Search
SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Canada, lawyers of convicted killer Nathaniel Veltman are seeking to appeal his conviction of life in prison for the murder of a Muslim family in London Ont., meanwhile in India, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed in 2019 is finally being implemented in the country and will disproportionately impact Indian Muslims, and in the United States, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Adeel Mangi has been facing an unprecedented level of political and Islamophobic attacks as Republicans try to stall his historic nomination. Our recommended read of the day is by Kunal Purohit for Al Jazeera on how self-proclaimed ‘news channels’ on YouTube are swiftly gaining popularity across India with many programs peddling falsehoods aimed at helping Prime Minister Modi’s campaign. This and more below:
India
How dubious YouTube ‘news’ channels are boosting Modi in India’s election | Recommended Read
On one channel, a male journalist chastises an Indian Muslim man sympathetic with Palestinians, asking him: “Did you stand with Hindus when they suffered atrocities in Pakistan and Afghanistan?” On another channel, a journalist gleefully asks a Muslim resident of the city of Ayodhya whether Muslims were happy that a Ram temple had come up on the site of a centuries-old mosque demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob. A female anchor on yet another channel alleges that a conspiracy is afoot to make India’s southern state of Kerala an ‘Islamic State’, with the hub of this conspiracy being Wayanad, the parliamentary constituency of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, quoting no evidence to substantiate her allegation. India, with over 460 million users, is YouTube’s largest market, with four out of five internet users in India consuming its content. Increasingly, more and more Indians are getting their news from YouTube. What is on offer, though, is not always news. Some of the most popular YouTube news channels in India are increasingly offering a smattering of disinformation and Islamophobia, often cheerleading Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while targeting its critics and opposition leaders. read the complete article
WHY INDIA'S ANTI-MUSLIM CITIZENSHIP LAW IS SO DANGEROUS
When it comes to the topic of who does and doesn’t belong in India, Union Minister Amit Shah - a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - has never minced words. "Infiltrators are like termites," he told a rally of supporters in 2019. "A BJP government will pick up infiltrators one by one and throw them into the Bay of Bengal." It was a clear dog whistle - everyone in that crowd knew "infiltrators" was code for "Muslims," 200 million of whom make up India’s most highly persecuted minority group. His comments were foreshadowing: Shah was speaking just months before the government would pass the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a law that fast-tracks citizenship for undocumented Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians - but not for Muslims. In other words, the CAA conditions citizenship on the basis of religion. The CAA was passed in 2019, stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic, and is now finally rearing its head again with its jaws unhinged. In March - on the first day of Ramadan - Prime Minister Modi’s government announced rules for the CAA’s implementation, to the delight of its Hindu nationalist base and to the dismay of India’s allies, human rights groups and international authorities. Not only will the CAA create a humanitarian crisis of staggering proportions - one where millions of Muslims are stripped of their citizenship, rendering them vulnerable to expulsion and mass violence - but it is also a vital step towards Modi’s goal of creating a Hindu ethno-state. The CAA must also be understood as the project of a government that openly champions the Nazi-inspired ideology of Hindutva or Hindu supremacy. This ideology believes India should be a Hindu nation, declaring Muslims as perpetual foreigners who should be subject to disenfranchisement, expulsion and even genocide. read the complete article
Christophe Jaffrelot on What Makes Brand Modi Successful
India is in the midst of its 18th general election. Almost every opinion survey indicates that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will return for a third straight term in power. The BJP is expected to ride to victory on Modi’s popularity. Despite growing unemployment and massive corruption under his rule, Modi’s approval ratings rose to 75 percent in February this year. What explains the rise and rise of Narendra Modi? In his book “Gujarat Under Modi: Laboratory of Today’s India” (C. Hurst, 2024), Christopher Jaffrelot, a noted scholar of Hindutva politics, argues that communal polarization of society, deinstitutionalization of the rule of law, crony capitalism and a political style that mixes Hindutva and populism comprised the four pillars of Modi’s governance as Gujarat’s chief minister. When he became India’s prime minister in 2014, Modi implemented this “Gujarat model”’ nationally. read the complete article
‘Many Have Happily Accepted Media Bigotry As The Truth.’ New Book Explores The Place Of Muslims In Hindu India
