The Guardian World news: Islam

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Who’s behind the Facebook page posting hateful AI slop about the UK? The answer might lie in south Asia | Niamh McIntyre

19 May, 2026 - 11:40

Our research has uncovered young entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka and Pakistan using AI tools to make deeply objectionable content – and money

  • Niamh McIntyre is a senior reporter at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Scroll through any Facebook feed in Britain and, between the baby announcements and petty neighbourhood beefs, you’re likely to come across an account with a union jack profile picture and a vague, generic name like Britain Today.

These accounts – and there are hundreds, possibly thousands of them – present themselves as the work of British patriots. In one typical, AI-generated video, a middle-aged man claims his local cafe “has stopped serving pork, bacon and sausages just to avoid offending people”. Another post from the same account includes a sepia-tinted set of images of Victorian London, mourning a time when the city “was English, first-world and beautiful”. Alongside this type of reactionary nostalgia, it’s not unusual to see memes that call Islam a “cancer”, decry Muslims praying in public as an “invasion of the west” or promote the “great replacement theory” (which claims that white populations are being deliberately replaced by non-white immigrants).

Niamh McIntyre is a senior reporter at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism

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‘God gave us this city’: Israeli nationalists join Jerusalem Day protest to mark city’s capture

14 May, 2026 - 19:51

State-sponsored march through Muslim quarter of Old City saw protesters waving flags and chanting ‘Death to Arabs’ on anniversary of city’s annexation

Israeli nationalist demonstrators chanted “Death to the Arabs”, “May your villages burn” and “Gaza is a graveyard” in a state-sponsored march through Jerusalem to mark the anniversary of the city’s capture and annexation.

The annual assertion of Jewish control over Palestinian East Jerusalem has grown more extreme in recent years, and Thursday’s event culminated with the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, unfurling an Israeli flag in front of the al-Aqsa mosque, the holiest Islamic site in the city.

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Ghayasuddin Siddiqui obituary

13 May, 2026 - 17:42

When Malcolm X arrived at Sheffield University in December 1964, it was a young Pakistani student activist, Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, who had arranged his passage. That detail tells you much about my father, who has died aged 86.

Ghayasuddin went on to co-found the Muslim Institute, one of Britain’s earliest Muslim organisations, and the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, of which he became leader in 1996. Upon taking this role he threatened a campaign of civil disobedience unless the government passed legislation protecting British Muslims. The new Labour government of 1997 took on and implemented many of his demands – funding Muslim state schools and passing equalities legislation.

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Palestinian peak body refused leave to appear at royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion

13 May, 2026 - 16:00

Australia Palestine Advocacy Network says criticism of Israel is routinely misrepresented as antisemitic – and that Palestinian voices are being excluded from debate

Palestinian voices are being excluded from the debate on social cohesion, the peak body for Palestinians in Australia has said after it was refused leave to appear before the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion.

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (Apan) made detailed submissions on the issues of antisemitism – including how it is defined – as well as on racism and social cohesion, but was told it did not have a “direct and substantial” interest in the public hearings, which are under way in Sydney.

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Muslim Votes Matter says anonymous bid to create political party under same name an attempt to ‘mislead’ voters

11 May, 2026 - 16:00

Exclusive: Push to register unaffiliated party with identical name to grassroots group follows Avi Yemini’s plan to use ‘Free Palestine party’ to funnel votes to One Nation

Muslim Votes Matter (MVM) has complained to the Victorian Electoral Commission over an anonymous bid to register a political party under the same name ahead of the state election, accusing it of deliberately misleading voters.

MVM was established before the 2025 federal election as a grassroots advocacy and lobbying movement, responding to concerns about the lack of political representation for Muslim and minority groups in Australia.

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Man charged after allegedly threatening Muslim worshippers at Brisbane mosque

11 May, 2026 - 10:31

According to the Australian National Imams Council, a man entered Masjid Taqwa mosque claiming to have an AK-47 firearm in his vehicle

Australia’s peak Islamic body has condemned growing “anti-Muslim sentiment”, after a man allegedly threatened worshippers at a Brisbane mosque on Sunday, falsely claiming to have a gun.

The man is alleged to have attended the Masjid Taqwa in Bald Hills, Brisbane at about 10.46am on Sunday and threatened worshippers who were praying in the mosque.

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The Muslim Vote: Democratic threat or Islamophobic myth? | On the Ground

6 May, 2026 - 09:33

Politicians and pundits in the UK are fuelling a moral panic around “the Muslim vote." Once seen as a reliable base for the Labour Party, the Muslim community’s growing support for independent candidates and the Green Party is now being framed as a threat to democracy. As the country heads towards the local elections, Taj Ali investigates whether a singular “Muslim vote” exists, and examines how these divisive narratives around sectarian politics are shaping public debate and impacting communities across Britain.

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Nothing prepared me for losing my mother. But in Islam, to mourn someone means keeping them alive in our actions | Shadi Khan Saif

3 May, 2026 - 16:00

Mum taught us to stay kind and honest, even when things were hard. Now I feel her presence in choices that don’t feel easy, but feel right

  • Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life

Mum was kind and gentle in a way that felt so natural. She raised all five of us pretty much on her own after Dad passed away. Those were not easy years, and there were many moments when life could have pushed us in the wrong direction, but she never let that happen. She taught us to stay kind and honest, even when things were hard.

Her father named her Ţalā, which means gold in Farsi. But she was even more precious than that.

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‘We can’t live behind walls’: Muslim-Jewish networks will not give up after Golders Green attack

1 May, 2026 - 19:46

Charities bringing Jewish and Muslim people together say work to overcome division more important than ever

‘I feel punch drunk,” says Laura Marks, the co-founder of Nisa-Nashim, a Jewish-Muslim women’s network, referring to the alleged attempted murder of two Jewish men in north London this week: “Every day it feels like there is something else. It’s relentless.”

Nisa-Nashim was set up as a charity eight years ago to bring Jewish and Muslim women together through social events. The idea was to nurture relationships in UK communities that could help overcome the distrust, division and religious stereotyping exacerbated by Israel-Palestine tensions in the Middle East.

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