Muslim

The Manchester United Muslim Supporters group says club co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe “must go” after he spoke out against immigration levels and said the country was “on the slide”.

Billionaire Ratcliffe, who is one of Britain’s richest people and founder of petrochemical giant Ineos, made the comments in an interview with the BBC on Saturday.

Ratcliffe said the UK was in decline because of a combination of high taxes and high immigration.

He has previously apologised for “offending some people” with his language after saying the UK had been “colonised by immigrants”.

At the time, in February, United responded by saying the club “prides itself” on being “inclusive”, while BBC Sport cited a source familiar with the Glazer family as understanding the club’s majority shareholders were “horrified” by his initial remarks and saw them as showing “disregard for their ownership”.

“We condemned those comments then,” said a statement of no confidence from Manchester United Muslim Supporters Club (MUMSC) in the club’s ownership, issued on Saturday.

“He [Ratcliffe] subsequently apologised for his choice of language. We hoped a lesson had been learned. Clearly, it has not.

“This week, Sir Jim has again placed immigration and people receiving benefits at the centre of his explanation for Britain’s problems, arguing that nobody is ‘tough enough’ to deal with either.

“We find these latest comments deeply disappointing and completely unacceptable.”

Ratcliffe campaigned for a Leave vote in the 2016 European Union referendum and has been a tax resident in Monaco since 2020.

He acquired a 27.7% stake in Man Utd in 2024, and has since restructured the organisation, overseeing 450 redundancies, overhauling senior management and sacking two managers.

MUMSC highlighted that United’s “players, staff, stewards, security teams and supporters come from different countries, cultures, ethnicities, religions and backgrounds”.

The group added: “Manchester United would not be Manchester United without them. That diversity isn’t a weakness of Manchester United. It is part of Manchester United.”

In the statement, the MUMSC also called on the Glazer family to go.

MUMSC said its members were among the club’s fans who hoped Ratcliffe’s arrival “would finally signal meaningful change” after the Glazer family had “presided over Manchester United’s decline”.

However, the group pointed to “higher ticket prices” and “a stadium allowed to deteriorate”, along with “a football team that continues to fall further behind where Manchester United should be”, among their concerns which “now extend beyond the pitch”.

Manchester United entered the weekend sitting 13th in the Premier League after gaining four points from their first four Premier League games, and they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday with a 3-2 home defeat by Brighton.

“After years of decline, broken promises and repeated failure, Manchester United Muslim Supporters’ Club has lost confidence in the current ownership structure of Manchester United Football Club,” MUMSC concluded.

“Enough is enough. It is time for change. The Glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe must go.”

Indonesia is expanding cultural cooperation with Gulf states to preserve the diverse heritage of Muslim societies, the culture minister tells Arab News, as he seeks partnerships in new technologies and creative entrepreneurship to keep it relevant for younger generations.

Minister of Culture Fadli Zon has held talks with Gulf officials in recent months, as part of Indonesia’s effort to strengthen cultural diplomacy. 

This includes meetings with Saudi Minister of Culture Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan, the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Indonesia Khalid Jassim Al-Yassin, and the Qatari Ambassador to Indonesia Sultan bin Mubarak Saad Al-Dosari.  

“Indonesia and the Gulf countries share an interest in safeguarding heritage while ensuring its relevance to younger generations,” Fadli said.  

“Collaboration in digitization, museum development, heritage management, cultural education, and the use of new technologies can strengthen preservation while supporting tourism, research, and creative entrepreneurship.” 

He envisions deeper cooperation with Gulf partners through more extensive cultural exchange, experience and knowledge sharing, as well as collaborations in the creative economy, ranging from modest fashion, culinary traditions to digital content creation. 

While Indonesia and Gulf countries have “distinct cultural traditions and national experiences,” they are still connected by centuries-long ties, through which further cultural cooperation can serve as “an important platform for sharing the diverse expressions of Muslim societies,” Fadli added. 

