"Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed are probably today’s most visible Muslim American politicians. What makes them noteworthy is not just their obvious communication skills, but their deliberate attention to policies that enhance the public good for all."

‘What makes Mamdani and El-Sayed noteworthy is not just their obvious communication skills but their deliberate attention to policies that enhance the public good for all.’ Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

9/11 entrenched Islamophobia in US politics. But it doesn’t work the way you think

Anti-Muslim sentiment is used as a political weapon. Meanwhile, Muslim American leaders are making a difference for all 

 Moustafa Bayoumi in The Guardian 

Fri 11 Sep 2026 

It’s been 25 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, and during this time Muslim Americans have learned how to live in that dangerous space between other Americans’ fears and their ignorance.

The fear was clear from the beginning. Immediately following 9/11, Muslim Americans faced what Human Rights Watch called “a severe wave of backlash violence”. A tide of hate rose up against ordinary Muslims and those who appeared to be Muslim, including at least three murders in the immediate backlash after the attacks. The federal government, for its part, began targeting Muslim immigrants in a massive surge of repression that legal experts soon compared to the Palmer Raids of the 1920s.

The ignorance was just as evident. Even Oprah Winfrey did her part to allay it, dedicating an episode of her show in October 2001 to “Islam 101”. The Qur’an leapt on to the New York Times bestseller list that fall. Yet despite these early efforts at education, most Americans still learned little about Islam and Muslims. One 2006 study found that only a third of those polled realized that Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews do. Close to 10% of respondents thought Muslims worship a “moon god”.

Much of this fear and ignorance has continued unevenly over the last quarter century, with negative attitudes towards Muslim Americans softening at times and hardening, sometimes into deadly violence, at other times. What’s interesting is when expressions of these attitudes happen. It turns out that predicting when animosity to Muslims will rise and fall may not be quite what you think.

Researchers who study Islamophobia discovered several years ago that anti-Muslim outbreaks in the United States don’t follow highly publicized acts of terrorism. Rather, Islamophobic incidents tend to cluster more routinely around our election cycles.... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/11/9-11-islamophobia-us-politics

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"An incompetent and gullible Trump is plainly responsible for yielding to Israeli pressure and dragging the US into the latest war." The pro-Israel lobby has swayed US presidents since Truman. It must end with Trump

Illustration: Jordan Bohannon/The Guardian/Getty Images/White House

Our new book tracks the growth over nearly eight decades, of the most powerful foreign policy lobby in US history 

 Ian Lustick and Eli Clifton

Sun 2 Aug 2026 09.00 EDT

In 1948, with war raging in Palestine, Harry Truman found himself trapped.

On one side were Zionist lobbyists and the president’s domestic political advisers, who were urging him to support the establishment of a Jewish state in as much of Palestine as possible. On the other were his top foreign policy and national security officials, led by the secretary of state, George C Marshall. Their unanimous recommendation was to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state, which they believed would trigger war in the Middle East and endanger the future of US relations with the Arab and Muslim world.

With the exception perhaps of George Washington, no diplomatic or military leader in American history had a reputation for patriotic virtue and skilled devotion to duty comparable to that of Marshall. Truman was in awe of the secretary of state, who, as chief of staff of the US armed forces, had been hailed by Winston Churchill as “the true organizer of victory” in the second world war. After the war, it had been Marshall who launched the plan named after him to rebuild Europe.

In the mid-1940s, Marshall pushed quietly but steadily against the Zionist movement’s proposals to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. He was concerned that American support would open opportunities for the Soviet Union to exploit Arab anger, put Middle Eastern oil supplies at risk in the event of a war between the Soviet Union and the United States, and require the deployment of unavailable American troops to prevent bloodshed and instability in Palestine. These were, indeed, the strongly held views of virtually all of Truman’s most important military and foreign policy advisers.

