Islamophobia Watch is an independent, non-profit platform dedicated to documenting, analysing, and archiving Islamophobia in Kerala. It brings together a collective of writers, researchers, and activists committed to producing critical knowledge about the changing forms of anti-Muslim racism in contemporary Kerala. The platform seeks to create a publicly accessible space where research, documentation, commentary, and archival materials related to Islamophobia can be systematically gathered and shared.
The initiative builds on earlier collaborative efforts such as the Kerala Network Against Islamophobia (KNAI), formed in 2021 in response to the growing normalisation of Islamophobic discourse in Kerala. Islamophobia Watch continues and expands this work through sustained public discussion and activism.
The platform is indebted to the Islamophobia Research Collective, established in 2023 as a research and documentation initiative monitoring Islamophobic incidents, speeches, and narratives in Kerala. The Collective has produced reports, essays, and analytical materials examining these developments, many of which form part of the resources available on this platform.
Islamophobia Watch approaches Islamophobia, firstly, not simply as prejudice or isolated hate speech, but as a structural form of anti-Muslim racism embedded in political discourse, media narratives, institutional practices, and everyday governance. Secondly, the platform pays attention to questions of political agency, including how Muslim communities and socio-political movements respond to and organise against Islamophobia. This perspective, particularly the denial of Muslim political agency as a specific form of anti-Muslim racism, forms a distinctive analytical framework grounded in the specific historical and political conditions of the Indian national context, which differs in important ways from the dominant global variants of Islamophobia.
The platform functions as a space for documentation, archiving, analysis, and public education. It aims to contribute to the development of a critical counter-public sphere by making available resources that examine Islamophobia and its intersections with caste, community, religion, class, region, and gender within the Kerala context.
All articles published on the platform remain the intellectual responsibility of their respective authors. The views expressed in individual contributions do not necessarily represent a collective position of Islamophobia Watch or its contributors.
Islamophobia Watch is sustained through voluntary and collaborative work. The collective currently includes the following contributors:
Abdul Vajid
Adarsha A K
Afeef Ahmed
Afthab Ellath
Ajith Kumar A S
Arun Ashokan
Ashraf Valoor
Baburaj Bhagavathy
Basil Islam
Biju Govind
Jisha M
K Ashraf
M B Fazarudeen
Muhammad Musthafa
Muhammed Aslam E S
Nabeel C K M
Nadeer Payyoli
Nidha Parveen
O K Santhosh
Rameesudheen V M
Rensha Nalini
Renson V M
Sabari
Safa P P
Saidali P P
Saleem Deli
S Mohammed Irshad
Shefy Kabeer
Simi K Salim
Simi Korot
Srutheesh Kannadi
Sudesh M Raghu
Thahir Jamal