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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United Kingdom, three additional men have been taken into custody for their part in the anti-Muslim violence that took place in Southport earlier this month, meanwhile in a joint statement, five human rights organizations have told the European Union that the governance body should press the Indian government to immediately act to end human rights violations in the country targeting Indian Muslims, Christians, and other minorities, and new research out by Pew Research Center has found that religious composition of Indians who emigrate out of country differs significantly from those who chose to remain in India. Our recommended read of the day is by Sara Gill for Al Jazeera on how across the United Kingdom, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim violence has left communities, business owners, and families in a state of fear. This and more below:
United Kingdom
Ethnic minority shop owners targeted in UK riots fear more attacks | Recommended Read
As rioters went on the attack in dozens of British towns and cities recently, some targeted businesses belonging to ethnic minority Britons. The unrest began in the aftermath of a fatal stabbing attack in Southport that killed three young girls, which agitators misleadingly blamed on a Muslim migrant. As disinformation about the suspect travelled at pace online, angry crowds took to the streets to abuse migrants and Muslims at random. Black and Asian Britons were also targeted. On August 3, as many brought chaos to the northern English city of Liverpool, which is near Southport, Ardalan Othman watched in real time as his convenience shop was looted and vandalised. His security cameras filmed the incident. In one scene, a group of men steal boxes of cigarettes. Some take expensive items like vapes. A couple spend their efforts trying to break into the till. But some are seen placing singular bars of chocolate into their rucksacks. As he works to repair the damage, he is haunted by fearful thoughts. “There were more than 100 of them. If I was inside, they could have killed me. I haven’t slept properly since.” “I don’t feel safe at all. I check all the doors and windows before I sleep. I’m terrified they’ll come back or follow me, and attack my home.” read the complete article
Fear among Birmingham's Muslims after racist riots
In the UK's second-largest city, home to its largest Muslim community outside London, the fear is palpable and the city's mosques have issued advice to their faithful, including not to pay attention to rumors. "Fascist scum out of Brum." On Saturday, August 17, around 300 demonstrators in the center of the United Kingdom's second-largest city awaited the arrival of far-right activists. None came. A long list of places and dates, widely shared on social media, promised the arrival of the far-right group the English Defense League (EDL) in the city of Birmingham. But it was just a rumor – like so many other posts since the start of the riots that hit the United Kingdom after a knife attack claimed the lives of three children in Southport, northern England, on July 29, and was falsely attributed to a Muslim migrant. Ali, who we met outside a central mosque shortly before Friday prayers, said that he was "very worried" when he saw the first images of the riots in Southport. While he asserted that "there are no problems in Birmingham," he also recounted being taken to task by a group of youths because of his skin color while making a delivery in a suburb a few days earlier. read the complete article
Ethnic minority shop owners targeted in UK riots fear more attacks
As rioters went on the attack in dozens of British towns and cities recently, some targeted businesses belonging to ethnic minority Britons. The unrest began in the aftermath of a fatal stabbing attack in Southport that killed three young girls, which agitators misleadingly blamed on a Muslim migrant. As disinformation about the suspect travelled at pace online, angry crowds took to the streets to abuse migrants and Muslims at random. Black and Asian Britons were also targeted. On August 3, as many brought chaos to the northern English city of Liverpool, which is near Southport, Ardalan Othman watched in real time as his convenience shop was looted and vandalised. His security cameras filmed the incident. In one scene, a group of men steal boxes of cigarettes. Some take expensive items like vapes. A couple spend their efforts trying to break into the till. But some are seen placing singular bars of chocolate into their rucksacks. As he works to repair the damage, he is haunted by fearful thoughts. “There were more than 100 of them. If I was inside, they could have killed me. I haven’t slept properly since.” “I don’t feel safe at all. I check all the doors and windows before I sleep. I’m terrified they’ll come back or follow me, and attack my home.” read the complete article
Nottingham councillor: Racism and threats towards local politicians ‘worst since 1980s’
