A Palestinian mother sits on the ground, clutching her toddler wrapped in a white burial shroud. Tears fall silently as she repeats the word “alhamdulillah”, an expression of gratitude Muslims utter even in the deepest moments of tragedy.
The video, which resurfaced repeatedly throughout 2024 and 2025 during renewed escalations in Gaza, struck millions across social media platforms. Among those deeply moved was 25-year-old American content creator Abbey Hafez. Identifying as a Christian married to a Muslim man, Hafez began reading the Quran shortly after watching the clip.
“I needed to understand what gives them such unshakeable faith,” she said in a later interview. Her own videos have since attracted tens of millions of views.
Hafez is not an isolated case. Across Western countries in 2024 and 2025, interest in Islam surged as more individuals sought to explore the religion beyond the stereotypes perpetuated in mainstream media for decades.
High-profile examples continued to emerge through 2025: respected academics, former athletes, public figures, and activists announced conversions or expressed their desire to read the Quran. This included University of California professor Henry Klassen and retired Spanish footballer Jose Ignacio Peleterio. Hollywood actor Will Smith also publicly shared that he had begun studying the Quran. In Australia, local Muslim organisations reported more than 40 women embracing Islam in Melbourne alone by mid-2025, many citing the resilience of Palestinians as their inspiration.
A compounding effect
According to Dr Vanessa Vroon of the University of Amsterdam, the emotional connection people feel toward Palestinians often becomes a gateway to exploring Islamic teachings.
“When they finally educate themselves, they realise Islam differs significantly from the negative narratives that dominated Western discourse,” she explains.
The continuing war in Gaza throughout 2024 and 2025 kept these experiences visible. “People see Palestinians turning to Allah under unimaginable circumstances. That imagery becomes a psychological trigger for many to explore the religion,” Vroon adds.
One of the early voices documenting this journey was American creator Megan Rice. Beginning her exploration in late 2023, Rice’s TikTok videos reviewing Quranic verses drew large audiences. She eventually established a digital Quran book club, which by mid-2025 had grown into one of the largest online communities dedicated to introductory Islamic learning.
Rice, who embraced Islam in early 2025, shifted from being an observer to a community organiser, using her platforms to run campaigns supporting Palestinian humanitarian causes and Islamic literacy.
This trend aligns with a larger generational shift. Young social media users are increasingly willing to challenge one-sided Western narratives, question government positions, and pursue independent research on political, historical, and religious issues. Many openly advocate for justice in Palestine and encourage others to read verified sources rather than rely on traditional Western news coverage.
Another voice shaping this landscape is 32-year-old author Kaitlyn Luckow, who began a BookTok series in late 2024 explaining the history of Palestine. “If I can encourage others to learn—even if my platform is small—then we can collectively move toward systemic change,” she told TRT World. Despite facing daily hostility online, Luckow continues to encourage media literacy and critical evaluation of official narratives.
The role of TikTok and the shifting digital landscape
TikTok’s influence has only expanded through 2025. The platform remains the most widely used search engine for Gen-Z and late millennials, shaping public opinion on global issues more than traditional outlets.
Since late 2023, hashtags supporting Palestine have consistently outperformed pro-Israel ones across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts. Internal TikTok data released in mid-2025 confirmed that videos tagged #StandWithPalestine still generate three to four times more organic views globally compared to opposing tags.
This visibility has played a decisive role in educating younger Americans and Europeans about the historical context of the Israeli occupation.
A 2025 survey revealed that Americans under 35 are more likely to support Palestinian liberation, oppose unconditional US aid to Israel, and express distrust in mainstream media narratives.
Gen-Z users recall formative moments:
• the 2014 Gaza war,
• the Sheikh Jarrah evictions in 2021,
• and the real-time livestreaming of Israeli raids into West Bank cities throughout 2024 and 2025.
These digital archives form a collective memory that profoundly shapes how the youth interpret current events.
A familiar pattern: interest in Islam after global crises
While the 2024–2025 Gaza war dramatically accelerated these trends, the phenomenon itself is not new.
The 2001 September 11 attacks unintentionally exposed millions of Americans to Islam for the first time, leading many to study the religion independently. Between 2000 and 2010, the Muslim population in the United States grew from roughly 1 million to 2.6 million—an increase of 67 percent. Islam remains the fastest-growing religion in the world in 2025.
Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, Communications Director at CAIR Florida, explains:
“Whenever Muslims become the centre of public discourse—positively or negatively—people naturally become curious. That curiosity leads to learning.”
Ruiz, who embraced Islam himself in 2003, notes that Islamophobic policies following the Iraq and Afghanistan wars had unintended consequences: they encouraged Muslims to become more vocal, more educated, and more active in civil rights advocacy.
The same dynamic is reappearing in 2024 and 2025.
Islam and Palestine in 2025: a new Western consciousness
Today’s renewed interest in Islam is inseparable from global awareness of Palestinian suffering. The livestreamed reality of Gaza’s humanitarian collapse has reshaped how younger Westerners view Muslims, Islam, and global politics.
More people across the West are reading the Quran, attending introductory Islamic lectures, joining online study circles, and exploring the religion without intermediaries. Influencers, academics, and ordinary users continue to document their learning journeys, creating a cumulative effect that expands far beyond social media trends.
By late 2025, Islamic organisations in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, and Australia all report a measurable increase in conversions and Quran inquiries.
And as more Westerners question long-standing political narratives surrounding Palestine, a parallel transformation is taking place: a deeper desire to understand the faith that has guided Palestinians through generations of hardship.
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