Search
SearchToday in Islamophobia: Dateline releases an exposé of China’s forced labor camps, while Saudi Arabia defends its letter backing Xinjiang ‘developmental’ policy. As the President starts his re-election campaign, Muslim advocates predict more racist attacks from Trump. Our recommended read of the day is a TIME op-ed by Jacob Davey and Julia Ebner on the increasing spread of far-right ideology online. This, and more, below:
International
We Analyzed How the "Great Replacement" and Far Right Ideas Spread Online. The Trends Reveal Deep Concerns | Recommended Read
Popular support for politicians who build their campaigns around anti-migrant and anti-Muslim themes have surged across the Western world. So have hate-speech, hate crimes and terror attacks against minority communities, as data from the US, the UK and Germany show. Just over the last few months, the idea that white populations are being systematically replaced by non-whites has been referenced in major terrorist attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand and San Diego, California. read the complete article
How To Protest Hijab Bans & Support Muslim Women Around The World
Quebec's ban, also known as Bill 21, was passed on June 16 and will impact teachers, police officers, and judges, just to name a few occupations. Although the ban includes all religious symbols, it could disproportionately affect Muslim women, seeing as hijabs are one of the most outward and visible types of religious garb. After the bill passed, Canadian Muslim organizations challenged it in front of the Superior Court, which will make its final decision on July 19. And these organizations aren't the only ones pushing back against the ban. read the complete article
United States
Trump Disavows ‘Send Her Back’ Chant as G.O.P. Frets Over Ugly Phrase
Nervous Republicans, from senior members of Congress to his own daughter Ivanka, urged President Trump on Thursday to repudiate the “send her back” chant directed at a Somali-born congresswoman during his speech the night before at a rally in North Carolina, amid widespread fears that the rally had veered into territory that could hurt their party in 2020. read the complete article
Duncan Hunter ordered to remove Marine Corps insignia from mailers
Hunter, a California Republican, is facing trial in federal court in September for allegedly using campaign funds to pay for expensive vacations, bar tabs, fine dining and routine household items like tuition and school lunches. His wife, Margaret Hunter, recently struck a plea deal with prosecutors, admitting that she and her husband used the campaign credit card for personal items. read the complete article
The world's silence on Trump's racism is deafening
There have been remarks from Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who said: "That's not how we do things in Canada," and that a "Canadian is a Canadian." The outgoing British Prime Minister, Theresa May, said that Trump's comments were "completely unacceptable." Otherwise, the world, it seems, is turning a blind eye to the most powerful office in the world being used to make overtly racist statements. read the complete article
Muslim Advocates Predict More Racist Attacks To Come From Trump
Muslim leaders and communities of color were deeply alarmed by Trump’s racist rhetoric attacking Omar and fellow Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), but they were not surprised. Human rights advocates and other critics have long warned against Trump’s xenophobic and Islamophobic language and policies, which set the stage for Wednesday night’s racist rally. read the complete article
Trump has made Ilhan Omar the face of his re-election strategy
As Trump escalated his crusade against Omar on Wednesday – refusing to silence his supporters in chants that echoed the “lock her up” rallying cry against Hillary Clinton in 2016 – a prevailing theme of his re-election strategy became clear. In Omar, the president has at long last found a face to his stigmatization of Muslims – and so, too, have his allies. read the complete article
China
The exposé of China's forced labour camps shows why you might be wearing slave-made clothes
With China’s western-most province of Xinjiang being turned into a mass internment camp, this week's ABC Four Corners program reported on the Chinese Communist Party’s alleged plans to put up to a million detained Uyghurs to work. The exposé highlights how global supply chains make it possible for the clothes you’re wearing, and many other things you own, to have been made using slavery. read the complete article
China is building a global coalition of human rights violators to defend its record in Xinjiang – what is its endgame?
The letter highlights China’s latest win in its plan to reshape the international human rights system. For more than a decade, as documented in a 2012 Chatham House study, Chinese officials have worked hard to derail human rights resolutions at the UN whether or not they had a bearing on the country’s own record. Alarm about the role China is playing to weaken the UN human rights system was also raised by Human Rights Watch in 2017. read the complete article
Pompeo calls China's treatment of Uighurs 'stain of the century'
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday called China’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority the “stain of the century” and accused Beijing of pressuring countries not to attend a U.S.-hosted conference on religious freedom. “China is home to one of the worst human rights crises of our time; it is truly the stain of the century,” Pompeo told the final day of the international conference in Washington. read the complete article
Saudi Arabia defends letter backing China's Xinjiang policy
When asked about Saudi’s support for the letter, Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi told reporters in New York that the “letter talks about China’s developmental work, that’s all it talks about, it does not address anything else.” “Nobody can be more concerned about the status of Muslims anywhere in the world than Saudi Arabia,” he said. “What we have said in that letter is that we support the developmental policies of China that have lifted people out of poverty.” read the complete article
Op-Ed | Security and control: An outsider's glimpse into China's Xinjiang province
Reports suggested authorities had banned long beards for men, headscarves and Koran study groups, and rolled out an extensive network of surveillance and control in a bid to keep a lid on Uighur separatism and Islamic extremism. In Kashgar, authorities had even toppled off the crescent moon atop the minarets of the city's yellow-tiled Id Kah mosque and replaced it with the five-starred Chinese flag and a group of armed guards. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Far-right protests ‘attracting biggest numbers since 1930s’ in UK amid Brexit anger, report warns
Far-right protests are attracting the largest number of supporters since the 1930s as Brexit fuels anger against the “elite”, a report has warned. Research for the Commission for Countering Extremism, seen exclusively by The Independent, said tens of thousands of people have descended on London since the start of 2018 over Tommy Robinson’s imprisonment and delays to Britain’s departure from the EU. read the complete article