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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the UK, Conservative MP Robert Jenrick has been criticized by fellow parliamentarians for saying police should “immediately arrest” any protesters shouting “Allahu Akbar”, an Arabic phrase which means “God is great”, while the UK’s senior-most Christian leader the Archbishop of Canterbury has joined forces with Jewish, Muslim and Catholic leaders to condemn the violence and hatred, describing it as a “stain on our national conscience”, and lastly, residents of the city of Liverpool are determined to heal the divisions, coordinating fundraisers and interfaith prayer groups. Our recommended read of the day is by Chris Allen for The Conversation who argues that “the consequences of refusing to address (or even acknowledge) Islamophobia are now playing out in towns and cities across” the UK. This and more below:
United Kingdom
Refusing to call out Islamophobia has emboldened the far right – and the current violence is the result | Recommended Read
As someone who has researched Islamophobia in Britain for a quarter of a century, it is clear to me that the current violence on the streets of Britain is an example of it. This was true from the first outbreak of violence, after a peaceful vigil for the three young girls who were fatally stabbed in an attack in Southport. A group of several hundred people began throwing bottles and bricks at police. They then directed their anger on the local mosque and those inside, with some even attempting to set fire to it. The targeting of Muslims was initially put down to misinformation on social media claiming the perpetrator was a Muslim who had arrived in a small boat the year beforehand. Both of these claims have been refuted, yet Muslims and mosques continue to be targeted in the violence across the country, along with hotels known to be housing migrants. Politicians have shied away from calling it Islamophobia, instead describing the violence as “far-right thuggery” and “anti-immigration protests”. Islamophobia and anti-immigration sentiment have been par for the course for the British far right since the turn of the century. read the complete article
Robert Jenrick criticised for saying people shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ should be arrested
Robert Jenrick has been criticised by Muslim parliamentarians for saying police should “immediately arrest” any protesters shouting “Allahu Akbar”, the Arabic phrase which means God is great. The Tory leadership candidate was speaking on Sky News about the accusations that police have been treating far-right marches and violence more harshly than other protests. Jenrick said on Sky News he had been angered by the way that pro-Palestinian demonstrations had been policed. “I have been very critical of police in the past, particularly around the attitude of some police forces to the protests we saw since 7 October. “I thought it was quite wrong that somebody could shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ on the streets of London and not be immediately arrested, project genocidal chants on to Big Ben and not be immediately arrested. That attitude is wrong and I’ll always call out the police for it.” Jenrick, who is one of the favourites to win the Conservative leadership, was criticised by the Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi and the Labour MP Naz Shah. read the complete article
UK religious leaders condemn anti-Muslim riots, call for harmony
Senior religious leaders in the UK from across faiths have condemned the far-right anti-Muslim riots that have embroiled the country over the past week in the shape of violence and vandalism against police, ethnic minorities and buildings. The UK’s most senior Christian leader the Archbishop of Canterbury joined forces with Jewish, Muslim and Catholic leaders to condemn the violence and hatred, describing it as a "stain on our national conscience". Justin Welby, the senior bishop and leader of the Church of England, together with Sayed Razawi the Chief Imam and director-general of the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society, the chairman of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board Qari Asim, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis and Catholic leader Cardinal Vincent Nichols, wrote to The Times newspaper to express their concerns. The religious figures said they have "watched in horror" the riots which have taken place in cities and towns in England and Northern Ireland since 30 July. "We have seen anti-Muslim hatred and the targeting of mosques; asylum seekers and refugees attacked; violence directed towards the police and private property — all of which are a stain on our national moral conscience," the letter published on Wednesday said. read the complete article
Anti-racism protests sweep Britain after far-right riots
Thousands of police and anti-racism protesters gathered on streets across Britain on Wednesday to challenge expected far-right groups that failed to materialise following more than a week of violent racist attacks targeting Muslims and migrants.Britain has been hit by a series of riots that erupted early last week after three young girls were killed in a knife attack in Southport, northwest England, triggering a wave of false messaging online that wrongly identified the suspected killer as an Islamist migrant. Posts online had said far-right, anti-Muslim protesters would target a list of immigration centres, migrant support centres and specialist law firms on Wednesday, prompting many businesses to close early and some shops to board up windows. The reports prompted the deployment of thousands of police officers, and crowds of protesters massed in towns and cities, including London, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool and Hastings, holding banners saying, "Fight racism", "Stop the far right", and "Will trade racists for refugees". The protesters were made up of a diverse collection of Muslims, anti-racist and anti-fascist groups, trade unionists, left-wing organisations, and locals appalled at the riots that had hit the country. read the complete article
'Textbook Islamophobia': Row erupts as Jenrick says people shouting Allahu Akbar should be 'immediately arrested'
Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick has been accused of "textbook Islamophobia" after telling Sky News people shouting Allahu Akbar should be "immediately arrested". The former immigration minister said he had been "very critical of the police in the past", particularly around the policing of protests against the war in Gaza, which started after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October last year. He told Sky News: "You know, I thought it was quite wrong that somebody could shout Allahu Akbar on the streets of London and not be immediately arrested, or project genocidal chants on to Big Ben and that person not be immediately arrested. Speaking in parliament in February, Mr Jenrick said: "We've allowed our streets to be dominated by Islamist extremists". read the complete article
Do UK politicians and media trivialise anti-Muslim, racist attacks?
