Today in Islamophobia: In India, hundreds of Indian Muslims have seen their homes demolished in recent years without any notice, in many cases without legal justification, due to Islamophobic ‘bulldoze justice’ campaigns, meanwhile in the United States, Palestinian American Mufid Abdulqader was released after serving nearly two decades in a US prison as part of a controversial terrorism case known as the Holy Land Five, which analysts argue highlighted the disproportionate targeting of Muslims post-9/11, and in China, The Washington Post highlights the story of Abdureqip Rahman, a Uyghur Muslim who after being detained in Cambodia for 10-weeks and subject to forced labor, has been sent back to China without a word of his fate since Jan 30. Our recommended read of the day is by Yonat Shimron for RNS on the Biden Administration’s 67-page strategy document for ‘fighting Islamophobia’ released less than a month before he leaves office and how this document, and the timing of its release, speaks volumes with many Muslim Americans saying this effort is “too little, too late”. This and more below:
United States
Biden administration releases strategy for fighting Islamophobia | Recommended Read
With one month left in office, the Biden administration has released a 67-page strategy to fight Islamophobia and counter discrimination against Muslims and Arabs. The policy, released on Thursday (Dec. 12), is modeled on a similar strategy to counter antisemitism that was released in May 2023. But unlike that strategy, it comes amid heightened tensions with the Muslim American community over the administration’s steadfast support for Israel in its war in Gaza. The first-of-its kind strategy includes four area priorities: increasing awareness of hatred against Muslims and Arabs, improving safety and security, tackling discrimination and building cross-community solidarity. Among its recommendations are tools to combat “doxing,” or sharing people’s home addresses online; “swatting,” or reporting a false incident to send emergency personnel to a home; and other hoax threats against Muslims and Arabs. The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a press release Thursday saying the strategy was “too little, too late.” “ … if President Biden truly cared about the safety of Muslims or reducing the threat of Islamophobia, he would make major changes to federal programs that perpetuate anti-Muslim discrimination, like the federal watchlist, and immediately stopping enabling the biggest driver of Islamophobia: the US-enabled Israeli genocide in Gaza,” the CAIR statement said. read the complete article
White House releases strategy to counter anti-Muslim, anti-Arab hate
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday released a long-awaited strategy for countering anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate, up sharply since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, calling for urgent, continued work to reduce discrimination and bias. The 64-page document, which maps out more than 100 executive branch actions, comes weeks before the inauguration of former President Donald Trump, who imposed a travel ban on people from some majority Muslim countries during his first term that Biden rescinded on his first day in office. It mirrors a comprehensive strategy to fight antisemitism released by the White House in September 2023, and comes more than a year after death of six-year-old boy Wadea Al-Fayoume, stabbed by a man who targeted him and his mother because they were Palestinian-American. In a foreword to the strategy, Biden called the attacks on the Chicago boy and his mother "heinous acts" and noted a spike in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate crimes, discrimination and bullying that he called wrong and unacceptable. The Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, called the strategy "too little, too late" and faulted the White House for not promising any changes to a federal watchlist and "no-fly" list that includes many Arab and Muslim Americans, and for failing to end the war in Gaza, which has been driving Islamophobia. read the complete article
Holy Land Five: Palestinian American released to halfway house after two decades in prison
Palestinian American Mufid Abdulqader was released after serving nearly two decades in US prison in a controversial terrorism case known as the Holy Land Five, which civil liberties groups argue highlighted the disproportionate targeting of Muslims post-9/11. Abdulqader, 64, was released on Thursday to a halfway house, a facility used to transition prisoners and reintegrate them back into society, where he will spend one year, the Coalition for Civil Freedoms told Middle East Eye. While he was never granted early release and ended up serving his full sentence, the news of Abdulqader being taken out of federal prison was celebrated by Palestinian rights groups and civil liberties organisations. "We at CCF are very happy that Mufid was given a whole year of halfway house time, which rarely happens in our experience. Now he will be able to be with his family and that is wonderful," Kathy Manley, the legal director for the Coalition for Civil Freedoms (CCF), told Middle East Eye. "We still need to work hard with everyone concerned about this egregious case to find a way to get Shukri Abu Baker and Ghassan el-Ashi released as well." Abdulqader was part of a group of four other Palestinian-American individuals: Mohammad el-Mezain, Ghassan el-Aashi, Shukri Abu Baker, and Abdulrahman Odeh. They became known as the Holy Land Five. In 2004 - in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks during the US-led "war on terror", American authorities raided their homes and arrested them after designating the charity they volunteered at, the Holy Land Foundation, a "terrorist organisation". The Holy Land Foundation, which had raised millions of dollars for relief work and humanitarian aid for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, had long been a target of pro-Israel groups in the US, according to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. read the complete article
The Take: How did American Muslims help shape US history?
