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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United States, Councilmember Steve Sundberg of Aurora, Colorado, has issued an apology following backlash over a series of videos of himself imitating minority groups, meanwhile the Senate Finance Committee is “launching an investigation into whether major automakers such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Tesla Inc. are using parts made with forced labor from the Xinjiang region of China,” and in Canada, the RCMP say they will “not launch an investigation into forged government records that falsely suggest the federal police force and the Canada Revenue Agency are paying informants within the Muslim Association of Canada to build a terrorist-funding case against the charity.” Our recommended read of the day is by Lorenzo Kamel for Al Jazeera who discusses France and its history of colonialism and how the country currently “engages in cherry-picking inclusiveness, which tends to exclude much more than include.” This and more below:
France
France, football, colonialism: Take the best, leave the rest | Recommended Read
As the Qatar 2022 World Cup saw formerly colonised peoples take on former colonial powers on the football field, conversations about “scars of the present’s past” inevitably erupted both online and offline. France, in particular, which played against both Tunisia and Morocco, found itself in the middle of them. Amid this noise and general World Cup excitement, a relevant piece of news seemingly passed under the global media radar. On December 12, the European Union announced it was establishing “a military partnership mission” in Niger to support “its fight against terrorism”. But why is the EU spending millions in Niger amid a crushing cost of living crisis at home? The answer lies in France, a leading EU member, which has shown an intense interest in deepening its relations with the Nigerien government over the past few years. But what does Niger – a country that did not qualify for the World Cup – have to do with French football? More than it might seem. France has pursued success in football in much the same way it has pursued economic might – through extraction. France has embraced a markedly selective assimilationist approach towards people of African origins; it is very particular about who can be French. Just some among the many immigrants and refugees who want to come to France and live there are deemed worthy of French citizenship and many people of African descent who were born in the country face structural discrimination and are not seen as fully French. There are also those who are French citizens on paper but do not seem to enjoy the “status” of being French. Take France’s Muslim community. It makes up about 8 percent of the French population and yet, between 40 percent and 70 percent of those incarcerated in French prisons are Muslims, mainly from former French colonies in Africa. The community suffers from high impoverishment and school dropout rates and is isolated in city peripheries. It is also systematically othered by mainstream politicians who openly embrace Islamophobia and accuse the Muslim population of being “extremist” and threatening French values. In other words, France engages in cherry-picking inclusiveness, which tends to exclude much more than include. read the complete article
United States
US Senate passes $1.7t spending bill without Afghan refugee law
Immigrant rights and Afghan-US advocacy groups, however, have pointed out the bill fails to include a provision that would have offered a legal pathway for tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who arrived in the US following the collapse of the US-backed government in Afghanistan in August 2021. Many were brought to the US through a programme known as “humanitarian parole”, which enabled them to quickly enter the country and shielded them from deportation for a two-year period. But that two-year window is set to expire next summer. A solution was proposed through the bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA), which would have offered Afghan refugees a pathway to a more permanent status if they went through additional vetting and met certain requirements. But while the bill received support across the political spectrum, a number of Republican politicians attacked it on national security grounds, expressing concerns about the thoroughness of the vetting process. The Afghan Adjustment Act was ultimately dropped from the Senate’s spending bill. Afghan advocacy groups such as the US-based Project ANAR said the perception that migrants and refugees from Afghanistan and Muslim countries represented a security threat was “rooted in racism, not reality”. In a statement, Project ANAR blamed a “small group of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim Senators” for blocking the addition of the Afghan Adjustment Act to the omnibus spending bill, which needed several Republican votes to overcome a filibuster. read the complete article
Colorado city councilmember faces backlash over ads mocking minorities
Councilmember Steve Sundberg of Aurora, Colorado, has issued an apology following backlash over a series of videos of himself imitating minority groups. Sundberg, who took office in 2021, created Facebook advertisements for his sports bar business Legends of Aurora Sports Grill in 2020 by doing stereotypical impressions of Arab Muslims, South Asians and Mexicans, among others. In one of the videos, Sundberg can be seen sitting on a carpet wearing a robe and a turban. “Haram, haram,” he says while brandishing a scimitar after an employee tries to give him bacon. The term “haram” is an Arabic term that refers to something forbidden under Islamic law, such as eating pork. In another video, the councilmember imitates a South Asian accent to promote his business's curry. He does something similar in a separate video where he promotes Maharaja IPA produced by Avery Brewing Co. read the complete article
International
Senate Panel Probes Carmakers’ Ties to Forced Labor in China
The Senate Finance Committee is launching an investigation into whether major automakers such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Tesla Inc. are using parts made with forced labor from the Xinjiang region of China. “Unless due diligence confirms that components are not linked to forced labor, automakers cannot and should not sell cars in the United States that include components mined or produced in Xinjiang,” Senator Ron Wyden, the committee’s chair, wrote in letters sent Thursday. “The United States considers the Chinese government’s brutal oppression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang an ‘ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity.’” read the complete article
The Human Rights Council’s failure to protect Uyghurs in China—for now
On October 6, 2022, the Human Rights Council rejected a draft resolution on holding a debate on the situation of human rights in Xinjiang, China. The rejection fits within a broader trend according to which Beijing translates its economic power into political influence at the Human Rights Council. Looking forward, it is now essential to look for other venues to discuss the human rights of the Uyghurs, both within the Council and beyond. The draft resolution was introduced by a coalition of mostly Western countries and effectively consisted of two paragraphs: one to take note with interest of the most recent OHCHR report on the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and a second to propose a debate on the situation of the Uyghurs at the Council’s session in March 2023. The report itself follows a highly politicized drafting process that started in 2018 and raised concern for human rights violations related to Xinjiang’s ‘anti-terrorism law system’ and discrimination against the Uygur communities. Importantly, it stressed that “the extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups, […] may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.” It was published in the wake of the highly scrutinized visit by former UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, as earlier discussed on this platform. read the complete article
Canada
RCMP declines to probe forged documents implicating Muslim charity in terrorist-related funding
The RCMP say they will not launch an investigation into forged government records that falsely suggest the federal police force and the Canada Revenue Agency are paying informants within the Muslim Association of Canada to build a terrorist-funding case against the charity. Instead, the Mounties say, MAC should take its concerns to other authorities, even though the records include faked RCMP search warrants and phony records of payments to informants. The CRA was sufficiently concerned about the forgeries that it referred the matter to the RCMP to investigate. Last week, after The Globe and Mail reported on the forged files, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told reporters the RCMP had assured him they would find out what had happened. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “very concerned about these reports of Islamophobic forged documents,” and did not rule out an independent investigation. But this week, RCMP spokesperson Camille Boily-Lavoie said the force was not investigating, and that it had confirmed The Globe’s reporting that the documents, including the search warrants, were fake. She suggested MAC file reports with local police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. read the complete article