He highlighted “strategic, multi-layered initiatives” Jakarta currently has with Gulf nations, including how the visit of Saudi culture minister to Jakarta in April “opened new avenues in joint film co-production, artist residencies, museum innovation and digital cultural” programs and boosted the renewal of their cultural cooperation, following Jakarta and Riyadh’s first such agreement in 2017. 

The two countries are also collaborating under the framework of intangible cultural heritage, including on preserving Arabic calligraphy and the extension of its recognition by UNESCO. 

This year, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country will organize cultural programs with Qatar to celebrate their 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations, with plans to showcase their national stamps. 

In 2025, the culture ministry’s Directorate General of Cultural Diplomacy, Promotion and Cooperation signed an agreement with the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center, as Jakarta aims to promote Indonesian literature and arts through major international events held in the UAE. 

In his meetings with the Qatari and Kuwaiti envoys last month, Fadli also proposed talks on bilateral cultural agreements to broaden cooperation in the sector.

“Indonesia is committed to transforming its longstanding historical and spiritual ties with the Gulf into modern, dynamic, and sustainable partnerships … We believe that the relationship between Indonesia and the Gulf can become an important model of cooperation between diverse Muslim societies,” Fadli said. 

“By working together, Indonesia and the Gulf can ensure that culture does more than preserve the memory of our past. It can guide our societies through the challenges of the present and help us shape a more peaceful, inclusive, and humane future.”

RIYADH: The President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud received the Secretary-General of the Muslim World League Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Al-Issa on Monday.

During the meeting at the presidential palace in Mogadishu, the two officials discussed various topics regarding MWL contributions to Somalia across religious, intellectual, and humanitarian spheres.

The president commended the efforts of the league in supporting the Somali people.

Earlier during his visit to the country, Al-Issa met with leading Somali scholars for an intellectual gathering and attended a forum where participants discussed efforts to confront extremist ideologies.

RIYADH: Gulf and Muslim organizations on Saturday condemned a drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, expressing solidarity with the Kingdom and warning that the strikes represented a dangerous escalation threatening regional security and vital infrastructure.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Muslim World League (MWL), Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Qatar and Bahrain issued statements early Saturday after several drones originating from Iraqi territory targeted the pipeline in the Riyadh and Madinah regions, causing injuries and material damage.

GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi condemned the attack “in the strongest terms,” describing it as “a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable threat” to Saudi Arabia’s security, territorial integrity and vital installations. He said the attack was also a “flagrant violation” of international law.

Albudaiwi reiterated the GCC’s categorical rejection of actions targeting Saudi Arabia’s security, stability and national assets. He called on the Iraqi government to intensify its efforts and take “necessary, decisive measures” to prevent its territory from being used as a launchpad for attacks, stop such operations and deter their recurrence.

He reaffirmed the GCC’s “complete and steadfast solidarity” with Saudi Arabia and its support for measures the Kingdom takes to protect its security, sovereignty, facilities, citizens and residents.

Qatar likewise condemned the attack “in the strongest terms,” saying the targeting of civilian and economic facilities was a “flagrant violation of international law” and a dangerous escalation that could undermine regional security and stability.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry commended what it described as Saudi Arabia’s responsible approach in supporting the Iraqi government’s efforts to prevent its territory from being used to launch attacks against Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries. It expressed full solidarity with the Kingdom and support for measures to protect its sovereignty, security and facilities.

Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry also strongly condemned the attack, describing it as a flagrant violation of international law, the UN Charter and the principles of good neighborliness. It said the targeting of vital civilian facilities threatened the security of energy supplies.

Bahrain affirmed its full solidarity with Saudi Arabia, stressing that the Kingdom’s security and stability were “an integral part” of Bahrain’s own security and stability. It also recognized Saudi Arabia’s right to take all necessary measures under international law to protect its sovereignty, security, facilities, citizens and residents, and expressed wishes for a speedy recovery for those injured.

The Bahraini ministry called for preventing the territory of any country from being used as a launching pad for attacks against neighboring states. It voiced support for Iraq’s efforts to prevent a recurrence and urged the international community to assume its responsibilities in confronting attacks aimed at harming energy security and destabilizing regional security and stability.

