Oscar-nominated actor and Avengers star Mark Ruffalo, known for his left-wing activism, has recently drawn accusations of Islamophobia following his criticism of the right-wing initiative, Project 2025, which he likened to “the Sharia law of the ‘Christian’ crazy people,” in a post on X last week.Project 2025 consists of an assortment of right-wing-aligned policy proposals that the Heritage Foundation conceptualizes. They aim at influencing the White House in terms of unifying its executive power should the next US president be a Republican.Proponents of the project, Ruffalo wrote, “aren’t Christians at all but want to control every aspect of your life through their narrow and exclusionary interpretation of Christ’s egalitarian, inclusive, and kindly teachings... Forced birth and forced religion. Trump’s American Taliban.”
Comments garner criticism
His comments drew a storm of criticism, with many accusing him of Islamophobia.
“White liberals will really not miss any opportunity to use Islam as the standard of what needs to be purged. White Christian nationalism is the founding ideology of your whole country; what the f*** do Muslims and Sharia [laws] have to do with it?” wrote political comedian Aamer Rahman.“Making sure you see how Islamophobic you’re being here, my guy,” wrote media critic Sana Saeed. Another X user, Cinema Shogun, wrote, “Wow, I had no idea Mark Ruffalo was this Islamophobic. I’m going to throw all of my Avengers DVDs in the trash now.”Dozens more replies to Ruffalo’s post echoed these sentiments. Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, US progressives have gone so far in their quest to delegitimize Israel and support Hamas that now even criticizing Sharia law and the Taliban raises their ire.While some say Sharia Law is simply a synonym for Islamic law, those who fight against gender apartheid, the laws that restrict women’s freedom in Iran and other Islamic-ruled countries, would disagree.In Afghanistan, for example, following the Taliban’s victory in 2021, girls and women are no longer allowed to attend school, while women in Iran are forced to wear hijabs or face arrest, torture, rape, and sometimes death at the hands of the Islamic Republic’s security forces. Many women’s rights activists, such as Masih Alinejad, have criticized Westerners for defending Sharia law.Alinejad wrote on X that she and other women who have lived under Islamic rule “have experienced Sharia laws and we know that raping and killing are in the DNA of Islamic states.”But Western progressives, such as those who called to admonish Ruffalo, have found a way to see the positive side of Sharia and do not like hearing it used as a pejorative term.Ruffalo, who was nominated for an Oscar this year for his performance in Poor Things, wore a pin to express his opposition to the war in Gaza at the Academy Awards ceremony and signed a letter from the group, Arists4Ceasefire, that called on Israel to stop fighting the Islamic extremist terror group Hamas.