WASHINGTON — A previously unreported tattoo on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s arm is drawing scrutiny this week: the word “kafir,” written in thick Arabic script, across the inside of his right biceps. It means “nonbeliever” or “infidel,” and Muslim leaders say it's commonly used by anti-Muslim bigots to mock and antagonize.

The tattoo reveal — pictured in images of Hegseth working out with Navy SEALs posted to his official secretary of defense social media account Wednesday — comes as the Trump administration rounds up international Muslim students and ships them to detention centers thousands of miles away from their homes in anticipation of deportations and as Hispanic immigrants are being deported, in part, on the basis of their tattoos, to an El Salvadorian mega-prison with a long track record of human rights abuses.

What You Need To Know

  • A previously unreported tattoo on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s arm is drawing scrutiny this week: the word “kafir,” written in thick Arabic script, across the inside of right bicep. It means “nonbeliever” or “infidel” and Muslim leaders say it's commonly used by anti-Muslim bigots to mock and antagonize
  • The tattoo reveal — pictured in images of Hegseth working out with Navy SEALs posted to his official secretary of defense social media account on Wednesday — comes as the Trump administration rounds up Muslim students and ships them to detention centers thousands of miles away from their homes in anticipation of deportations
  • The Trump administration is also deporting Hispanic immigrants, in part, on the basis of their tattoos to an El Salvadorian mega-prison with a long track record of human rights abuses

  • Hegseth has come under scrutiny for his tattoos in the past, including being removed from his National Guard unit’s assignment to guard President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration after a fellow service member flagged Hegseth’s “Deus Vult” tattoo to superior officers
  • The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the United States’ largest Muslim civil rights organization, said Hegseth’s tattoo was “a sign of both anti-Muslim hostility and personal insecurity” in a statement on Thursday

The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Hegseth has come under scrutiny for his tattoos in the past, including being removed from his National Guard unit’s assignment to guard President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration after a fellow service member flagged Hegseth’s “Deus Vult” tattoo to superior officers in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.

“Deus Vult,” Latin for “God wills it,” is a phrase associated with the Christian crusaders of the Middle Ages that has been adopted by white supremacists in recent decades. Hegseth has denied the tattoo has any meaning rooted in bigotry and is instead an homage to his Christian faith, but critics have noted his long, public antipathy to Islam. The new “kafir” tattoo is located directly below the “Deus Vult” tattoo on Hegseth’s right arm.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the United States’ largest Muslim civil rights organization, said in a statement Thursday that Hegseth’s tattoo was “a sign of both anti-Muslim hostility and personal insecurity."

“It appears Islam lives so rent-free in Pete Hegseth’s head that he feels the need to stamp himself with tattoos declaring his opposition to Islam alongside a tattoo declaring his affinity for the failed Crusaders, who committed genocidal acts of violence against Jews, Muslims and even fellow Christians centuries ago,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said. “Secretary Hegseth can tattoo himself with whatever he wants, but he should keep in mind that he leads the U.S. armed forces, which includes thousands of American Muslims, and that he is sworn to defend the American people, who include millions of American Muslims.”

It’s unclear when Hegseth got the “kafir” tattoo. While his “Deus Vult” tattoo and other tattoos were scrutinized when he was nominated to lead the U.S. military, his “kafir” tattoo was not. In an Instagram post on July 26, 2024, the tattoo is partially visible. 

“This isn’t just a personal choice; it’s a clear symbol of Islamophobia from the man overseeing U.S. wars,” wrote Nerdeen Kiswani, a Palestinian-American activist and founder of Within Our Lifetime, a pro-Palestinian group based in New York that has led many of the larger anti-Israel protests in the city since the war in the Gaza Strip began. “‘Kafir’ has been weaponized by far-right Islamophobes to mock and vilify Muslims. It’s not about his personal beliefs. It’s about how these beliefs translate into policy—how they shape military decisions, surveillance programs, and foreign interventions targeting Muslim countries.”

Kiswani pointed to the U.S. bombing of Houthi rebels in Yemen in recent weeks, including initial strikes that killed at least 53 people, including children, earlier this month that were planned by Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and other top national security officials in a group chat on the messaging app Signal that has since become public.

“This is the normalization of Islamophobia at the highest levels of power. What else is this supposed to mean besides U.S. foreign policy being a crusade against Muslims?” Kiswani asked.

In 2023, an Iraq war veteran was ordered to cover up a similar “kafir” tattoo and ultimately asked to leave a skydiving business in Florida, according to The Ledger, a Lakeland, Florida, newspaper. 

According to a fact sheet published in January from Georgetown University’s The Bridge Initiative, a research project focused on Islamophobia, Hegseth has “tattoos that are associated with white nationalism and has a history of making Islamophobic statements.” A former Army National Guard officer who served at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hegseth has a history of stoking anti-Muslim tensions in his books, media appearances and as a weekend co-host for Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” morning show. 

“They’ve got a slow-motion 9/11 happening in their borders in France. Demography matters," Hegseth said on air after a 2018 stabbing attack in France. "Muslims are having 2.6 kids, whereas French-born folks are having 1.6 kids. It’s a demographic equation, and it’s not to say that every Muslim is a terrorist. No one’s saying that. But the reality is, they’ve got an ISIS radical Islamic problem there that they don’t have their arms around, and they’re not taking it seriously.”

Preoccupation with birth rates among Muslim and non-Muslim populations is “a common talking point amongst the right-wing and white nationalists,” according to Bridge Initiative researchers, who point to the manifesto of the 2019 mass shooter who killed more than 50 Muslims in an attack in Christchurch, New Zealand. That gunman also used the phrase “Deus Vult” in his bigoted manifesto. 

In his 2020 book “American Crusade,” Hegseth wrote that “all modern Muslim countries are either formal or de facto no-go zones for practicing Christians and Jews” and that “our present moment is much like the 11th Century” Christian crusades. 

“We don’t want to fight, but, like our fellow Christians one thousand years ago, we must. We need an American Crusade,” Hegseth wrote, later adding that Christian Americans should “arm yourself — metaphorically, intellectually, physically. Our fight is not with guns. Yet.”

Hegseth has also drawn scrutiny for his relative inexperience for the job of running the U.S. military, allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct, and for the Signal group chat about the Yemen bombings that exposed the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and potentially classified information.