t think …

Political Islamophobia is back

Political Islamophobia is back

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — In case you haven’t noticed, Republican politicians are back to playing the anti-Shariah card. Examples are legion, but start with last September, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill banning so-called Shariah compounds in his state. A group of congressional Republicans, meanwhile, has formed a “Sharia-Free America Caucus,” and bills to keep America Shariah-free have been introduced by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a candidate for governor in Alabama, and U.S. Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Randy Fine of Florida. A Georgia candidate for lieutenant governor has posted a scary video about Shariah taking over the U.S. What lies behind this is no mystery: The GOP is desperately seeking an issue to prevent what looks to be a disastrous midterm election in November. What worked in 2024 doesn’t look so good in 2026. High prices? Tariffs have kept them up. Foreign wars? They’re back. Illegal immigrants? Thanks, ICE, for taking that off the table. Which pretty much leaves “men-in-women’s-sports” to get the juices flowing. But if you can’t hold on to …

Islamophobia and the dangers of chilling discourse

Islamophobia and the dangers of chilling discourse

Published by Sam Flores

This week, the release of the Casey report on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse (grooming gangs) laid bare the failures that prevented abuse against children being properly investigated. As the Government announced a public inquiry into the scandal, Louise Casey said for too long the authorities had shied away from the ethnicity of the people involved, adding it was “not racist to examine the ethnicity of the offenders”. This is perhaps best illustrated by the treatment of Ann Cryer. In 2002, when she was Labour MP for Keighley, Cryer became the first public figure in Britain to speak out about young white girls being abused in Rotherham by grooming gangs from the Pakistani community. Cryer was shouted down as a racist in meetings and found local councils “were petrified of being called racist and so reverted to the default of political correctness”. “There was a certain point when I felt like giving the whole thing up because I was being called a racist,” she said. Cryer’s experience should serve as a lesson that silencing …