The Muslim World League also strongly condemned the strikes. Its secretary-general, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, described the attacks as “treacherous criminal attacks” that violate religious values, laws, international norms and humanitarian principles.

Al-Issa said the league, its bodies and global councils, as well as Muslims under its umbrella, stood in full solidarity with Saudi Arabia in measures taken to deter the attackers, preserve its security and sovereignty, and protect citizens and residents.

The OIC also strongly condemned the attack, Al-Ekhbariyah said in a post on X.

Temporary shutdown

The Saudi Energy Ministry said Friday that the pipeline had been temporarily shut down as a precaution after multiple attacks Thursday morning. Several people were injured and received medical treatment, while emergency and specialized technical teams were deployed to secure the pipeline and assess its condition.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said the drones were launched from Iraq and that Riyadh had decided not to retaliate at this stage following a request from Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi.

Saudi Arabia said it would give the Iraqi government an opportunity to take the necessary measures to prevent attacks launched from Iraqi territory against the Kingdom and neighboring countries, while reserving the right to take all measures necessary to protect its sovereignty, security, facilities, citizens and residents.

Iraq condemned attacks threatening Saudi security and stability and ordered an urgent investigation into the militia responsible and parties supporting it. Baghdad said its territory and airspace would not be allowed to serve as a launchpad for attacks against any country.

The pipeline shutdown comes as the East-West route has assumed greater importance amid the wider regional conflict and threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The roughly 1,200-kilometer pipeline carries Saudi crude from fields in the Kingdom’s east to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, providing an alternative route that bypasses Hormuz.

The attack also followed a series of strikes by Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen against Saudi civilian and energy infrastructure. Earlier in the week, attacks targeted Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran, causing fires at oil facilities and temporarily disrupting some operations, according to the Saudi Energy Ministry. Those attacks wounded 73 civilians, including women and children.

The latest pipeline attack has heightened concerns over the security of Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure at a time when regional hostilities are threatening multiple routes for Gulf oil exports.

RIYADH: Eight Islamic and Arab countries on Sunday condemned Israeli plans for the removal of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip saying the designs, voiced by ministers, jeopardise a US-backed peace in the territory.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday the government had plans to remove Palestinians from Gaza but was waiting for US approval on where to displace the territory’s population.

A day later, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said the plan aimed to remove 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza in the first year, followed by the rest of the roughly two million residents over the following six years.

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey said they condemned in “the strongest terms” the “plans and mechanisms they proposed aimed at forcibly expelling Palestinians from their land”.

“Such measures directly challenge international efforts to achieve peace, particularly President Donald Trump’s comprehensive plan to end the conflict in Gaza, which includes a firm rejection of forced displacement,” they added referring to a US-backed, October 2025 peace plan for Gaza.

On Saturday the US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Israel and Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, denied there was an Israeli plan to force Palestinians out of Gaza.

Muslims are embroiled in yet another war, but this one isn’t in the Middle East, Southeast Asia or another predominantly Islamic region.

The battleground is Michigan. New York. Minnesota. Or anywhere else in the U.S. where a politician with a name like Abdul El-Sayed, Zohran Mamdani or Ilhan Omar have run for office — and won.

Today’s primary target is Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate El-Sayed. Since his victory in August, the right’s main strategy to beat him this fall is a familiar one: paint El-Sayed, the Muslim son of Egyptian immigrants, as an anti-American extremist.

Vice President JD Vance recently told a crowd that “there’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil,” suggesting that Democratic nominee represents a divisive ideology. Representative Nancy Mace warned of a larger problem when she said that “every single Muslim holding public office in America” is “a threat to both national security and our republic.” Senator Tommy Tuberville flat-out called El-Sayed a “terrorist.”

“The message is that these candidates are a civilizational threat that is going to destroy American society and Western civilization from within,” says Salam Al-Marayati, president and co-founder of the non-profit Muslim Public Affairs Council. “You saw that a lot when Mamdani was elected.”

