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SearchToday in Islamophobia: How China turned a city in to a prison, and how Uighurs are keeping their culture alive in the U.S. An opinion piece reflects on being Muslim in Australia, another stresses the importance of listening to Muslim women on the issue of the niqab. Our recommended read of the day is by Ryan Reilly on two white supremacists who used social media to plan an attack on Muslims. This, and more, below:
United States
Feds Say White Supremacist Cousins Used Facebook To Discuss Attack On Muslims | Recommended Read
Federal authorities have charged New York resident Thomas Alonzo Bolin with lying to the FBI about possessing a weapon. He appears to have first come under federal scrutiny after his cousin Austin Witkowski used Facebook to call for a re-enactment in the United States of the terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Bolin, authorities allege, identified as a “Folk Odinist” and used a Facebook account under the name Peter Vincent to join multiple white supremacist Facebook groups. The feds say Bolin managed a Facebook group called Odin’s Warriors and had discussions about the Christchurch terrorist attack with his cousin Witkowski (who went by the name Ragnar Odinson on Facebook). read the complete article
Muslim Americans confident 'terror watchlist' will soon be ruled unconstitutional
Muslim-American advocates are confident that a US federal judge will soon rule in their favour in a lawsuit they filed in 2016 challenging the constitutionality of the FBI's terrorist watchlist. A hearing was held in the case on 4 April in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of the US capital Washington. Hassan Shibly, executive director of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and one of 23 Muslim-American plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said he expected the judge to deliver a decision soon. "Growing up as an American Muslim, unfortunately, I felt I have been treated as a second-class citizen at the hands of my government since I was a teenager," Shibly said during a news conference after the hearing. read the complete article
Trump Administration is spending enormous resources to strip citizenship from a Florida truck driver
The federal government on Tuesday went to trial in one of the first denaturalization cases of the Trump era, a project the administration enthusiastically rolled out in 2017. The man at the center of the trial is Parvez Manzoor Khan, a 62-year-old Floridian. The federal government has so far expended extraordinary resources trying to denaturalize Khan, a truck driverand grandfather of three who’s been a citizen without incident since 2006. His case has been in the works for a year and a half, involves high-ranking Justice Department lawyers, and will likely continue for at least another year — even as the backlog in immigration courts, which also fall under the Justice Department’s purview, continues to grow. In a budget request for the 2019 fiscal year, the administration asked for $207.6 million to investigate 887 additional leads it expects to get into American citizens who may be vulnerable to denaturalization, and to review another 700,000 immigrant files. read the complete article
Opinion | ‘Unless You’re A Muslim Woman, Shut The F**k Up And Listen To Muslim Women’
In 2006 or 2007, when this debate began to be taken seriously and presented at the legal level in countries like France, Belgium and areas in Spain, my position was: I am in favor of prohibiting the niqab everywhere. But I didn’t want anything to do with the Islamophobic and xenophobic European right-wing that proposed this. They wanted to convey that they cared about Muslim women. However, it really had nothing to do with them but with a racist agenda. My position now is: Unless you’re a Muslim woman, shut the f*ck up and listen to Muslim women, because in the past 12 years I’ve seen that debates on how Muslim women dress or don’t dress really excite racists and Islamophobes. Muslim women are between a rock and a hard place. read the complete article
China
As China cracks down on Uyghurs, some keep their culture alive in the US
On a recent Saturday in Medway, Massachusetts, this annual rite of spring revived familiar rhythms for the 60 or so guests. Many doubted they could gather this way in their homeland. The guests were Uyghurs – a mostly Muslim ethnic group concentrated in China’s Xinjiang region. “It’s just good to get together. Especially for me – I came here without my family,” she says, gazing at the dancers. “I feel like they’re my family.” Aynur left Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in 2015 to complete a master’s degree in finance in the U.S. Seven relatives scraped together her tuition. Two years later, her dad went missing for a month. Three months. Then a year. After her dad’s disappearance, Aynur’s mom cut off all communication with her for safety. A sibling told Aynur that their mother must attend “political study” classes in town every morning, where she sings songs praising the Communist Party. read the complete article
