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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In India, this year’s election setback for India’s BJP came with hopes that attacks on Muslims might decrease after the ruling party was forced into a coalition, though Indian Muslims say that attacks against the community have only intensified, meanwhile in the UK, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay visited a mosque in Manchester saying “we need to stand together” terming the recent anti-Muslim riots in the UK as “racist and Islamophobic”, and in New Zealand, The Federation of Islamic Associations (FIANZ) says the government must reconsider deprioritizing and defunding much of the country’s national security framework in a response to findings made public in a new report out by the country’s Security Intelligence Service. Our recommended read of the day is by Anupreeta Das and Hari Kumar for The New York Times on how a recent series of attacks by Hindus on Muslims in India have highlighted how Islamophobia remains a problem, despite the country seeking to define itself on the world stage as a “robust democracy with equal rights for all”. This and more below:
India
‘Cow Vigilantes’ Have India’s Muslims on Edge | Recommended Read
A recent series of attacks by Hindus on Muslims in India have highlighted how sectarian violence remains a serious problem, even as the country seeks to define itself on the world stage as a robust democracy with equal rights for all. Despite a close election victory in June by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that many interpreted as a rebuff, there have been numerous instances of such violence, according to India-focused human rights organizations and a New York Times tally of local news reports. At least a dozen involve so-called cow vigilantism — violence related to the slaughter or smuggling of cows, or the suspicion of such acts. In August, a group of Hindu men beat up a 72-year-old Muslim man because they believed he was carrying beef in his bag. Also that month, a group that describes themselves as cow protectors fatally shot a 19-year-old Hindu student because they thought he was a Muslim smuggling cows, according to his family. The cow issue is deeply divisive because it pits the religious beliefs of one group against the diet of another. Cows are sacred in Hinduism, especially among its upper castes, and many Indian states ban their slaughter, as well as the sale or smuggling of beef. But beef is consumed by many Muslims. Under Mr. Modi, who has pursued a Hindu nationalist agenda since coming to power in 2014, Muslims have increasingly become a target for hard-line Hindu groups affiliated with his Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P. Hundreds of instances of religious violence, including lynching, beating and abuse, occur every year, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau. read the complete article
India is witnessing the slow-motion rise of fascism
Fascism is so freighted with historically specific meaning that using it for other times and places can seem sloppy and excessive. And yet, juxtaposing the politics of contemporary south Asia with fascism, in its Nazi variant, serves a double purpose: it connects modern Indian majoritarianism with one of its ideological ancestors and it helps us name and identify the ideological kernel of fascism that survived to fight another day. India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) is the political arm of a Hindu militia, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded in 1925, around the time Adolf Hitler began to find his political bearings in a routed, angry Germany. The RSS is a nationalist militia that defines India as a Hindu nation; only Hindus can be members. While there are many similarities between the RSS and the fascist paramilitary organisations of the prewar decades, from uniformed drills and distinctive salutes to a persistent anxiety about masculinity, at the core of both is a feral ethnic nationalism that aims to mobilise a racial or religious majority against an allegedly encroaching minority. We have become familiar with violence and discrimination directed at minority religious groups in India, particularly Muslims, through this last decade of majoritarian rule. Lynchings connected to the cattle trade, riots, the bulldozing of Muslim homes, the criminalisation of love between Hindu women and Muslim men via the bogey of “love jihad”, have been features of Narendra Modi’s tenure as prime minister. But the German inspiration for the BJP’s short way with minorities goes back to the 1930s. read the complete article
An 'argument over notebooks' led to murder at an Indian school - and set a city ablaze
The killing of a 15-year-old boy by a classmate last month has fuelled religious tensions in an Indian city, leaving one family grieving and the other shattered by the crime. On 16 August, Heena* learned her teenage son Zakir*, 15, had been accused of stabbing a classmate at their school in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Zakir allegedly pulled a knife from his backpack and attacked Devraj, a Hindu boy, who died in the hospital three days later. The incident sparked a stream of grief and anger as well as a conversation on how to deal with violence in classrooms. The state police denied any religious angle to the incident. "The students had an argument over notebooks which turned ugly," investigating officer Chhagan Purohit told the BBC. But the incident set off a wave of religious violence. False rumours that Zakir, a Muslim, planned the killing against a Hindu boy went viral on WhatsApp, sparking protests in Udaipur with right-wing Hindu groups torching vehicles and chanting anti-Muslim slogans, leading to a curfew and internet shutdown. Zakir was taken into custody and sent to a juvenile home, while his father was arrested on the charges of abetment to murder, Mr Purohit said. The next day, following a familiar pattern in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled (BJP-ruled) states, bulldozers demolished Heena's rented home, leaving her and her four daughters homeless. read the complete article
Attacks on India’s Muslims continue under BJP-led coalition
This year’s election setback for India’s BJP came with hopes that attacks on Muslims might decrease after the ruling party was forced into a coalition. But Muslims say a new era of inclusiveness failed to materialise, and attacks against them have continued. read the complete article
Muslim Man Battered On Train For Carrying Meat Was Unafraid To Do So, Since Family Had Never Faced Islamophobia
Ashraf Ali Sayyed Hussain—a 72-year-old Muslim man taunted and beaten by Hindu men on a train—was unafraid of carrying meat, as many Muslims are, because he came from a Maharashtra village where his family’s life was entwined with Hindus and they had never faced Islamophobia. Public outrage forced the police to up criminal charges against his attackers and a magistrate cancelled bail, but it wasn’t enough, said his lawyer. Hussain, battered and traumatised 10 days after the attack, told us he was now terrified of travelling on a train. read the complete article
United Kingdom
UK riots were 'racist and Islamophobic' says Greens co-leader