Anti-Muslim hate is in the headlines in the UK, where since-debunked online misinformation has sparked a flood of far-right riots. Mosques and Muslim-owned establishments have been in the crosshairs of mobs in multiple cities across the country in the riots that have been ongoing for more than a week. The violent clashes and targeted attacks on Muslim communities have brought the issue of anti-Muslim hate into sharp focus. Even as many protesters have been recorded targeting people of colour and spewing anti-Muslim vitriol, the apparent reluctance of authorities to call the riots anti-Muslim has raised concerns that politicians and the media may be downplaying its role in stoking the unrest. Zarah Sultana, a member of Parliament from the ruling Labour Party, argued this view during a TV interview when she questioned why it was controversial to call the protests "Islamophobic", knowing that Muslim communities were being specifically targeted. "Yes, they are very reluctant to use those names, racism and Islamophobia, or racist and Islamophobic attack," Kawtar Najib, an expert on Islamophobia, said. The academic believes that had it has been other populations that were targeted, there may not have been as much reluctance. read the complete article
Amid UK riots, British Muslims in Liverpool working to heal
For Liverpool's biggest mosque, it's been a week of firsts. Most entrances have been blocked, men in high-vis jackets have been taking turns to patrol and a handful of worshippers have been sleeping inside at night — all necessary precautions, say officials at the Al-Rahma Mosque, during the UK's worst riots in years. The increased vigilance comes as some Muslims and ethnic minorities in Liverpool say they feel unsafe amid widespread violent, racist protests targeting mosques, immigration centres and hotels that haven't spared the famously left-leaning city in the north of England. Both mosque officials and other Muslims in Liverpool described feeling shocked, after two mosques further north in England were targeted by violent mobs and hundreds of anti-immigration protesters and counterprotesters clashed in central Liverpool. Shops were looted and some police were injured. A second mosque in Liverpool, the Abdullah Quilliam, which describes itself as Britain's first, has temporarily closed due to the violence, which was fuelled by a false narrative spread online that the killer of three girls in nearby Southport last week was an Islamist migrant. "I was born here, I was raised here. So seeing this, it just doesn't feel like home," said Abdulwase Sufian, a 20-year-old student who helps at the Al-Rahma, referring to himself as a "Scouser", the colloquial term for someone from Liverpool. read the complete article
A Far-Right Elite Stirred Britain’s Race Riots
Far-right groups descended on Southport the day after the stabbings. We know little about Rudakubana, but on Aug. 1 we did learn that he is a British national who was born in Cardiff to parents from Rwanda, a country with a large Christian majority. This has not prevented far-right thugs from rampaging through towns and cities including Manchester, Liverpool, Sunderland, Rotherham, Tamworth, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Aldershot, and Belfast, targeting Muslims. Many on the right have rushed to attribute the mobs to a sense of disillusion and a supposed social gap between the working class and the “elite”—a group in which they are never keen to count themselves. A few left-wingers have shared similar opinions. It is true that material factors have created a propitious environment in Britain for unrest. After 14 years of Tory government, before the recent Labour victory, the country is a poorer and more resentful place, its sclerotic and creaking public infrastructure barely functioning after years of neglect. There is much to be angry about. Yet this does not adequately explain the nature nor the scale of the violence, much of which has been driven by a bourgeoning alliance between a right-wing elite and the mob—an alliance that, as Hannah Arendt once put it, rests on the “genuine delight with which the former [watch] the latter destroy respectability.” For its part, the mob has attacked mosques, set buildings on fire, looted shops, violently assaulted ethnic minority bystanders, attacked cars on residential streets, and thrown bricks at the police. “We want our country back,” they yelled over the weekend while attempting to set fire to a hotel in Rotherham because they believed it was housing asylum-seekers. “P**i Muslims off our streets,” they yelled in Leeds. Footage from elsewhere showed men adorned with swastika tattoos, arms thrown up in Nazi salutes, voices yelling at anybody with brown skin to “go home.” This is not a rage that can, or should, be appeased. This is not the first time rioting in the U.K. has been driven by bigotry. read the complete article
France
'Excluded for pointless reasons': athletes speak out against hijab ban for French Olympians – video
The French athletes have been forbidden from wearing a hijab to compete at the Paris Olympics. Competitors representing France are bound by secularist laws that stop them from donning the Islamic headscarf, just like they forbid state workers and school pupils from wearing religious symbols and clothing in public institutions. This was extended to France's Olympic athletes on grounds they were on a 'public service mission', the government said. The Egyptian fencer Yara El-Sharkawy who has been competing in a hijab said: 'The whole world now speaks about freedom of choice and they ask everyone to express themselves. So when I saw this, I asked why specifically does this happen with the hijab?' The Algerian fencer Saoussen Boudiaf, who used to compete for France, added: 'Before being hijab-wearing women we are human beings with hearts and feelings. And I don't think it's fair that we have to feel excluded for what I think are pointless reasons'. read the complete article
United States
The Biden team just missed a big opportunity on Guantánamo Bay
The United States had an opportunity to close a chapter on a sad, decades-long saga when the government reached a plea deal with three men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Then, within days, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin squandered that chance. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi all agreed last week to admit their guilt before the military commission tasked with determining their fates, surrendering any chance to appeal, in exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment. Getting to that point took 16 years. That’s counting from the initial hearing in the case (the men were in custody for five years before that), when the defendants also wanted to plead guilty but with execution still on the table. What happened instead, after they withdrew those pleas, looked worse for the United States: Justice remained unserved, and Guantánamo Bay remained open, letting the whole world look for a while longer at a symbol of this country’s hypocrisy on human rights. read the complete article