In Canada, Muslim groups are raising concerns after an incident involving a man pursuing two men and attempting to forcibly enter a mosque in Montreal was captured on surveillance footage, meanwhile in France, writer Michel Houellebecq has admitted to condoning and promoting an anti-Islam discourse, sarcastically pleading guilty to being “a part-time Islamophobe”, and in India, the country’s Supreme Court has stayed an order which called for the mass demolition of over 4,000 homes in the hill state of Uttarakhand, a demolition which would have rendered over 50,000 people, the majority of which Muslim, homeless. Our recommended read of the day is by Karen J. Greenberg for Lawfare on the discrepancy between the incarceration experiences of a Muslim father and a son, one in a U.S. Federal prison, and the other within Guantanamo Bay’s detention center. This and more below:

Today In Islamophobia: January 6, 2023

In episode 19 of Unpacking Islamophobia, Bridge Associate Director Mobashra Tazamal speaks with Faisal Hanif, a media analyst at the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) in the United Kingdom. They discuss CfMM’s latest report highlighting the systemic bias in the BBC’s coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza. 

For nearly two years, Israel’s assault on Gaza—described by leading human rights organizations and UN experts as a genocide—has involved relentless bombing, forced starvation, the destruction of every university in the Strip, and the near-total collapse of the healthcare system. Israel’s violence in Gaza has produced the highest number of child amputees in the world and become the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern history. 

At least 62,000 Palestinians have been killed, including over 17,500 children. And because civil society has been decimated and tens of thousands remain buried under rubble, some academic estimates suggest the real death toll could be in the hundreds of thousands. But if you’re relying on Western media, much of this information is minimized—or missing altogether.

Since the war began on October 7th, 2023, following Hamas’s attack on Israel, Western media coverage has consistently shown a troubling pattern of bias: downplaying Palestinian suffering while centering Israeli narratives. A new report from the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM), titled “BBC on Gaza-Israel: One Story, Double Standards,” offers hard data to back this up. The report analyzed over 35,000 pieces of BBC content and found a clear trend: Palestinian voices and pain were routinely sidelined, while Israeli perspectives were given emotional depth and prominence.

Today In Islamophobia: January 6, 2023

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