A Nottingham councillor says a surge in racism, Islamophobia and “malicious and hateful” threats against local politicians made her consider standing down from elected office. Councillor Sarita-Marie Rehman-Wall (Labour), who represents the Bulwell Forest ward, says “an open debate” is now needed on how to better protect local councillors. Some of her colleagues have had letters sent to their homes threatening their families and children, she said. Home Office-funded panic alarms have also been installed at some councillors’ homes by the police due to concerns for their safety, she says. Ms Rehman-Wall, a Muslim councillor who is of mixed southern-Irish and Kashmiri heritage, spoke from her Bulwell home to the Local Democracy Reporting Service about her concerns. She said recent threatening behaviour, racism and Islamophobia is now the worst she’s heard and experienced since the 1980s. read the complete article
Three more men jailed for disorder in Southport
Three more men have been jailed for taking part in violent disorder that broke out in Southport the day after three young girls were stabbed to death last month. The men all admitted taking part in a disturbance close to Southport mosque on 30 July, the day after stabbings. The violence was started by false online rumours that the suspect in the Southport attack was a Muslim. Video footage played to Liverpool Crown Court showed the men throwing missiles at police. read the complete article
United States
Pro-Palestinian protesters march before Democratic convention: ‘This is about morality’
About half a mile east of the Democratic national convention in Chicago, Union Park filled at noon on Monday with demonstrators intent on sending a message to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, delegates and the world: the war on Gaza should not be an afterthought. Organizers for the Coalition to March on the DNC drew 172 local and national organizations together for the protest rally and march. Thousands of people gathered for one of the main anti-war demonstrations this week. “This is not about some Machiavellian politics,” said social critic and independent presidential candidate Cornel West at the onset. “This is about morality. This is about spirituality.” Mo Hussief, a Chicago accountant, joined the rally. “My family is in Gaza,” Hussief said. “I’ve had over 100 family members murdered over the last 10 months by the genocide. So, I’m here to protest as an American, to say I don’t want my tax dollars to be used to murder my own family.” Hussief is a Democratic voter. Or, he had been, he said. He supports labor rights and wants public healthcare support, key Democratic policy goals. But none of that brings back dead cousins in Jabalia, he said. The death toll in Gaza hit at least 40,000 last week. Hussief said it is impossible for him to cast a ballot for the vice-president as long as she supports arming Israel. read the complete article
Why I am not voting for Kamala Harris
This November, however, I plan not to vote for the Democrats in the election. If the party’s presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, does not change her policy on Israel, I will not be casting a ballot for her. And I will not be the only one. More than 700,000 Americans have cast an “uncommitted” vote in the Democratic primaries, demonstrating their rejection of the Democratic Party’s “ironclad” support for Israel. If Harris wants the progressive vote, she has to support an arms embargo on Israel and stop funding the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. This is a red line for many of us who have not bought into her liberal cult of personality. In a memoir written a few years after she left Nazi Germany, Martha admitted to just not really liking Jews all that much. This casual anti-Semitism foreshadows today’s liberal attitudes towards Palestinians, a disregard rooted in Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, which is driving a genocide. This is a make-or-break moment – we must pressure the Democrats to change their position on Gaza before the elections in November. While we should all be doing absolutely everything we can to stop the genocide, the bare minimum right now is demanding that a presidential hopeful, in need of our votes, commits to ending US funds to Israel. It is not that complicated. read the complete article
India
What migration reveals about religion in India
The religious composition of Indians who emigrate differs significantly from those who stay in India, analysis by the US-based Pew Research Center has found. About 80% of people in India are Hindu, but they form only 41% of emigrants from the country, the survey on the religious composition of the world's migrants , externalsays. In contrast, about 15% of people living in India are Muslim, compared with 33% of those who were born in India and now live elsewhere. Christians make up only about 2% of the Indian population, but 16% who have left India are Christian. "Many more Muslims and Christians have left India than have moved there. People of other, smaller religions, like Sikhs and Jains, are also disproportionately likely to have left India," Stephanie Kramer, a lead researcher of the analysis, told me. read the complete article
India’s alternative facts: how the government of Narendra Modi invents its own kind of ‘experts’ to legitimise its policies