And given that he was elected, the Islamophobia playbook may need an overhaul.

New York City Mayor Mamdani and El-Sayed are among the more than 255 Muslim elected officials serving across 26 states and at nearly every level of government, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. That number includes a historical high of four Muslim Americans in Congress.

But as their political power has grown, so too has the bigoted rhetoric about the dangers of electing a Muslim to office. But now, there’s pushback.

CBS News, now under the leadership of conservative editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, caught flack this week for publishing a story with the headline: “Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s deleted tweets on Sept. 11 attacks invite scrutiny of past remarks.”

Criticisms of the piece were immediate, including commentary in The Atlantic that called the story a political dog whistle for using a tenuous connection to align El-Sayed’s name with the phrase “9/11 attacks.”

The pandemic-era posts from El-Sayed did not celebrate the tragedy or the terrorists who perpetrated the attacks. He instead compared the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11 attacks to the growing COVID-19 death toll in the U.S., and called for a strong response against the virus as there was to the 9/11 attacks. In the second tweet, El-Sayed wrote that more Americans had died from COVID than in the 9/11 attacks, so he hoped “that means we’ll spend the next ten years fighting a war for public health & against poverty … like we launched a global #WaronTerror after 9/11. We could save lives rather than take them.”

Hardly the smoking gun that puts him in an Afghan cave, scheming with bin Laden.

The tweets were deleted along with all of Al-Sayed’s other posts dated before July 2023. His campaign said he did so to prevent “old posts from being taken out of context.” Oh the irony.

Similar tactics were used against Mamdani in his run for mayor. After a particularly rousing speech leading up to his 2025 win, the New York Times noted that “…Republican elected officials and right-wing media figures [are] accusing him of promoting Islamic law, supporting terrorism and posing a threat to the safety of New Yorkers, especially Jews.”

Before Mamdani, Somali-American Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was the subject of “Send her back” chants at Trump rallies. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) publicly referred to Omar as a member of the “Jihad Squad.”

Nevertheless, Omar became the first African refugee to become a Member of Congress when she assumed office in January of 2019.

“What we have found out from previous elections is that candidates like Abdul Sayed are speaking to the masses,” says Al-Marayati. “They’re not speaking to the Democratic and Republican establishment who believe in this hierarchical structure where you only have a few in control, whether it’s corporate influence or lobbies or a certain race and religion that that are on top and the rest of us are merely visitors who should just be thankful for getting the crumbs from the economy. [El-Sayed and Mamdani] are returning to the vision of a pluralistic democracy.”

The latest efforts to derail El-Sayed’s campaign include weaponizing his association with leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. Piker, who earlier this year appeared on the campaign trail with El-Sayed, is a major influence among progressives and a bogeyman to establishment Republicans and Democrats alike. The right can’t stop talking about his sharp criticisms of MAGA leadership, disdain for US foreign policy, and his pro-Palestinian stance. The left is terrified of being associated with Piker.

Now the candidate is pressed daily to answer for things said by Piker’ stretching as far back as 2019, when the influencer commented that “America deserved 9/11” (a quote that was incorrectly attributed to El-Sayed). El-Sayed has denounced the statement as “stupid,” and Piker has walked back his words.

But the unyielding scrutiny over dubious associations doesn’t cut both ways. Relative to El-Sayed, there’s been little inquiry of Michigan’s Republican U.S. Senate candidate, Mike Rogers, and his close ties with Pastor Lorenzo Sewell. A member of Roger’s faith advisory team, Sewell in August co-organized and led a “Christian Crusader March” and anti-Islam protest in Dearborn, MI alongside far-right activist and January 6 pardoned defendant Jake Lang.

Campaigns that leverage hate and fear against Muslim candidates and elected officials are nothing new, but they appear to be less effective with each passing election season. It’s possible more and more voters see through the prejudiced subterfuge, but it’s more likely that folks simply need a change.

