Since the terrorist attacks in Paris, islamophobia is very much on the rise. there have been dozens of attacks on mosques, but more mainstream anti-muslim campaigns are in many ways more worrying. In particular new scare campaigns are being run by the Right and by part of the Left about women wearing headscarves when they work in child care, and when they study in universities. Much of the Left, steeped in confused interpretations of what a secular state should be, is unwilling to fight against islamophobia, and this has been the case for many years. However, the minority of Left activists who *are* prepared to fight islamophobia is considerably bigger than it used to be, and campaigns run by muslims themselves (mostly left muslims) are more active and more frequently seen than before, even if they remain small. The NPA is somewhat better on the question than a few years back, (at one point in the past, the front page of their paper referred to women who wear the niqab as "birds o...