Narendra Modi was reelected as India’s prime minister in June for a historic third term. Yet his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) does not have the privilege of an absolute majority for the first time in a decade. It will head a coalition government that is already rife with disagreement. The result has called into doubt what many perceived to be an unwavering level of support for the BJP’s core ethos of Hindu nationalism, as well as its claims of national self-reliance and economic growth. As I have discussed in my recently published book, an important part of the BJP’s strategy over the past 15 years has been to discredit established intellectuals as irrelevant, elite and detached, while at the same time building alternative forms of “credible” knowledge and expertise. In the run up to the 2009 national elections, for example, the BJP created two entirely new thinktanks called India Foundation and Vivekananda International Foundation. This was, in my opinion, a way to make inroads into New Delhi’s elite, exclusive and primarily left-liberal policy ecosystem. Under Modi’s leadership, experts have also been systematically replaced with appointed loyalists by dismantling or co-opting advisory committees, universities and established research institutions. This strategy has, in practice, served to normalise ideas that may otherwise have appeared to be ideologically biased. This was clearly seen during the recent election cycle. In April, Modi made a speech at an election rally in Banswara, Rajasthan, where he claimed the opposition Congress party wanted to distribute peeople’s wealth to “infiltrators” who are claiming more benefits than they deserve. He was widely seen as referring to India’s Muslim minority. This stereotype of Muslims “stealing” from the welfare state was then reinforced by appointed experts from Modi’s Economic Advisory Council. The council published a questionable research paper in May arguing that Muslim birthrates are rising much faster than any other demographic. read the complete article
International
Joint Statement: EU Should Press India to End Rights Abuses
The European Union should press the government of India to immediately act to end serious human rights violations in the country, five organizations said today, ahead of the EU-India human rights dialogue scheduled for August 20, 2024. The Indian Government should reverse its abusive and discriminatory laws and policies against Muslims, Christians, and other minorities; end restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly; and free all human rights defenders, journalists, and others detained for exercising their basic human rights. The groups are Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, World Organisation against Torture (OMCT), and CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide). The annual EU-India human rights dialogue is an important, though insufficient, opportunity for both the EU and India to articulate their concerns on human rights, the organizations said. The EU should call on the Indian government to uphold the rights to freedom of speech, assembly and religion, while the Indian government should raise concerns over increasing racist and xenophobic attacks in many parts of Europe, especially against migrants and minorities. In June, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to office for a third consecutive term. During the election campaign, Modi and several other BJP leaders repeatedly made statements inciting hostility and violence against marginalized groups, especially Muslims. Such inflammatory speeches, amid a decade of attacks and discrimination against minorities under the Modi administration, have normalized abuses against Muslims, Christians, and others. read the complete article
China
China’s Genocide Tourism Strategy
Having suppressed all possible resistance – through a formidable surveillance apparatus, mass detention of anyone remotely suspect of pro-native sentiment, and mass forced labor for camp survivors – the Chinese government is now promoting both domestic and foreign tourism to the Uyghur region. The campaign is accompanied by a propaganda blitz, hoping to thwart foreign criticism of the genocide launched in 2017. A major goal is also to recruit both domestic and foreign tourists into supporters who “see for themselves” that Xinjiang is safe and good. Domestic tourists are lured to Xinjiang with new infrastructure, remodeled cities and new attractions, from fake dinosaur parks to wholly new faux-historical “mystery” sites that re-appropriate Uyghur culture while exoticizing and primitivizing it. It’s not going badly. Numbers are uncertain, but it’s clear that large numbers of domestic Chinese are visiting. Xinhua claimed 265 million tourist visits for 2023. This includes foreign visitors, and they are not just the usual crop of pro-China influencers for hire. Foreign tourists are visiting, taking in the message, and relaying it abroad – to the delight of China’s propaganda officers. Foreign tourism seems to have taken off from about 2023, when the top leader, confident in his victory, publicly sanctioned it. International tour companies began to offer Xinjiang tours, and private individuals can come, too. read the complete article