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SearchToday in Islamophobia: UN group says Sri Lanka virus cremation rule violates rights. In France, Macron’s ‘imam charter’ raises fears of state control over Islam in the country. Our recommended read today is on William Shawcross, who has made controversial comments about Islam, and is to lead a review of the government’s controversial anti-radicalization program, Prevent. This, and more, below:
United Kingdom
William Shawcross’s selection for Prevent role strongly criticised | Recommended Read
William Shawcross, a former head of the charity watchdog who has made controversial comments about Islam, is to lead the struggling review of the government’s anti-radicalisation programme Prevent. Civil liberties and human rights organisations such as Amnesty International have been calling for an independent review of Prevent for some time, saying it fosters discrimination against people of Muslim faith or background and inhibits legitimate expression. read the complete article
Fears grow that efforts to combat US domestic terrorism can hurt minorities
An expanded no-fly list. New crimes put on the books. Increased use of the death penalty. These are some of the ways that politicians, pundits and law enforcement want to head off a repeat of the 6 January attack on the Capitol. But a renewed national security push aimed at addressing domestic terrorism has civil liberties groups steeling themselves, concerned that moves to combat far-right extremism will instead redound against communities of color and leftwing activists. read the complete article
United States
Avril Haines's unusual backstory makes her an unlikely chief of US intelligence
Haines’s period of lifestyle experimentation anyway ended decades ago, in 1998 when she started a law degree. Since then she has been a legal counsel in the Senate, state department and White House, the deputy director of the CIA and deputy national security adviser. The main source of scepticism comes from human rights activists, over whether she might be too much of an insider, with too much baggage. She redacted the report on torture – some argue over-redacted it – and she codified a set of procedures and rules for the use of drone strikes in the assassinations of terror suspects. read the complete article
America's Islamophobia won't end with the Muslim Ban
America has never had a strong record on Muslim rights. The rhetoric the Trump administration used to justify the Muslim ban, that Islam is antithetical to the US Constitution, that Islam hates America, that Islam is incompatible with the “West”, is older than the Civil War. From the nineteenth century, the Islamic world has been posed as America’s opponent and rival. When America passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, which allowed bounty hunters to kidnap escaped slaves and return them to slavery, the abolitionists cried that America’s new creed was a parody of the Muslim declaration of faith: “There is no God but Slavery and the Compromise; and the Fugitive Slave Law is his Prophet.” In other words, abolitionists gave America’s darkest hour a Muslim face. read the complete article
Local Iranian-American Optimistic About Reversal of Travel Ban on Muslim Nations
On Tuesday, NBC 7 spoke with an Iranian- American man in San Diego who's hopeful for the change but also feeling the effects of the damage already caused, which has kept families apart. Shahriar Afshar came to specifically San Diego from Iran at the age of 10. He told NBC 7 that he's fully living the promise of the American dream, but now, having seen how the ban damaged parts of his family, he said it’s difficult to trust that it won’t happen again. "That ban caused a giant ripple effect in the community," Afshar said. "The Iranian community -- just one part of many, many other Muslim communities impacted." Afshar said the past four years have been especially difficult insofar as trying to shield the news from his children. read the complete article
India
Indian Muslim comic in jail for weeks for jokes he did not tell
An Indian Muslim stand-up comic has spent 25 days in a Madhya Pradesh jail for jokes he did not tell an audience, but on suspicions he was “going to”. Mumbai-based Munawar Faruqui, 28, is facing legal action in two states. In Madhya Pradesh, he was arrested while performing by Indore police for allegedly insulting Hindu deities during rehearsals. In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, he is sought by the police in another case of allegedly insulting Hindu deities as well as Home Minister Amit Shah. Both states are governed by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of which Shah is a member and which also controls the federal government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. read the complete article
International
The US has accused China of carrying out genocide. Will it now boycott the 2022 Beijing Olympics?
Genocide is defined by the United Nations as "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group," and although the US determination won't trigger any immediate penalties, it will put pressure on anyone who does business with China -- and that includes the 90 or so nations that are due to send athletes to the Winter Games in February next year. "Right now there is a lot of pressure on any kind of major engagements with the Chinese government that involves lending (them) legitimacy," said Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch. read the complete article
Holocaust Memorial Day: Jewish figures condemn Uighur persecution
Prominent Jewish figures in the United Kingdom are marking Holocaust Memorial Day by speaking out over China’s treatment of its minority Uighur population, saying they have a “moral duty” to do so. Held every year on January 27, Holocaust Memorial Day commemorates the people systematically killed by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany during World War II – six million Jews, many Roma, the disabled, and others – as well as victims of later genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Darfur. read the complete article