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SearchToday in Islamophobia: After Easter attacks, Catholics and Muslims in Sri Lanka find themselves deeply divided; China wages war on Muslims while Saudi Arabia stays quiet. In the U.S, Muslim community patrols seek to protect mosques, and an op-ed urges Indians in the country to speak up against hate. Our recommended read of the day is by Sarah Kabir titled “The Terrorist, The Muslim and the Other”. This, and more, below:
Sri Lanka
Opinion | The Terrorist, The Muslim and the Other | Recommended Read
Since the Easter Sunday attacks, the Muslim population in Sri Lanka have outwardly condemned it in the strongest possible ways. They have apologised, shaved off their beards and removed their face coverings – choosing national security over an identity they have got accustomed to. They have rejected the terrorists as being part of their faith and rejected giving them a burial. Most importantly, from Military sources, the Muslim community have been an asset in helping to find more terrorists. Regardless of these acts of solidarity, the actions of 0.02% has cast doubt on the entire population of nearly two million Muslims in Sri Lanka. Someone recently told me that the rest of us are ‘irrelevant’. Perhaps it is easier to dehumanise an entire population to justify ones hate. read the complete article
Sri Lanka's Catholics and Muslims deeply divided by terror attacks
Catholics and Muslims in Negombo, a small city on Sri Lanka's west coast, have been living together peacefully for many years, and there is no record of ethnic clashes. However, in the aftermath of the attack on Negombo's St. Sebastian's Church, relations between the city's Catholics and Muslims have grown tense. There have also been several violent incidents. President of the Negombo Grand Mosque, Mohamed Rameez, told DW that he was shocked when he heard that a group of radicalized Sri Lankan Muslims had carried out the attacks. Along with other Muslims in the city, Rameez has kept a low profile since the attacks, fearing backlash from the Catholic community. "My three children are currently studying at a Catholic school. We have been part of this society, but we suddenly feel isolated," Rameez said. read the complete article
United States
Why Indians in US must speak up against hate, and now!
Thirteen-year-old Dhriti Narayan is in coma, with a bleeding, swelling brain; the left side of her skull was removed to relieve pressure. She was recently mowed down by an Iraq war veteran who drove into a crowd of pedestrians because he thought they were Muslim. Her father Rajesh and brother Prakhar were also among those injured. This borough full of Indians is the very last place you’d expect an Indian-American family to be the target of a hate crime. Add to this the inescapable irony of a Hindu family attacked for being Muslim, a throwback to the post 9/11 era when Sikhs in America were mistaken for Muslim and attacked. (Unprovoked attacks on Sikhs continue to this day). read the complete article
Who are the Muslim community patrols protecting US mosques?
The cars and volunteers represent the Muslim Community Patrol, a self-funded group, launched to provide additional security to neighbourhood mosques and Islamic schools in the area at times when they are most crowded. Noor Rabah, a volunteer and co-founder of the group, calls it "security on steroids." "We are not the muscle of NYPD. We are the eyes and ears to report to the proper authorities," says Mr Rabah, who formally launched the patrol service after 51 people were killed in the attack on two mosques in New Zealand in March. read the complete article
Opinion | Anti-Muslim memes have no place in our politics
There is a flyer circulating among voters in Piscataway that uses the kind of coded anti-Muslim language that makes most of us uneasy. The bigger problem is that the person who funded the flyer — powerful state Senator Bob Smith, the Middlesex Democrat — doesn’t see the necessity to repudiate it or apologize for it. The flyer was targeted to predominantly Indian-American households and translated into Gujarati, a growing diaspora throughout the county that is primarily of Hindu faith. The flyer is signed by three prominent Indian-American residents — none of them Muslim — promoting candidates who are running in the primary for County Committee next week under Smith’s banner, the Middlesex County Democratic Organization. read the complete article
Opinion | The Indian Law That Helps Build Walls
Since its inception, the plenary power doctrine has been expanded beyond Indian Country to justify seemingly limitless power over all kinds of people at the margins of American empire. As in Trump v. Hawaii, the doctrine fuels much of our current immigration law and policy, including executive detention and family separation. In upholding the travel ban, the Supreme Court tried to erase this past — treating Japanese internment during World War II and Korematsu v. United States, which authorized it, as aberrations. Rather than overturning the plenary power doctrine entirely, the court applied it but at the same time disclaimed the connection between the doctrine and the “morally repugnant order” upheld in Korematsu — “Korematsu,” the opinion declared, “has nothing to do with this case.” read the complete article
China
China wages relentless crackdowns on its Muslims. But Saudi Arabia stays quiet as it bolsters ties with Beijing
Chinese authorities are bullying members of the Muslim minority Uighur community to eat and drink before sundown — in violation of Islamic rules for Ramadan — with the implicit threat of punishment if they do not, activists say. He described how restaurants run by Muslims in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang have been forced to open during the day and how Uighur workers have been harassed to eat and drink during lunch breaks at their Chinese-run places of work. read the complete article