While the investigation is still ongoing, some details about the suspect have been released. Authorities say Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran, was behind the assault in which a truck was driven into a dense crowd in New Orleans' French Quarter a few hours after midnight, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. Jabbar, who died in a shoot-out with police, had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group in online videos posted on Dec. 31, according to the FBI. It represents the first major assault on an American city by an individual purportedly influenced by the Islamic State group, or one of its affiliates, since a 2017 truck assault in New York City that killed eight. The New Orleans attack, like that earlier incident, underscores an important point: While the Islamic State group's territorial caliphate ' the area in Syria and Iraq in which it assumed both political and religious authority and sought to enforce its interpretation of Islamic law ' has been dismantled, the group's ability to inspire acts of terror on U.S. soil through online propaganda and ideological influence remains alarmingly potent....

France is famously strict on enforcing what it calls 'laicite': keeping religion out of the public sphere. Yet more than 7,500 private schools receive government funding, and most are Catholic. In a country where about 1 in 10 people are Muslim, just three Muslim high schools receive state support ' or did. In December 2023, local authorities of the French Ministry of the Interior confirmed a decision to revoke state funding from Lycee Averroes, France's largest and most acclaimed private Muslim high school. Authorities cited 'serious breaches of the fundamental principles of the Republic,' raised concerns over certain texts in religious education classes, and accused administrators of opaque financial management, among various alleged infractions. Lycee Averroes, located in the suburbs of Lille, opened in 2003 and was granted state funding in 2008. In 2013, it was named the best high school in France, according to the Parisien newspaper's rankings, and has consistently ranked among the region's best in recent years. Teachers and administrators pride themselves on being dedicated to both French Republican and Islamic values. As our research has shown, the school often goes above and beyond to teach civic values such as equality and laicite....

In the aftermath of Hamas' bloody raid into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, many Israelis and people around the world equated the newly ultraviolent and audacious Palestinian militant organization with the world's deadliest terrorist group, ISIS ' the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, linked the two groups directly on Oct. 25, 2023, stating: 'Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas.' President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made similar comparisons. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Hamas killing families 'brings to mind the worst of ISIS.' There are plenty of reasons for Israel to want the world to think Hamas is ISIS ' including the hope of marshaling the sort of overseas support that led to the 2014 creation of the 86-member Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. In fighting between 2014 and 2019, the coalition reclaimed all the territory the Islamic State group had seized in Iraq and Syria. And it is true that the Oct. 7 attack displayed tactics that are remarkably similar to those of the Islamic State group. But as a scholar of ISIS specifically, and Middle Eastern militants in general, I am inclined to agree with those who say the comparison between the two terrorist groups overlooks their underlying differences. The similarities are on the surface, in methods and tactics ' but their goals and ideologies remain vastly different....

On Nov. 14, President Sally Kornbluth launched Standing Together Against Hate (STAH), a community-driven initiative coordinated by Chancellor Melissa Nobles. The initiative will support efforts led by MIT faculty, staff, students, and the administration to come together, MIT-style, to use our problem-solving skills to address antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate. Chancellor Nobles spoke with MIT News about the early efforts she is seeing ' both at the grassroots level and institutionally ' in support of this effort. Hateful actions, whatever the motivation, cannot be addressed by leadership alone. Instead, dealing effectively with hate will involve all of us, fostering innovative, collaborative, MIT-specific offerings embedded in our day-to-day lives. Senior leadership can offer strategic cultivation and support along the way. For example, members of Academic Council, which includes MIT's senior leaders and the chair of the faculty, will be undertaking training on antisemitism as well as Islamophobia in the coming semester. Our DEI staff, many of whom have already had such training, will also be taking a refresher program....

October 2023 marks the anniversary of #MeToo: six years since actor Alyssa Milano's tweet calling for women to speak out about experiences of abuse went viral and helped launch a global movement. Ever since, #MeToo has been shorthand for people's experiences with sexual harassment and assault, from film sets and office buildings to college campuses and religious communities. Many articles about #MeToo and religion focus on large churches, such as the Southern Baptist Convention ' spaces that are mostly white and Christian. Yet the phrase 'Me Too' was first coined as a rallying cry against abuse by a Black Christian activist, Tarana Burke, back in 2006. Meanwhile, the perspectives of women in minority racial, ethnic and religious groups were often overshadowed ' a focus of my research on Jewish studies and gender. These women face added challenges when they break the silence around sexual misconduct and abuse of power, as I document in my book '#UsToo.' Many Jewish and Muslim women of color navigate three kinds of oppression simultaneously: sexism, racism and antisemitism or Islamophobia....

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, or 'MBS,' is bringing a new vision of a 'moderate, balanced' Saudi Islam by minimizing the role of Saudi religious institutions once seen as critical to the monarchy. For decades, Saudi kings provided support to religious scholars and institutions that advocated an austere form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. The kingdom enforced strict codes of morality, placing restrictions on the rights of women and religious minorities, among others. MBS acknowledges that these reforms risk infuriating certain constituents or could even provoke retaliation. As a scholar who studies interpretations of Islamic law to justify or contest militancy, I've followed these reforms closely. In the past, Saudis who challenged the authority of Wahhabis have provoked unrest. When King Fahd, who ruled between 1982-2005, rejected the advice of his Wahhabi scholars and allowed the U.S. military to station weapons and female service members on Saudi soil, several of them supported a violent insurrection against him....

Ever since the United States' 'war on terror' began, American media has been rife with stereotypes of Muslims as violent, foreign threats. Advocates trying to push back against this characterization sometimes emphasize that 'Islam means peace,' since the two words are derived from the same Arabic root. Indeed, the traditional Muslim greeting 'al-salamu alaykum' means 'peace be upon you.' Some Americans were already familiar with the phrase, thanks to an unexpected source: hip-hop culture, which often incorporated the Arabic phrase. This is but one example of Islam's deep intertwining with the threads of hip-hop culture. In her groundbreaking book 'Muslim Cool,' scholar, artist and activist Suad Abdul Khabeer shows how Islam, specifically Black Islam, was a crucial part of hip-hop's roots ' asserting the faith's place in American life. From prayerlike lyrics to tongue-in-cheek references, Islam and other religions are woven into hip-hop's beats. In Muslim cultures, 'al-salamu alaykum' is more than a way of saying hello. It points to the spiritual peace of submitting to God ' and not only in this life. Saying 'peace be upon you' is a prayer that God will grant heaven to the person with whom you are speaking. Many Muslims believe that 'salam' is also the greeting heard upon entering heaven....

I was 9 years old when Eric B. and Rakim's 'Paid in Full' dropped. I have vivid memories of the bass-laden track booming out of car stereos and hearing it on Black radio, like Kiss FM's top eight at 8 p.m. countdown. On the track 'Move the Crowd,' Rakim ' also known as 'the God MC' ' rhymes 'All praise is due to Allah and that's a blessing.' Growing up as a Black Muslim in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, I was already familiar with the phrase. Like all Muslims, I learned to say it during my daily prayers and as an expression of gratitude. But when Rakim laced those words into the lyrics of what ultimately became a popular song, he affirmed what I was seeing around me in my Brooklyn community ' that Islam and Muslims were prominent features of Black life. When Rakim extols the benefits of 'knowledge of self' to himself as an emcee and a human being, he is drawing on a philosophy that has been critical to Black Islam, a term I use to describe the different forms of Islamic belief and practice found in Black America....