“The real threat that Abdul Sayed represents is that he is knocking down that hierarchical structure, and that’s why you have the attacks on him of being a radical, being a terror sympathizer, being a threat to civilization,” says Al-Marayati. “When Thomas Jefferson was drafting the Charter on Religious Freedom, he included Muslims, and even he was accused of being a Muslim. So you’ve had this problem for a long time. Abdul Sayed’s affiliation with Thomas Jefferson is a badge of honor.”

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has found that the networking technology company Cisco may have violated the civil rights of Middle Eastern and Muslim employees amid a wave of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments on internal messaging platforms at the company.

In June, the EEOC, which is tasked with enforcing the US’s anti-discrimination laws, said Cisco subjected its employees to a hostile work environment, according to a letter of determination obtained by Al Jazeera.

The letter, which was first reported by Politico Pro, stemmed from a complaint filed with the EEOC in December 2024 by a group of Cisco employees called “Bridge to Humanity” (B2H), who had been voicing concerns that the company’s technology was provided to the Israeli military for use in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Several months earlier, the group of employees had sent a separate open letter calling on the San Jose, California-based company to stop providing its technology to the Israeli government. The document was signed by more than 1,700 of the company’s more than 86,000 employees.

In its December complaint filed with the EEOC, the employees alleged that Cisco had removed the open letter from an internal site and that it was “under review”, and that subsequently, many of the signatories were harassed. Among the allegations was a remark that one employee had told another to “quit living”.

The employees also alleged that Cisco had not responded to their complaints until they created a 76-page report cataloguing the hate comments they had been subjected to in an internal messaging group called Connected Jewish Network.

The report, which was provided to Cisco’s Employee Relations and Ethics offices, according to documents made public by The Guardian, outlined the waves of hate comments. In one of these, from November 2023, an unnamed employee had said that “Israeli passersby killed 2 members of a Palestinian family in Jerusalem this morning, and I for one am extremely grateful.”

“These Cisconians have, among other things, repeatedly glorified violence, joked about sending people to their deaths, likened Palestinians and those with opposing viewpoints to animals, labeled Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims as murderous, violent terrorists, joked about respecting a person’s gender identity,” the 76-page report said. It added that the Connected Jewish Network was not even a “safe space for all of our Jewish colleagues”.

The EEOC’s determination said that the company had retaliated against one unnamed staffer for “her involvement in pro-Palestine efforts by terminating the individual”.

‘Important step’

The employees’ complaint with the EEOC was filed by Legal Aid at Work, a nonprofit legal services organisation.

“The EEOC’s determination is particularly significant because it appears to be the first time in any legal context where a governmental or judicial finding has sided with Big Tech workers who have collectively organised to fight for corporate accountability around their employers’ sales of their technology to Israel,” Christopher Ho, director of the national origin and immigrants’ rights programme at Legal Aid at Work, told Al Jazeera.

Advocacy groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) praised the decision.

“The EEOC’s finding is an important step toward accountability and a reminder that federal civil rights protections apply equally to Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and other employees who speak out about Palestine,” civil rights managing lawyer Jeffrey Wang at CAIR’s San Francisco Bay-area chapter said in a statement.

“Employers have a legal responsibility to address harassment and discrimination fairly and consistently. Workers should not have to fear retaliation or a hostile work environment because of their religion, national origin, or association with protected communities.”

According to reporting by The Guardian, although the EEOC issues its determination in June, the agency’s mediation with the company has “not gone anywhere”.

Legal Aid at Work told Al Jazeera that it has also submitted a complaint against Cisco to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the California Labor Commissioner.

“[The complaints] allege, respectively, that Cisco unlawfully interfered with our clients’ federally protected right to engage in concerted activity to improve working conditions, and unlawfully interfered with their right to engage in political activities that is protected by the California Labor Code. Both these complaints are still pending at the respective agencies,” Ho said.

Al Jazeera reached out to the EEOC for comment.

“Under federal law, both charges filed with, and charge inquiries made to the EEOC are confidential. The EEOC can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any charge or charge inquiry,” an EEOC spokesperson said.

Cisco did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.