Today in Islamophobia: Thousands of mosques in Xinjiang have been damaged or destroyed in just three years, according to a report bythe Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). Indian Americans in the U.S raise $3.3million for Biden in one night, seek moderate positions on Kashmir, and CAA. Our recommended read today is by Nathan Ruser titled “There is now more evidence than ever that China is imprisoning Uighurs.” This, and more, below:
China
There is now more evidence than ever that China is imprisoning Uighurs | Recommended Read
Since 2017, Xinjiang in China has been reeling from a brutal crackdown outlawing both public and private displays of Uighur culture or identity, not to mention political dissent. A cornerstone of this repression, and the foundation upon which all other coercive measures are built, is an intense and unparalleled carceral regime: a network of hundreds of political indoctrination camps, detention centres and prisons. This has forced the region’s inhabitants not only into obedience but also into a chilling silence. read the complete article
Thousands of Xinjiang mosques destroyed or damaged, report finds
Thousands of mosques in Xinjiang have been damaged or destroyed in just three years, leaving fewer in the region than at any time since the Cultural Revolution, according to a report on Chinese oppression of Muslim minorities. The revelations are contained in an expansive data project by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), which used satellite imagery and on-the-ground reporting to map the extensive and continuing construction of detention camps and destruction of cultural and religious sites in the north-western region. read the complete article
Night Images Reveal Many New Detention Sites in China’s Xinjiang Region
As China faced rising international censure last year over its mass internment of Muslim minorities, officials asserted that the indoctrination camps in the western region of Xinjiang had shrunk as former camp inmates rejoined society as reformed citizens. Researchers at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute on Thursday challenged those claims with an investigation that found that the Xinjiang authorities had been expanding a variety of detention sites since last year. Rather than being released, many detainees were likely being sent to prisons and perhaps other facilities, the investigation found, citing satellite images of new and expanded incarceration sites. read the complete article
United States
Letter To Muslim Activists And Organisations In The US On Engagement With The Structures Of Policing
In the US, even more than the UK, there exists a violence within policing that is almost unparalleled. This violence does not uniquely impact Muslims, but has a long history that is tied to the ways those outside of the white majority in society are deemed ‘Other’, and is most manifestly apparent in its anti-Black racism. If we start from the premise that the law itself, and the administrators of the law, the police, prosecution services, judges and indeed juries, all play a role within the structure of racism and discrimination, then to what extent can we actually seek to engage with that system? read the complete article
How Biden Might Change Trump’s Immigration Policies
Trump says “illegal immigrants” -- people without the legal right to be or remain in the U.S., of whom there are an estimated 11 million — “drain” government resources, are prone to commit violent crimes and take jobs from citizens. As for legal immigration, Trump argues that the system that regulates it -- which is based largely on family ties and ensures immigrants come from a diverse array of nations -- attracts undesirable newcomers, including, as he famously put it, from “sh*thole countries,” such as Haiti, El Salvador and nations in Africa. He expressed a preference for immigrants from Norway. Some economists say illegal immigration reduces work and wages for low-skill workers, especially Black and Hispanic Americans; others challenge the argument and the data behind it. A number of studies have concluded that migrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans. But Trump cites anecdotes such as the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old woman, Kate Steinle, in San Francisco in 2015, by an undocumented immigrant, a Mexican national with a criminal record. On legal immigration, scholars point out that the emphasis on family ties that Trump criticizes has been a guiding consideration since the decades when Europeans, including Trump’s own ancestors, were the ones flocking to America read the complete article
International
Australia should ban imports linked to forced Uyghur labour in China, crossbench senator Rex Patrick says
Australia should ban products made by Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in forced labour camps in western China, according to a key senate crossbencher. South Australian independent Rex Patrick is calling on the Federal Government to follow the lead of the United States, where Congress has just passed legislation forcing companies to disclose details of their supply chains. read the complete article
US Senators Condemn Netflix Over Three-Body Problem Author's Anti-Muslim Rhetoric
In a letter to Netflix, five United States senators questioned the streaming giant's decision to produce The Three-Body Problem, citing "atrocities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR)" of China. The letter, signed by Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Martha McSally (R-AZ), Rick Scott (R-FL) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), is addressed to Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. In it, the senators cite actions taken by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against Uyghur Muslims in the XUAR (also known as Xinjiang), as well as statements made by Liu Cixin, author of The Three-Body Problem. read the complete article