Ziya Us Salam, journalist and author of a new, critically acclaimed book, captures the transformation of India in a country where the survival of Muslims hinges mainly on one thing—appeasing the whims of the majority and accepting their status as second-class citizens. ‘Being Muslim in Hindu India’ is Salam’s eighth book and probably his grimmest work. In this interview to us, he discusses the Indian Muslim identity under Hindutva, the upcoming general elections and what patriotism means to him. read the complete article
How dubious YouTube ‘news’ channels are boosting Modi in India’s election
On one channel, a male journalist chastises an Indian Muslim man sympathetic with Palestinians, asking him: “Did you stand with Hindus when they suffered atrocities in Pakistan and Afghanistan?” On another channel, a journalist gleefully asks a Muslim resident of the city of Ayodhya whether Muslims were happy that a Ram temple had come up on the site of a centuries-old mosque demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob. A female anchor on yet another channel alleges that a conspiracy is afoot to make India’s southern state of Kerala an ‘Islamic State’, with the hub of this conspiracy being Wayanad, the parliamentary constituency of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, quoting no evidence to substantiate her allegation. India, with over 460 million users, is YouTube’s largest market, with four out of five internet users in India consuming its content. Increasingly, more and more Indians are getting their news from YouTube. What is on offer, though, is not always news. Some of the most popular YouTube news channels in India are increasingly offering a smattering of disinformation and Islamophobia, often cheerleading Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while targeting its critics and opposition leaders. read the complete article
United States
UNDERSTANDING AND COUNTERING ANTISEMITISM AND ISLAMOPHOBIA IN SCHOOLS
The conflict in the Middle East, which escalated following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack in Israel and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, has led to a dramatic increase in hate incidents targeting people who are—or are perceived to be—Jewish, Muslim or Arab. While wars in this region have often led to spikes in Islamophobia and antisemitism, these two forms of hate are not inextricably linked, and both, like other forms of hate and racism, have a long history in the United States and other parts of the world. The rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia in our society is also taking place in our schools. To address these forms of hate in schools and classrooms, we need to understand and address bigotry and proactively take measures to emphasize inclusion. This begins with an understanding of what Islamophobia and antisemitism are. Antisemitism and Islamophobia in schools can take many forms, including curriculum and instructional bias, discrimination, vandalism, harassment, and even assault. In Los Angeles, a Muslim mother reported that both of her daughters have been called “terrorists” by other students since October 2023. Her elementary-age daughter was targeted on the playground and asked about her support of Israel. When she was unsure how to respond, the other student told her, “Oh, you’re one of them, a terrorist.” In Connecticut, a Jewish student transferred schools after administrators failed to take action when another student regularly taunted him, saying, “We must exterminate all the Jews,” and inviting him to “Camp Auschwitz.” read the complete article
Senators: Don’t let the Islamophobic agenda targeting Adeel Mangi win
Mangi is a highly qualified lawyer who emigrated to this country and built a family and a respected career. He chose American citizenship because of his love for our democracy. President Biden nominated him for a seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, a fitting honor for a Harvard-educated lawyer well-known for winning record financial awards for clients in complex cases and his pro bono work on religious liberty. Now, we’re watching him being hounded by some of the most mean-spirited, bigoted attacks imaginable by people who are weaponizing Islamophobia against him. Worse, we’re watching people who definitely should know better being influenced by these attacks. When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) appallingly asked Mangi at his confirmation hearing if he supported terrorism and the 9/11 attacks, and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) demanded to know if Mangi thought Israel was a “colonial state,” it was disgusting but somewhat predictable. When the far-right Judicial Crisis Network opened up its enormous checkbook to fund ads making outrageous accusations of antisemitism, it was, again, in character for a group that plays dirty. When political agitators started claiming, falsely, that this nominee served on the board of a nonprofit for families of the incarcerated because he supports “cop-killers” — something Black and brown people recognize instantly as a familiar racist trope — it was highly unsettling. Where is the political will to stop this? Scores of civil rights groups have come out to support Mangi and push back against the attacks. At least 15 Jewish groups have condemned the charges of antisemitism. More than half a dozen law enforcement groups have gone public with their support, countering the caricature of this mild-mannered nominee as some kind of vicious cop-hater. read the complete article