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay has visited a mosque in Manchester and speaks to members and trustees of the Altrincham & Hale Muslim Association. He said he wanted to make sure he engaged with the Muslim community during his party conference because it felt targeted and vulnerable during the recent riots. He said "We need to stand together" and termed the recent UK riots "racist and Islamophobic". read the complete article
UK premier calls to 'mend broken society' after far-right riots
In his first major television interview since entering 10 Downing Street, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has appeared on the BBC to discuss a range of pressing issues, including the rise of far-right extremism and this summer's riots. In an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Starmer said that while he does not believe the UK is a racist country, he acknowledged racism played a role in the unrest. "I don't think we're a racist country, I think we're a country of decent people," Starmer said, highlighting the positive response of communities that came together to clean up and rebuild in the aftermath of the riots. The riots, which erupted in several areas following the deaths of three children in a July attack in Southport, were described by Starmer as "totally illegitimate" and "unacceptable." The violence, which included an attack on a hotel housing migrants, was triggered by false claims that the killings were committed by an immigrant. He emphasised that while people hold strong views on issues such as immigration, violence and disorder cannot be tolerated. read the complete article
In the UK, the multicultural model has withstood the riots
"Far-right thugs" who deploy nothing but "pure violence" and will "regret taking part" in the riots or stirring up racial and anti-Muslim hatred online. This is how the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, described those who, at the beginning of August, from Southport to Bristol and Belfast, threw bricks at the police, mosques or even tried to set fire to emergency migrant accommodation. Labour refused to offer any explanation for these outbursts of anger, dismissing anything resembling the beginnings of a justification for the violence. They were fanned by far-right groups and activists, who propagated the false information that the murder of three girls in Southport (northwest England) had been committed by a migrant of the Muslim faith. The government's response to the riots has, so far, been exclusively judicial. Arrests have been widespread (over 1,000) and justice swift and particularly severe: Hundreds of people have already gone before a judge, the majority of whom have been sentenced to prison terms. Yet Starmer's position has garnered consensus, with neither the left nor the right questioning the national multicultural model or the assimilation of British Muslims into national values. It's true that Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party, described the clashes in Leeds as "the politics of the [Indian] subcontinent." But only the extra-parliamentary far right, particularly its leading figure Tommy Robinson, holds multiculturalism and Islam responsible for all the ills of the white working class with a strong sense of being disadvantaged. read the complete article
UK Tory leadership race lurches into dangerous far-right territory
The British Conservative Party is mutating at high speed into a far-right movement comparable to the anti-immigrant Alternative fur Deutschland party, which last weekend surged to power in the German state of Thuringia. The fact that this has happened to a party that has been a symbol of British political stability for two centuries should ring alarm bells with anyone who cares about democracy. For British Muslims, the prospect is frankly terrifying. The Tory lurch to the extreme right became hideously clear after the first round of voting for the next leader on Wednesday. Former cabinet minister Robert Jenrick has been installed as bookmakers’ favourite after securing 28 votes from a pool of 118 Conservative MPs who survived the July general election bloodbath. Jenrick has become known for his bigoted remarks. He has made three eye-catching contributions to the contest so far. The first was his statement on GB News a month ago that “if I were an American citizen, I would be voting for Donald Trump”. Remember that Trump, the former US president, encouraged and promoted the mob that occupied the Capitol building in a bid to prevent Joe Biden from taking up the country’s presidency. Also known for his misogynistic, bigoted and Islamophobic statements, Trump is a convicted rapist and felon, found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records. It tells us everything we need to know about Jenrick - and today’s Conservative Party - that he supports Trump. Jenrick is also on record saying that as prime minister, he would be “pleased to welcome” former leader Boris Johnson into his cabinet. Given his support for Trump, Jenrick’s wish to bring back a proven liar to the top of British politics comes as no surprise. Thirdly, Jenrick has made a career out of the hysteria surrounding what he calls “Islamist extremism”. Earlier this year, he defended then-Tory MP Lee Anderson on the grounds that “Lee is not an Islamophobe”, after Anderson declared that “Islamists” controlled London, in addition to controlling Mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour leader Keir Starmer. read the complete article
New Zealand
Government cost-cutting leaving country open to terrorism, Muslim group says
The Federation of Islamic Associations (FIANZ) says the government must reconsider deprioritising and defunding much of the country's national security framework. A recent Security Intelligence Service threat assessment says a "terrorist attack on New Zealand soil remains a realistic possibility" and would most likely come from a "self-radicalised" person who acts alone. FIANZ chairperson Abdur Razzaq said the value of the report was dependent on the proper funding of resources to monitor and respond to potential threats. Cost-cutting was breaking down the security scaffolding designed to prevent a repeat of the Christchurch mosque shootings, he said. The government had curtailed the country's ability to research, monitor and respond to potential threats, he said. read the complete article
International
Are restrictions on pro-Palestine speech ‘the new McCarthyism?’
Is there an attempt to chill debate on Palestine and Israel on both sides of the Atlantic? The United States, and the West in general, are in a “dire period” of repression of speech on Palestinian freedom or criticism of Israel, argues Dima Khalidi, founder of Palestine Legal. Khalidi tells host Steve Clemons that despite strong constitutional protections for free expression, “there seems to be this exception when it comes to Palestine”, as witnessed by the wave of censorship, intimidation, firings and restrictions on activism in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza. The situation is similar across Europe, says British journalist Richard Medhurst, who’s been covering Gaza closely and was arrested for “speech crimes” upon arrival in London recently. read the complete article