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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Activists warn that Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are at risk of COVID-19 infection. An essay by Mia Swart analyzes how Modi’s Citizenship Law is at odds with India’s obligation to human rights. Our recommended read today is from Amrit Dhillon titled “If coronavirus doesn’t kill me, hunger will.” This, and more, below:
India
Divided Delhi under lockdown: 'If coronavirus doesn't kill me, hunger will' | Recommended Read
It wasn’t possible for Mohammed Idrish to watch Narendra Modi’s address to the nation last Tuesday exhorting 1.3 billion Indians to stay at home. His TV was looted along with everything else in his home in Delhi during the recent anti-Muslim riots in the Indian capital. When Idrish, a carpenter, heard about Modi urging Indians to stay at home to stop coronavirus spreading, he shook his head again and again. “I don’t understand … I don’t understand. Doesn’t he know we have no home?” Families ran with only the clothes they were wearing and mobile phones in their pockets. Hundreds were housed in the Eidgah relief camp, a collection of tents set up in the courtyard of a mosque in Mustafabad. The camp was a temporary home for Idrish, his parents, wife and four children. It gave them shelter and safety while they waited for compensation to renovate their home. But on Monday the Delhi authorities ordered families to leave the crowded camp for fear it provided the ideal conditions for a perfect viral storm. The camp’s days were numbered even before Modi imposed an unprecedented nationwide lockdown last week, as Delhi had already banned any gathering of more than 30 people. “From fire burning my home to a camp, I am now being thrown out of a tent because of the coronavirus. I don’t understand. They have told me to leave and go and rent a room but what do I pay the landlord?” said Idrish. read the complete article
Does CAA comply with India's human rights obligations?
Many international legal experts, including the United Nations special rapporteur on minorities, say India's new citizenship law is discriminatory and are calling for international intervention. Fernand de Varennes, the UN special rapporteur on minorities, told Al Jazeera that there is a danger that millions of members of minority groups such as Muslims will be denied citizenship. "Many have opined that the exclusion of Muslims as a group from the ambit of the law constitutes an extreme example of discriminatory treatment and that the right of equality without discrimination - particularly if it has a 'racial' element - is one of the fundamental principles of international human rights," de Varennes told Al Jazeera. read the complete article
United Kingdom
A Leading Activist In Britain’s Muslim Community Has Died Of The Coronavirus
Fuad Nahdi, a prominent British Muslim journalist and activist who published an influential Muslim-focused magazine and was a key voice in Britain’s Muslim community, died on March 21 after being infected by what his family later learned was the novel coronavirus, his son said. Nahdi, 62, who had other health issues stemming from diabetes and cancer, fell ill and “spiraled really fast,” his son, Nadir Nahdi, told BuzzFeed News. “Fuad Nahdi was a powerful force to be reckoned with, inside the Muslim community, but more generally in British civil society, as well as more broadly in international Muslim circles,” Dr. H.A. Hellyer, a friend of Nahdi’s and senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC, said in an email. “He was fiercely independent, and deeply committed to the normative tradition of Sunni Islam that informed his sense of justice and spirituality.” read the complete article
International
Museum's online tribute to Muslim princess who was WWII secret agent
The life of a British Muslim woman born to Indian royalty before becoming a secret agent in Nazi-occupied France is being celebrated in a new exhibition which can now be viewed online. Noor Inayat Khan, a direct descendant of Tipu Sultan, the 18th-century Muslim ruler of Mysore, in India, was recruited to join the Special Operations Executive aiding the French resistance in the Second World War. Developed by the Girlguiding Association to pass Ms Khan’s inspirational story of heroism on to a new generation, the interactive exhibition comprises video footage, striking animations, evocative archive photographs and documents. Their account of how a young Muslim woman overcame significant prejudice to play a key role in supporting the French resistance aims to highlight the diverse nature of services and sacrifices made during the war effort. An unlikely candidate for espionage, Ms Khan was educated in France and became an author of children’s books as well as a musician. But, armed with a false identity and a pistol, the spy princess became the first female radio operator to be sent to occupied France during the war. There, she posed as a children’s nurse while sending coded messages from behind enemy lines, and was credited with holding together the Paris resistance through some of the darkest hours of the war. read the complete article
Bangladesh
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh at risk of COVID-19 infection
Activists are warning that conditions at crowded camps in southeast Bangladesh are leaving a million Rohingya refugees at risk of contracting the new coronavirus. Internet shutdown in and around the camps is making the situation even more dangerous. Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom reports. read the complete article
Tunisia
Tunisia has a problem with internalised Islamophobia
Tunisia's measures included closing its sea borders, suspending international flights, shutting cafes from 4pm and completely closing mosques. It was this last decision that sparked controversy on social media and among religious scholars and reminded many Tunisians of something they have long suspected; a deep-seated Islamophobia that has framed internal Tunisian policies and politics since the country's independence from French colonial rule in 1956. While the importance of prevention measures and controlling the spread of the virus is not debatable, the choice to completely close down mosques while only partially closing cafes was met with dismay. Hicham Grissa, president of Zitouna University in Montfleury, criticised the decision as being "unresponsive" to people's need for religious and spiritual practices in these times. Grissa said while the spread of the virus will determine future actions, right now "you should not be talking about prohibiting prayer in mosques, unless the same measures are being taken for cafes and clubs." The decision to suspend prayer in mosques was, therefore, perceived by many social media users as the continuation of a state tradition of what they see as internalised Islamophobia, and "problematising" Islam and Islamic practices as the first step in dealing with crises. This is all reminiscent of another problematic decision illustrating the internalised Islamophobia of the Tunisian state - the niqab ban imposed in July 2019. read the complete article