'I will do better': Legally Blonde actress apologises for Islamophobic comment
The 51-year-old reacted to a post by a supporter of immigration reform, Abraham Hamra, who had criticised Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush for voting against a measure banning anyone who took part in the 7 October attack on Israel from immigrating to the US. In her previous comment, now deleted and which attracted strong criticism, she had written: "Deport all these terrorist supporting goons. Islam has destroyed Muslim countries and then they come here and destroy minds. They know they are liars. Twisted justifications. May they meet their fate." In her apology on Instagram, Blair promised to "do better" when she wrote: "I mistakenly and inadvertently conflated Muslims with Radical Islamists and fundamentalists, a terrible err in my words, and resulted in hurting countless people I never meant to, and I deeply regret this. As soon as my error was brought to my attention, I deleted the comment." read the complete article
Canada
Politicking in the face of genocide: A uniquely Canadian performance
As Ramadan this year draws to a close, Muslim communities across Canada are hurting. Yet, instead of using their power and leverage to address the source of the pain of their fellow Muslim citizens, Canadian politicians and law enforcement rely on empty iftars and Ramadan greetings to obscure the damaging impacts of their actions on Muslim communities. But their grotesque performance isn’t fooling anyone. In the Islamic tradition, Muslims are encouraged to stand against injustice wherever it is and whoever is committing it. So when Muslim communities anywhere in the world suffer from injustice, Canadian Muslims suffer too. In the past, when members of Muslim communities attended iftars hosted by leaders, it was with the expectation this would lead to dialogue and improved decision-making in the halls of power. Among the 9/11 generation, there was hope that similar acts of civic engagement could address the longstanding marginalization experienced by these communities. However it’s becoming increasingly apparent this approach doesn’t work. During this holy month of Ramadan, politicians and state institutions that oppress Muslims are opportunistically exploiting the fact that some vulnerable Muslims remain willing to engage with them, hoping their voices and concerns will be heard. It’s important to remember Islamophobia in this country is intricately tied to Canadian foreign policy and political rhetoric. Policymakers generated support for killing Muslims abroad during the “War on Terror” by stoking Islamophobia. Locally, this resulted in state surveillance and criminalization of Muslim communities, who were presented as an internal threat. Today, we see a continuation of these Islamophobic policies. The Canadian government actively participates in killing Palestinians by failing to impose an arms embargo on Israel (a state that has so far murdered over 30,000 civilians), aiding airstrikes against Yemen to protect shipping routes used to supply these weapons, and refusing to condemn Israeli violations of international law. read the complete article
Convicted killer of Muslim family in London, Ont., terror case is seeking an appeal, lawyer says
The 23-year-old man convicted of murder in the 2021 attack on a Muslim family in London, Ont. — in what the judge called a textbook case of terrorism — is seeking to appeal his convictions, his lawyer says. Word of the appeal move comes less than two months after Nathaniel Veltman was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in the June 6, 2021, attack. It left four members of the Afzaal family dead and a boy, who was nine years old at the time, injured and orphaned. read the complete article
International
Islamophobia, Gaza prominent as millions go to the polls
The year 2024 is the ultimate election year, with at least 64 countries plus the EU all holding elections. In some of these countries, particularly the US, the war on Gaza and the surge of Islamophobia as a consequence of it will be played out in election campaigns and will have an impact on voters. Elections to the European Parliament in June seem set to increase Islamophobia within the institution, posing risks for European Muslims. With the expected far-right gains and a lack of representation for European Muslims in the EU institution, Islamophobic rhetoric is likely to increase. This comes at a time when far-right parties with a distinct anti-Islam, anti-immigrant attitude have increased in influence and power in European countries such as Italy, the Netherlands and France. The UK is also expected to hold elections for the House of Commons this year. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing mounting pressure to crack down on Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry in his ruling Conservative Party. However, with a bleak economic outlook and low party popularity, political analysts expect this trend to increase, particularly targeting Muslim immigrants, during the election campaign. As the elections near, we can expect clearer racist and Islamophobic hype, with both Democratic and Republican candidates trying to appeal to the Israeli lobby despite polls showing the public’s growing discontent and opposition to the war on Gaza. read the complete article