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SearchToday in Islamophobia: A Czech mosque is vandalized with death threats, as the Indian government moves to deport Rohingya refugees after passing the Citizenship Amendment Act. Satellite images show China has destroyed more than 100 Uighur Muslim graveyards. Our recommended read today is by Hannah-Ellis reporting from Muzaffarnagar on the plight of Muslims in India, titled “We Are Not Safe: India’s Muslims tell of wave of police brutality.” This, and more, below:
India
CW: Police brutality | 'We are not safe': India's Muslims tell of wave of police brutality | Recommended Read
It was midnight at a police barracks in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and in a freezing windowless room about 150 Muslim men and boys sat huddled, bloodied and bruised. Some of the shivering prisoners had raw gashes across their hands and faces, others had broken limbs splayed out at awkward angles. The beatings from police came frequently, according to multiple corresponding accounts; to those who asked for water or closed their eyes in drowsiness or simply did nothing at all. Over and over, metal rods and bamboo canes hit soft human skin. Some had been stripped of their clothes. The youngest among them was just 12 years old, said witnesses. read the complete article
Opinion | As repression in India gets worse, notable figures remain silent
“If you see this, help us,” read an urgent message I received on Dec. 21 from an assistant professor in Muzaffarnagar, barely three hours from India’s capital, New Delhi. He told me police officers were on a rampage in his neighborhood. Another man in the same area sent me videos of state security forces barging into his neighbor’s house. “They threatened his father, asked him if Islam allowed him to have sex with his own daughter and started laughing,” the man said. “They opened the cupboards, stole the gold, jewelry, vandalized their homes.” One of the officers pushed the father to the ground and said, “You circumcised must remember, this is the price you pay for protesting” — a reference to the demonstrations that have spread across India in the past weeks over the passage of a discriminatory citizenship law pushed by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. read the complete article
Dozens brutally attacked at Delhi university after opposing 'anti-Muslim' citizenship law
Around 200 masked men from a right-wing Hindu nationalist group stormed a university in Delhi tonight, attacking terrified students and their professors with wooden sticks and stones. The student body at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has vocally opposed a new 'anti-Muslim' citizenship law ever since it was introduced by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on December 11. The exact number of the injured is unknown but students said around 20 people were seriously injured and a further 50 nursing minor wounds. read the complete article
Shaheen Bagh: The women occupying Delhi street against citizenship law
For more than two weeks, hundreds of Muslim women have been braving one of the coldest winters in India's capital Delhi to protest against a controversial new citizenship law. BBC Punjabi's Arvind Chhabra reports. On 31 December, Delhi experienced its coldest day in more than a century. But that did not deter the women of the Shaheen Bagh neighbourhood. Armed with thick blankets, warm cups of tea and songs of resistance, they have not left their spot under a tent on a public street since 15 December. And that's how they rang in the New Year - a few minutes after midnight, they stood up to sing the Indian national anthem. read the complete article
JNU Students Say They Jumped Off Balconies to Escape Mob Terror
"We were three of us, we used all our might and strength against the door. We had to keep the door from opening or we would be killed. For the entire 30 minutes, I kept thinking the door would break open now, the door would break open now... my heart was pounding. I could hear it. I want to go out but I am unable to step away from my room.” This is what Rehman Mirza, who is doing his Masters in Pashtun from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, told The Quint on the night of Sunday, 5 January, as the students suffered a violent attack by a masked mob on campus. read the complete article
United States
Warrant Issued for Woman Accused of Trying to Choke a Muslim Student With Her Hijab
Jasmine Renee Campbell, 23, has been indicted on hate crime, attempted strangulation, harassment and criminal mischief charges for the Nov. 12 attack at a downtown MAX station. The warrant was issued after she failed to appear in court on Friday. The Multnomah County district attorney’s office described the attack, saying Campbell grabbed the religious head cover worn by the Portland State University student to try to choke the student with it. Prosecutors said Campbell then stripped down and rubbed the student’s hijab over Campbell’s naked breasts and genitals while disparaging Muslims. read the complete article
Chicken Express apologizes to Muslim employee after 'inexperienced' manager sent her home when she refused to remove her hijab at work
Stephanae Coleman, who also goes by the Muslim name Folake Adebola, says the manager at Chicken Express in Saginaw, Texas took issue with her on Monday after she arrived at the branch wearing the modest head covering. However, attorney Rhett Warren has since said that the manager's decision to send Coleman home was made due to a lack of training, and that he has been 'reprimanded'. Coleman 'is not facing discrimination for her decision to wear a headscarf for being Muslim', Warren wrote in a statement to ABC News. The unnamed manager, 'unfortunately did not take religious liberty into consideration,' Warren writes. In a video taken by Coleman, her manager is heard saying: 'Your job is your job. Your job has nothing to do with religion. read the complete article
US detains more than 60 Iranian-Americans at Canadian border
The United States detained more than 60 Iranian Americans at a US-Canada border crossing in the state of Washington, according to the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Many were crossing the Peace Arch Border in Blaine, Washington, returning home from an Iranian pop concert on Saturday in Vancouver, Canada. Once reaching the border, more than 60 people were detained at length and questioned by the US Customs and Border Control (CBP). read the complete article
China
With Husbands in Camps, Hui Women Struggle Taking Care of Families
A small village under the jurisdiction of Tacheng Prefecture in northern Xinjiang is home to just over 60 households, primarily Hui Muslims. Forty-three village residents, mostly men, have been sent to transformation through education camps. Their wives talked to Bitter Winter about the daily struggles taking care of their families alone. We use pseudonyms to protect their identities. read the complete article
China has destroyed more than 100 Uighur Muslim graveyards, satellite images show
China has demolished more than 100 Uighur graveyards in what human rights groups described as an escalation of the communist regime’s campaign to destroy the Muslim minority’s culture. Hundreds of satellite images analysed by CNN showed burial sites in western Xinjiang province have been wiped out, with some turned into car parks and playgrounds. The US broadcaster found the majority of the cemeteries, where generations of Uighurs had been buried, were destroyed over the last two years. read the complete article
Missing Uyghurs Do Not Reappear: The Case of the Hamdullah Family
Responding to growing numbers of Uyghur diaspora around the world appealing for news of relatives back in their home country, Beijing’s state sponsored mouthpiece CGTN (China Global Television Network) launched a publicity drive this week to expose the “lie” that Uyghurs in Xinjiang have gone missing. Claiming to have “found” those advertised under the hashtag “StillNoInfo” posted by worried relatives abroad, CGTN has mounted a series of reports to denounce the so-called fake news that has blackened China’s name, claiming that the reportedly “lost” are in fact safe and sound. read the complete article
Czech Republic
Czech mosque vandalised with death threats
A mosque in the Czech Republic's second city of Brno has been vandalised with graffiti threatening to kill Muslims, police said on Saturday."Don't spread Islam in the Czech Republic! Otherwise we'll kill you," reads the inscription sprayed on the mosque. "We have been investigating the case since Friday afternoon as damage to property for now," local police spokesman Bohumil Malasek told AFP. read the complete article