In the aftermath of the horrific Hanukkah massacre in Sydney, Australia, a predictable political narrative has taken hold. Columnist David Kaufman argues that the rush by politicians and pundits to warn of Islamophobia is creating a false and dangerous equivalency, one that obscures the stark reality of who is overwhelmingly targeted by hate.
The Rush to Condemn Islamophobia
Following the December 14, 2025, shooting at Bondi Beach, which targeted Jewish celebrants and was carried out by attackers aligned with the Islamic State, public figures swiftly pivoted to condemn anti-Muslim backlash. U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to social media platform X to decry "the normalization and acceptance of Islamophobia in our politics." Commentator Mehdi Hasan similarly emphasized that "Islamophobia is always wrong."
In New York, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani criticized statements from a city council member about reviewing the naturalization of some Muslims as "vile Islamophobia." The New York Times reported that in Australia, many are "on edge about Islamist radicalization — and a potential Islamophobic backlash," a sentiment tempered somewhat by the heroic actions of a Syrian-Muslim immigrant who helped disarm one of the shooters.
The Undeniable Rise in Anti-Muslim Hate
Kaufman acknowledges that the threat of Islamophobia is real and has grown. He cites concrete data showing a significant increase in anti-Muslim incidents globally over the past two years.
In the United States, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) recorded over 8,000 reports of anti-Muslim hate in 2023, the highest number in its history. More than half of those incidents occurred in the three months following the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. CAIR also noted thousands of anti-Muslim online posts during New York's recent mayoral campaign.
The situation in Canada is similarly alarming, with anti-Muslim hate crimes rising by 94 per cent from 2022 to 2023. Incidents like pig heads being thrown into an Islamic cemetery in Sydney this week demonstrate how quickly such hatred can manifest.
Obscuring the Primary Target: Antisemitism
Despite this troubling rise, Kaufman contends that the intense focus on Islamophobia in the immediate wake of a mass murder of Jews is a symptom of an "upside-down post-October 7 world." He argues that equating the two forms of bigotry is misleading because the statistical reality of hate crime victimization is not equivalent.
Jews remain overwhelmingly the primary victims of reported hate crimes in many Western nations, including the United States, Canada, and Australia, often by a significant margin. The column asserts that while anti-Muslim sentiment is a serious issue that must be addressed, the current political and media discourse often serves to "obscure the real target of organized institutional rage right now — Jews."
By creating a false parallel, Kaufman warns, society risks downplaying the unique scale and persistence of antisemitic violence, as tragically evidenced by the Sydney attack itself. The call for vigilance against all forms of hate, he suggests, must not come at the cost of recognizing where the most lethal and concentrated hatred is currently directed.
