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SearchToday in Islamophobia: French President Emmanuel Macron calls a New York Times media correspondent to criticize English-language coverage of France’s stance on “Islamic Extremism.” An excerpt from former President Barack Obama’s new book, A Promised Land, reveals that he still supports his decision to carry out illegal drone operations. On Monday, the FBI released the latest Hate Crimes Statistics report showing a 2.7 percent increase in hate-based crime from 2018 to 2019. Our recommended ready of the day is by Joseph Cox from VOX revealing how the U.S. military is buying the movement data of people around the world, harvested from innocuous-seeming apps, including a Muslim prayer app that has more than 98 million downloads worldwide. This and more below:
United States
How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps
The U.S. military is buying the granular movement data of people around the world, harvested from innocuous-seeming apps, Motherboard has learned. The most popular app among a group Motherboard analyzed connected to this sort of data sale is a Muslim prayer and Quran app that has more than 98 million downloads worldwide. Others include a Muslim dating app, a popular Craigslist app, an app for following storms, and a "level" app that can be used to help, for example, install shelves in a bedroom. read the complete article
Donald Trump's refusal to concede is no joke – it's a dangerous precedent
Despite hopes that he might be on the point of conceding, with a speech that appeared to admit the possibility of a Biden administration, the president was back to his old tricks by Sunday afternoon, stating Biden may “have won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA” but that “I concede NOTHING!”. Even as Trump refuses to step down, even as every day a norm is shattered and a deep gash inflicted on the body of American democracy, his threat is minimized. read the complete article
US senators call on Facebook to address anti-Muslim bigotry
Democratic senators are calling on Facebook to "do more" to mitigate the spread of anti-Muslim bigotry, after the social media giant was criticized for failing to address attacks against the faith group on multiple occasions, including the aftermath of the Christchurch shootings. In a letter sent to Facebook to CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, a group of 15 Senators said the platform needed to immediately enforce its community standards to address anti-Muslim hate and ban the use of event pages for the purpose of "harassment, organizing, and violence" against the Muslim community. read the complete article
Hate crimes in US rise for fourth consecutive year, FBI data shows
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released its latest Hate Crimes Statistics report on Monday which found that there were 7,314 hate crime incidents reported in 2019, a 2.7 percent increase from the 7,120 incidents reported in 2018. read the complete article
Obama defends deadly drone campaign in new book
In an excerpt from A Promised Land published in the Sunday Times ahead of its release on Tuesday, Obama said the evolving face of warfare meant that he had to resort to “more targeted, non-traditional warfare”. Defending his policy, Obama wrote that the often young men and boys he targeted “had been warped and stunted by desperation, ignorance, dreams of religious glory”. “They were dangerous," he writes. "The world they were a part of, and the machinery I commanded, more often had me killing them instead.” read the complete article
United Kingdom
Islamophobia Awareness Month: History-making Muslims you need to know about
November is Islamophobia Awareness Month in the UK, which is all about making people aware of discrimination against Muslim people and the Islamic faith. The aim is to challenge some of the stereotypes that people might have about Islam and Muslims, and to highlight the positive contributions that British Muslims make to our society. So, here are some of those people, who've broken down barriers, smashed stereotypes and made history in sport, politics and beyond. read the complete article
How Boris Johnson learned to play the race card
Last week a damning parliamentary report spoke of the shameful state of racism and human rights for Black people in the UK. Yet on the very same day the equalities minister, Liz Truss, appointed a supporter of the Home Office’s “hostile environment” to Britain’s race equality watchdog. David Goodhart, who denies that racism and Islamophobia are significant problems in the UK, was chosen as one of four new commissioners on the Equality and Human Rights Commission. He also believes white self-interest is not the same as racism, and that white people who want to reduce immigration to maintain population share have a legitimate group interest. read the complete article
France
Macron criticizes media over coverage of Islamic extremism
French President Emmanuel Macron has called The New York Times media correspondent to criticize English-language coverage of France's stance on Islamic extremism after recent attacks, arguing it amounts to "legitimizing" violence. "So when I see, in that context, several newspapers which I believe are from countries that share our values... when I see them legitimizing this violence, and saying that the heart of the problem is that France is racist and Islamophobic, then I say the founding principles have been lost." In his column about their exchange, Smith said the French president had argued "foreign media failed to understand 'laicite,'" or secularism, a pillar of French policy and society. read the complete article
India
India's Muslim politics is shifting course amid Hindu majoritarianism
India's Muslims are fed up of being used as pawns for elections by secular parties like Congress. They are now gravitating toward Muslim parties, even though it's helping the Hindu right. Taking a deep breath Professor Afroz Alam, a political scientist, said “it was in the making and it has happened.” “The fear about the Hindu nationalists is dissipating. Muslims are voting for parties founded and run by the Muslims,” said Professor Alam, the head of political science department of Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad. read the complete article
International
Will a Biden-Harris administration confront Modi on human rights?
New Delhi’s swift welcome of the new US leaders came amid concerns among Indian foreign policy experts over Modi’s public “endorsement” of his “friend”, current President Donald Trump, last September during a “Howdy Modi” extravaganza in the US city of Houston. But analysts believe that the Biden-Harris administration would not look away from human rights issues and the situation in Indian-administered Kashmir. read the complete article