Mesut Özil’s resignation from the Germany national football team after a racist witch-hunt that had blamed him and his Turkish heritage for Germany’s poor showing at the world cup in Russia energised anti-racist activism in Germany. Under the #MeTwo hashtag, countless internet users related their personal experiences of everyday discrimination and racism. Many of the stories shared…
Germany’s Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, has announced his intention to restart the country’s controversial German Islam Conference (Deutsche Islamkonferenz, DIK) in autumn. The DIK first convened in 2006, upon the request of Seehofer’s predecessor in office, Wolfgang Schäuble. In Schäuble’s words, the DIK’s stated aim has been to “facilitate the integration of Muslims…
An American advertisement featuring a Muslim girl in a hijab has prompted an outcry in France. The campaign was shot in New York but published by Gap in French on social media. On YouTube, the company released a 15-second video that received more than 1 million views. But the ad garnered a mixed response from…
Rashida Tlaib has become the first Muslim woman elected to the US Congress. Her win has highlighted the contested relationship between politics and religion, and especially Islam, in the US, as well as contention in the country regarding the compatibility of Islam with western values and way of life.
In recent weeks, Mesut Özil’s resignation from Germany’s national football team and the ensuing debate on racism, spearheaded by the #MeTwo hashtag, have galvanised public attention in Germany. Mainstreaming of the far-right This comes as many Muslim and/or anti-racist civil society organisations see themselves at a crossroads. The rise of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany…