Truman was personally and deeply moved by the suffering of Jewish survivors of the Nazi “Final Solution”, but ... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/aug/02/pro-israel-lobby-presidents 

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"The ‘peace process’ became a magic pill rendering the occupation invisible to the west" A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/oct/05/gaza-palestine-israel-trump-peace-plan

"... we must recognize that violent instability is baked into any system where one side has power and rights and the other has none." How to burst the Israeli bubble

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/sep/14/how-to-burst-the-israeli-bubble 

"If there’s a glimmer of hope in all this rage-inducing misery, it can be found in the growing number of people around the world who refuse to be intimidated into silence. " The destruction of Palestine is breaking the world 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jul/06/destruction-of-palestine-is-breaking-the-world 

Speaking to the world's leaders, the pope said, "Stop! It is time for peace! Sit at the table of dialogue and mediation, not at the table where rearmament is planned, and deadly actions are decided!" However, all the world's people also have a duty to reject the violence in their own hearts and minds, and help build a kingdom of peace each and every day in one's own home, school and community, he said. "Let us believe once again in love, moderation and good politics," he said, urging people to learn more and "get personally involved" in being part of "the mosaic of peace!"

Pope Leo XIV prays during an evening prayer vigil for peace in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican April 11, 2026. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Carol Glatz

April 11, 2026

Pope Leo XIV called for a prayer vigil April 11 to tell the whole world it is possible for all people of all religions and ethnicities to live together and that "we want to be united as brothers and sisters, united in a world of peace."

"Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life," he said during the special vigil for peace in St. Peter's Basilica.

"Those who pray are aware of their own limitations; they do not kill or threaten with death," he said. "Instead, death enslaves those who have turned their backs on the living God, turning themselves and their own power into a mute, blind and deaf idol, to which they sacrifice every value, demanding that the whole world bend its knee."

"Let us listen to the voices of children," who write to him all the time, recounting "all the horror and inhumanity of actions that some adults boast of with pride," he said. 

The vigil, which drew thousands of people inside and outside the basilica, featured the recitation of the glorious mysteries of the rosary. Before each mystery was recited, women wearing traditional dress from countries representing the different continents of the world lit small lamps from a flame from the Lamp of Peace from Assisi that was placed below a statue of Our Lady Queen of Peace.

Prayer can move mountains, he said in his remarks in Italian. "War divides; hope unites. Arrogance tramples upon others; love lifts up. Idolatry blinds us; the living God enlightens."

It just takes a tiny bit of faith "to face this dramatic hour in history together," he said....READ MORE  

https://www.usccb.org/news/2026/pope-decries-horror-inhumanity-some-adults-boast-pride 

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“My journey in politics began with Palestine... We said we cared about freedom, cared about justice, we cared about safety, we cared about peace, and yet we did not dare to apply those things to Palestine...” — The Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani

https://x.com/i/status/1985942654174035983     video speech 

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani has won the New York mayoral election to become the city’s first Muslim mayor, polls projected late on Tuesday after voting closed in the closely watched election. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/5/us-election-results-2025-key-takeaways-from-historic-night-across-the-us

 

Born in Uganda to Indian parents, Zohran Mamdani has made history as New York City’s first Muslim mayor - and its youngest leader in more than 100 years.   BBC https://x.com/i/status/1986032566621680040

 

IMEU Policy Project

 

@imeupolicy

 

STATEMENT: Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for mayor stood for all the things that New York City, our country, and the Democratic Party must aspire to: an abiding respect for human rights and the dignity of every person, including Palestinians.

 

https://x.com/imeupolicy/status/1985899278728827093/photo/1 

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"What we are witnessing right now is the rise of two Americas. One for the billionaire class. And one for everybody else" The American political system is badly broken- Bernie Sanders in The Guardian

An unhoused person sleeps on a bench at the Columbus Circle monument, in view of the US Capitol in Washington DC, on 18 August. Photograph: Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

Wed 24 Sep 2025 06.00 EDT

Let’s take a deep breath and, for one moment, forget about Donald Trump, Jimmy Kimmel, the UN, Charlie Kirk, Gaza, a government shutdown and the other crises that we face.

Let’s talk instead about the reality which the corporately-controlled media and the corporately-controlled political system don’t talk about very much.

What we are witnessing right now is the rise of two Americas. One for the billionaire class. And one for everybody else.

In one America, the richest people are becoming obscenely richer and have never, ever, had it so good. That America is overflowing with unimaginable wealth, greed and opulence that makes the Gilded Age seem very modest.

