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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In a string of “politically motivated arrests,” Indian police file charges against 15 people over Hindu-Muslim riots in the capital this past February. In the U.S., a Muslim woman files federal lawsuit over LAPD officers for removing her hijab. Writing for Daily Sabah, Harun Karcic argues against the idea that the Balkans is at threat from “Bosniak terrorism.” Our recommended read today is by Rayhan Asat titled “China and Myanmar face Uighurs and Rohingya that are fighting back after years of oppression.” This, and more, below:
International
China and Myanmar face Uighurs and Rohingya that are fighting back after years of oppression | Recommended Read
Over the past several years, the Chinese government has locked up more than a million Uighurs, including model citizens like my 34-year-old brother Ekpar Asat. A philanthropist and founder of a social media platform catering to the Uighur community known as Bagdax, he came to the United States in 2016 to participate in an exchange program sponsored by the State Department, one from which many world leaders and Chinese citizens of the majority Han ethnicity have benefited for decades. Within weeks of returning from the United States to Xinjiang in western China, he disappeared into the shadows of the internment camps. Beijing has sentenced many other innocent Uighur people, a Turkic ethnic minority, to years and even life in concentration camps and prisons. Uighur women have been subject to forced sterilization and forced marriages to Han Chinese men. Nearly half a million children have been placed in orphanages, despite their families being alive, and then subjected to political and cultural indoctrination. read the complete article
Is there a terrorism threat in the Balkans?
In early August, Serb Republic Interior Minister Dragan Lukac said: “Each and every terrorist act committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina was carried out by Wahhabis. Almost all terrorist acts committed on European soil, but also those around the world, have some connection to Bosnia and Herzegovina.” His words were met with fierce criticism from many Bosnians, especially on social media. What Lukac said is the latest in a series of controversial statements coming from various high-ranking Balkan politicians over the past year that aim to play on the worst fears of the international, particularly Western, public – terrorism. It is a salient feature of the ongoing demonization of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Muslim population that many Western analysts have thus far failed to comprehend, or worse still, fell for. read the complete article
Opinion | Facebook Has Been a Disaster for the World
FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers Thursday that racially motivated violent extremism cases account for the bulk of the bureau's work on domestic terrorist threats. Testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee, Wray also said most of the racially motivated cases deal with white supremacists. "Within the domestic terrorism bucket, the category as a whole, racially motivated violent extremism is, I think, the biggest bucket within that larger group. And within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people subscribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of that," he said. “Lately we've been having about 1,000 domestic terrorism cases each year. It is higher this year," Wray added. "I know we’ve had about 120 arrests for domestic terrorism this year." read the complete article
China
China defends its ‘vocational training centres’ in Xinjiang white paper
China released a white paper on Thursday claiming that its far western Xinjiang region has provided “vocational training” to nearly 1.3 million workers every year on average from 2014 to 2019. It comes as Beijing is facing mounting criticism from Western countries and human rights groups over its policies in the region, where it is believed to have detained at least 1 million Uygurs and other ethnic Muslim minorities in internment camps. China has been accused of subjecting detainees to political indoctrination and forced labour in the camps, but it has denied the allegations and insisted they are “vocational training centres” where people learn language and job skills. read the complete article
India
Only the US has more coronavirus cases than India. But unlike Trump, its leader seems immune from criticism
India is in crisis. Its economy has crashed, with the largest slump on record decimating millions of jobs. Its already fragile healthcare system is struggling. With more than five million cases, India ranks only behind the United States for confirmed infections. But whereas other populist leaders are feeling the political heat from their handling of the pandemic -- US President Donald Trump and his British counterpart Boris Johnson, for instance -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has largely escaped the scathing headlines and crushing opinion polls that have beleaguered his counterparts. read the complete article
Delhi riots: Indian police file charges against gov't critics
Indian police have filed charges against 15 people over Hindu-Muslim riots in the capital, a spokesman said on Thursday, prompting criticism from rights groups that authorities were targeting the opposition and minority Muslims. February's violence killed more than 50 people and drove thousands from their homes, most of them members of the Muslim minority, which forms about 15 percent of the country's roughly 1.3 billion population. read the complete article
India: Arrests of Activists Politically Motivated
The Indian authorities are increasingly bringing politically motivated cases, including under severe sedition and terrorism laws, against critics of the government, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should immediately drop baseless charges against activists, academics, student leaders, and others, and unconditionally release those in custody. On September 13, 2020, Delhi police arrested Umar Khalid, an activist, as one of the “main conspirators,” under India’s principal counterterrorism law for his alleged role in communal violence in February that killed at least 53 people and injured hundreds. Police in Delhi have also named academics, activists, and opposition leaders as suspects. On September 7, the National Investigation Agency arrested three members of a Dalit cultural group for giving speeches allegedly inciting caste-based violence in Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra state in January 2018. In both cases, supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were implicated in the violence. read the complete article
These old photos actually show an actress and a Muslim murder victim
Two photos — one of a young woman and one of a female corpse — have been shared in multiple posts on Facebook and Twitter that claim they show a Hindu woman who was killed after marrying a Muslim man. The photos were published alongside an image of an invitation to an interfaith wedding. The claim is false; these are old photos that show an actress and the body of a Muslim girl who was reportedly murdered in 2018. read the complete article