Unpacking Islamophobia The Bridge Initiative

In Episode #13 of “Unpacking #Islamophobia”, we are joined by British journalist Peter Oborne who discusses #Islamophobia in #Britain today. We touch on Israel’s war in #Gaza, the #GreatReplacement conspiracy theory, and anti-Muslim sentiment in both the Labour and Conservative parties.

Our guests on this month's episode of Unpacking Islamophobia are Sahar Aziz and Mitchell Plitnick who are co-authors of a November 2023 Rutgers University report from the Center for Security, Race and Rights called “Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in the Palestine-Israel Discourse,” which examines how anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia have been used to silence criticism of the Israeli government.

In Episode #11 of “Unpacking #Islamophobia”, we are joined by Canadian sports journalist Shireen Ahmed who analyzes #hijab bans in national and international sports like #soccer, #basketball and #Olympics which affect female #Muslim athletes across the globe.

In Episode #10 of “Unpacking #Islamophobia”, we sit down with French legal scholar Rim-Sarah Alouane who discusses important topics related to anti-Muslim trends across France, including hijab bans, the mainstreaming of far-right politicians and political parties, laïcité and how it has been used to discriminate against Muslims, and the role of the French media in perpetuating Islamophobia.

In Episode 9 of “Unpacking Islamophobia,” our guest is Spencer Ackerman, a Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award–winning reporter and author of the book Reign of Terror: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump.

“We saw through the War on Terror that Islamophobia impacts everyone, whether you are Muslim or not,” began Mr. Ackerman as he analyzed many post-9/11 surveillance programs affecting millions of innocent people. He began by discussing the STELLARWIND program which involved mass data mining of a large database of the communications of American citizens; including email communications, telephone conversations, financial transactions, and Internet activity of millions of innocent people.

In this episode, Ackerman also discussed the global torture campaigns inflicted on countless Muslim and Arab men around the globe who were subjected to inhumane treatment in places like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. He also discussed “sexual abuse” at CIA black sites where Muslim detainees were victims of sexual torture around the world with very little government oversight.

In Episode 8 of “Unpacking Islamophobia,” our guest is Professor Farid Hafez, an Austrian academic who currently serves as a distinguished visiting Professor of International Studies at Williams College in Massachusetts and co-editor of the annual European Islamophobia Report, a collaborative work with 40 scholars covering more than 30 European countries.

Professor Hafez provides historical context on the recent trends of Quran burnings across Europe, especially Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Denmark. Professor Hafez begins by noting the rise of “not-so-popular far-right activists” on the fringe who are trying to provoke social unrest with Quran burning publicity stunts. He noted that Danish-Swedish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan was the first prominent Scandinavian to conduct a series of “public Quran burnings” across Sweden in 2019 and most recently in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, Sweden which made global headlines.