How China Turned a City into a Prison
An interactive video highlighting the level of surveillance against Uighur and other Turkic Minorities in Xinjiang. read the complete article
Australia
The Mosque Next Door: What it's like living as a Muslim in Australia
TRT World's first documentary within Storyteller is “The Mosque Next Door,” a three-part series that takes us up close and personal into the community of a specific mosque in Brisbane, Australia. Throughout this series, we get to meet community members and follow their separate journeys as they navigate their lives as Muslims in Australia. Here is some insight into the lives of each character. read the complete article
Ireland
Garda Síochána allowed to wear turbans and hijabs
In a statement, the force said its current uniform rules were a "major barrier" to some potential recruits from the Sikh and Muslim communities. The uniform update was announced as the force launched a recruitment drive to appoint hundreds of new officers. It aims to grow from its current total of 14,161 members to 15,000 by 2021. Commissioner Drew Harris, the head of the Garda Síochána (Irish police force), said it needed to become "a much more diverseorganisation so that we properly reflect the society we serve". "We want to encourage people from all walks of life to join us," he added. "We are looking for diversity not only in background, but also in skills." read the complete article
United Kingdom
Opinion | The Tories and their Islamophobia problem
The Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi has been an outspoken critic of Islamophobia within her party. Last year the former party chair called on the Conservatives to launch a full independent inquiry into Islamophobia, warning the Tories were pursuing a politically damaging policy of denial about the problem in their own ranks. The situation does not appear to have improved. Last month, 25 self-identifying party members were found to have posted anti-Muslim comments on Facebook, while a further 14 members were suspended for allegedly making Islamophobic comments after a string of abusive posts were uncovered on social media. read the complete article
Global
Islamophobia and the UFC: How Conor McGregor uses ethnic and religious tension to sell fights
The former two-division UFC champion posted a tweet with Nurmagomedov and his wife wearing an Islamic face veil along with the caption, “Your wife’s a towel mate.” The comment was part of a series of tweets that took aim at the lightweight champion’s family and entourage. This is not the first time that McGregor has been accused of Islamophobia and racism. Ahead of his UFC 229 title fight against Nurmagomedov, McGregor played up the political and historical tension between Chechnya and Dagestan, and called Nurmagomedov’s father a “quivering coward” for associating with Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. He posted pictures on social media with captions referencing him “chilling in Jahannam” (the Arabic word for hell). He even called Nurmagomedov a “backwards c-nt” during the UFC 229 pre-fight press conference after Nurmagomedov — who presents himself as a devout and outspoken Muslim — refused to accept a glass of McGregor’s branded whiskey read the complete article
How To Put An Extremist On Trial When The World Is Watching
The international focus on Breivik’s terrorist attack meant that he had a large audience. Parts of the trial were televised. Reporters from around the world filled the Oslo courtroom and tweeted updates, sometimes repeating his groundless claims without context. During the closing statements, he gave a rambling 45-minute speech that was later celebrated and reprinted on white nationalist and neo-Nazi websites. Brenton Tarrant, who is accused of killing 50 people and wounding dozens of others in last month’s anti-Muslim attack in New Zealand, also apparently wants to use the courtroom as his soapbox. He has already made white supremacist gestures in court and intends to represent himself; his manifesto cites Breivik as an inspiration. His next court hearing is set for Friday. read the complete article
With a Series of All Black, All Hijabi April Covers, Vogue Arabia Demystifies Muslim Modesty
“I think it’s important to remember that wearing a hijab is a woman’s personal choice. It doesn’t make her any better or worse than another Muslim woman. To me, it symbolizes modesty and gives me a sense of power,” supermodel Halima Aden tells Vogue Arabia. Aden, a groundbreaking Muslim model who has become a well-known face on the fashion scene, joins up-and-comers and fellow hijab wearers Amina Adan and Ikram Abdi Omar for the magazine’s April issue, a four-cover series exploring both the power and autonomy of modesty. The history-making impact of black hijabi models Omar, Adan and Aden together on the cover of the April 2019 issue—punctuated with the words “My Choice”—make a stunning statement against stereotypes that still cast hijab-wearing women as repressed or regressive in their thinking. read the complete article