• CAIR says Islamophobia in 2025 in US reached record high.
• Most complaints were about employment discrimination (12.7%).
• Trump’s crackdown has raised free speech, due process concerns.

Record high Islamophobia in the US in 2025 was driven in part by President Donald Trump’s crackdown against pro-Palestinian protests and immigration, a Muslim advocacy group said on Tuesday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it recorded 8,683 anti-Muslim and anti-Arab complaints in 2025, the highest since it began publishing data in 1996, compared to 8,658 in 2024.

Most complaints were about employment discrimination (12.7%), immigration and asylum (6.5%), hate incidents (6.4%), and travel discrimination like government watchlists and screenings (5.6%), CAIR’s report noted.

Over the years, advocates have attributed Islamophobia to the September 11, 2001 attacks; and more recently to anti-immigration sentiment, white supremacy and the fallout of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Immigration crackdown

Trump denies being discriminatory and says his administration aims to curb illegal immigration and improve domestic security. Advocates say the immigration crackdown is unsafe and violates due process.

CAIR noted Trump’s targeting of Somali Americans in Minnesota, a majority-Muslim community, who he accused of fraud and called “garbage.”

CAIR said the government used isolated cases for collective targeting and dismissed Trump’s ability to tackle fraud, citing pardonsto those with past fraud convictions.

CAIR’s Minnesota chapter reported 693 complaints, up from 353 in 2024.

CAIR also noted targeting of Afghan immigrants after two National Guard soldiers were shot in Washington in November, for which an Afghan was indicted.

Protest crackdown

Trump alleges pro-Palestinian protesters are antisemitic and sympathise with extremists.

His administration has attempted to deport foreign protesters, threatened to freeze funds for universities where protests were held, and ordered aggressive screening of immigrants’ online comments.

Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say he wrongly conflates criticising Israel’s assault on Gaza and occupation of Palestinian territories with antisemitism, and advocating for Palestinian rights with supporting extremism.

“The Trump administration framed anyone who holds pro-Palestinian views as inherently threatening,” CAIR said.

Notable deportation attempts were against Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained for months while his wife was pregnant, and Leqaa Kordia, who lost over 170 family members in Gaza and was briefly hospitalised following a seizure in detention.

CAIR raised free speech, due process and academic freedom concerns. Trump’s crackdown has faced judicial roadblocks.

Republican governors in Florida and Texas have signed orders designating CAIR as a “terrorist” group. CAIR sued over the designations. A judge has blocked Florida’s order.

Punch the baby snow monkey and his stuffed orangutan have captured ​hearts around the world, spawned memes, and even won over the White ‌House with their charm.

But in the wild, his fellow Japanese macaques often have a starkly different image: pests to be shooed away or even eliminated to prevent economic damage to farmers.

The ​agriculture ministry estimated that monkeys caused 770 million yen ($4.86 million) worth of ​damage in 2024 — enough for Japan to sanction the capture and ⁠killing of thousands of primates every year.

The treatment of the monkeys is an ​issue that divides those who suffer the consequences of stolen crops and others who ​advocate for a more humane solution.

“It’s important to put countermeasures in place to prevent damage,” said Takayo Soma, a primatologist at Kyoto University. “But it isn’t very scientific to cull a certain number ​of monkeys without proper justification.”

Killing a troop of monkeys only invites another to ​take its place, rendering the practice ineffective and “never-ending”, said Shigeyuki Izumiyama, a professor at Shinshu University.

Instead, some advocate ‌for ⁠non-lethal measures such as electric fences and “monkey dogs”, or pet dogs that can be trained to chase the intruders away across an entire mountain.

Apple farmer Takumi Matsuda, one of few agriculturalists enamoured with snow monkeys, said humans need to recognise the ​role they play in ​causing the problem ⁠in the first place, such as by encroaching on the critters’ natural habitat.

Matsuda has amassed a following on Instagram by ​sharing photos and videos he takes of the primates in ​the mountains ⁠of Nagano prefecture, in central Japan, but said he also understands farmers’ concerns.

“It’s not that farmers hate the monkeys; they are worried about the impact on their livelihood,” he ⁠said. “I ​really hope Punch will be a starting point for ​a lot more people to go and see real Japanese macaques living in the wild.”

• Rubio demands release of detained Americans, including Habibi, Coyle.
• Taliban accused of kidnappings for ransom or policy concessions.
• US warns it may restrict passports for travel to Afghanistan.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday censured Afghanistan over its detention of American citizens, a move that could lead to a ban on US passport holders travelling to the country.

Rubio said in a statement he was designating Afghanistan’s Taliban government as a “state sponsor of wrongful detention,” demanding that Kabul release all US citizens detained in the country, including Mahmood Habibi and Dennis Coyle.

“The Taliban continues to use terrorist tactics, kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions. These despicable tactics need to end,” he said, adding that he had concluded it was not safe for Americans to travel to the country because of the risk of being unjustly detained.

The US is also seeking the return of the remains of Paul Overby, an author who was last seen close to Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan in 2014, two sources familiar with the situation said.

The sources said the US could restrict the use of US passports for travel to Afghanistan if it does not meet the US demands. Such a passport restriction is currently only in place for North Korea.

Rubio, on February 27, issued the same determination against Iran, the first country to be designated under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in September. 

He warned the US could restrict travel to Iran over its detention of US citizens, but has not imposed any restrictions. The US and Israel launched a war against Iran the day after the determination was announced.

Reuters was unable to reach the government in Afghanistan for comment.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has previously denied that it detained Habibi, who was the head of Afghanistan’s civil aviation.

CBS News was the first to report on the US considering designating Afghanistan as a state sponsor of wrongful detention earlier on Monday.