And then there is a second America – an America where a majority of people live paycheck to paycheck, struggling to secure the very basic necessities of life – food, healthcare, housing and education.

The simple truth is that never before in our history have so few had so much wealth and power while so many live in economic desperation... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/24/bernie-sanders-opinion-billionaire-politics 

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"Statehood cannot be declared in press releases while genocide burns Gaza and land is stolen daily in the West Bank. Recognition of Palestine is hollow if it ignores the uprooting of people and the violence that became a daily reality. Better to first recognize the atrocities and confront injustice than to offer symbolic statehood to a people whose very existence is already rooted in their land yet their land, and their lives are under attack." Sliman Mansour of Palestine

                 A caricature that was published in Al Fajr English language newspaper in the 1990’s.

sliman.mansour

Statehood cannot be declared in press releases while genocide burns Gaza and land is stolen daily in the West Bank. Recognition of Palestine is hollow if it ignores the uprooting of people and the violence that became a daily reality. Better to first recognize the atrocities and confront injustice than to offer symbolic statehood to a people whose very existence is already rooted in their land yet their land, and their lives are under attack.

Please don’t succumb to hopelessness over Palestine... "As the war gets livestreamed to our phones, it is easy to be overwhelmed and feel helpless. But even small acts of activism add up" Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/02/please-dont-succumb-to-hopelessness-over-palestine-your-voice-can-still-make-a-difference

It is hard to stay hopeful in today’s “monstrous times”, but for the sake of the people bearing the brunt of modern monstrosities, it is imperative that we do.

Your voice can still make a difference

Arwa Mahdawi

Tue 2 Sep 2025 

‘It is hard to stay hopeful in monstrous times’ … A pro-Palestinian demonstration in Warsaw, Poland. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

I don’t know if Frankenstein star Christoph Waltz is normally a man of few words but he didn’t have much to say at a recent Venice film festival press conference. Waltz uttered only six words, with “CGI is for losers” constituting four of them. The remaining two were “I don’t”, in response to a question about how he stays hopeful in today’s “monstrous times”.

Waltz is certainly not alone in despairing of a world which seems to elevate liars, cheats, and adjudicated sexual predators. It’s hard to feel hope when a genocide has been livestreamed to our phones for almost two years and there is no justice in sight; just a systematic slaughter of the journalists who serve as messengers. No peace prospects on the horizon; just well-paid consultants putting together ethnic cleansing prospectuses so a “Gaza Riviera” can be built. (Oh, sorry, we’re supposed to say “voluntary relocation”, aren’t we?)

As a British Palestinian, I urge you to keep (or start!) speaking up for Gaza and Palestinians. The situation in Gaza and the West Bank gets worse daily. But please do not succumb to hopelessness or assume that you are powerless to change things. While it may seem like nothing will shame politicians into meaningfully upholding international human rights law, your voice does make a difference. Writing to your MP; protesting; donating; supporting the Freedom Flotilla Coalition; advocating online; boycotting companies such as Airbnb which profit from illegal settlements. These sorts of things do make a difference.

Plenty of people are keen to tell you otherwise. There is a certain form of hopelessness that has been repackaged as sensible centrist thinking. Don’t bother with your silly little acts of activism or your social media posts, these people will tell you, they won’t achieve anything.

Look, for example, at the contemptuous reaction in many quarters to Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey’s decision to boycott King Charles’s state banquet for Trump in protest over Gaza. Per a sneering piece in the Telegraph, this boycott “betrays a serious lack of seriousness”. Davey would be far more serious, apparently, if he just joined other politicians in doing nothing, except perhaps issuing an occasional statement expressing “serious concern” about Israel bombing another hospital or executing another aid worker.

Of course, Davey’s boycott won’t shame Trump into acting. But it might cause someone to think more deeply about the perverseness of holding an extravagant state banquet while a US-enabled Israel, which has a history of weaponising food and controlling the calorie intake of a captive Gaza population, has orchestrated a human-made famine. It may pressure other politicians into some sort of action.... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/02/please-dont-succumb-to-hopelessness-over-palestine-your-voice-can-still-make-a-difference

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