Centuries after the first Muslims stepped foot in America, the United States is home to nearly 4 million Muslim Americans. In American Muslims: A History Revealed, a six-part PBS docuseries that premiered in October, journalists and historians uncover the stories of American Muslims spanning over 200 years from past to present. read the complete article
How South Asian Muslims and Mexican Americans United in the 1920s
Asma Khalid travels to the American South West to tell the story of Mir Dad, a Muslim man from South Asia who came to the U.S. in 1917 and married a Mexican-American woman on the California-Arizona border in the early years of the 20th century. read the complete article
India
After the bulldozer: Indian Muslims grapple with loss amid demolished homes
Shahid Malik is fighting for a home that no longer exists. For the past two years, Malik, an accountant by profession, has been working with a local lawyer to seek justice for the demolition of his house and more than two dozen others in Kharak Riwara Satbari, a neighbourhood in southwest Delhi. On a cold October morning, the parents noticed Ziyan’s body turning blue as he struggled to breathe. Then, he was no more. For the family, his death was a direct consequence of their home being demolished. “The doctors told us that exposure to dust made it even harder for him to breathe,” Malik says. “My wife and I still shiver with pain whenever we think of Ziyan. We were never given a notice, the authorities stole both our home and our son from us.” Like Malik, hundreds of Indian Muslims have seen their homes demolished in recent years without any notice, and in many cases without any legal documents to justify the razing of homes in which generations of families grew up, lived and dreamed of a future. Often, city authorities cite urban development, beautification drives, or clearing “illegal encroachments”. However, in many cases, the demolitions are publicly pitched by governments as punitive measures against activists and their critics, in states ruled by the Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath has earned the epithet of Bulldozer Baba (Daddy Bulldozer), while the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan gained popularity as Bulldozer Mama (Uncle Bulldozer). Their victims have often been disproportionately Muslim. “The claims of ‘unauthorised constructions’ are inconsistent and specifically single out one community over and over again,” says Najmus Saqib, a lawyer working with the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, a civil rights advocacy group. “In such a scenario, it is hard for us to convince the community to trust the judicial institutions. There is a feeling of hopelessness everywhere.” read the complete article
China
He thought he had escaped Beijing’s clutches only to vanish back into China
The arrival of Cambodian police officers should have come as a relief for Abdureqip Rahman. The young Uyghur man had been trapped inside a high-walled, barbed-wire compound for 10 weeks, working alongside others trafficked here and forced, often through beatings, to run online scams. But Rahman had become increasingly nervous at the prospect of rescue, wary of the Cambodian authorities. He had heard that the officers were there to take him to the capital, Phnom Penh, and then to immigration authorities who would send him home — to China, where the consequences would be “unimaginable,” he said. Rahman tried to stay calm. He reminded himself of assurances from U.N. officials that he would be protected. He was hoping ultimately to secure asylum in the United States. Rahman, 23, had told officials and activists that he had worked in the massive and brutal penal system that China built in the region of Xinjiang to suppress the Uyghur Muslim population there, and then was detained after he left his job. After he fled China, his WeChat accounts and bank accounts were frozen, he said. Authorities in Xinjiang told his family they were looking for him. A Washington Post investigation found that after his removal from the compound here on Jan. 13, Rahman was held by the Cambodian authorities and then returned to China. He has not been heard from since Jan. 30. The United States says there is an ongoing genocide against the Uyghur Muslim population, and in 2022, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said China may be responsible for crimes against humanity against the minority group. China has for years demanded the return of Uyghurs who fled to other countries, including Thailand, Egypt and Pakistan. Hundreds of Uyghurs have been extrajudicially deported since the acceleration of the crackdown against the Muslim minority in 2017, particularly from Central and Southeast Asia, North Africa and the Middle East — according to Uyghur activists and human rights reports — or are being detained indefinitely in those regions. read the complete article
United Kingdom
GB News broadcasts half of all UK stories about Muslims, bordering on ‘obsession’ says new report
GB News broadcasts half of all UK stories about Muslims, in what a damning new report has called an “obsession”. The analysis, conducted by the Centre for Media Monitoring, suggests the channel mentioned Islam or Muslims over 17,000 times over a two-year period, with a predominantly negative slant. The coverage accounted for over 50 per cent of mentions of Muslims on broadcast media, with BBC News and Sky News accounting for 32 per cent and 21 per cent respectively. Islamophobia had been mentioned 1,180 times by the channel, with the main purpose being to discredit the concept as a whole. During the UK riots this summer, GB News accounted for 62 per cent of clips shared, with Muslims being portrayed as the perpetrators of violence rather than victims. In the report titled, “GB News: A snapshot of anti-Muslim hate”, CfMM warned that the network’s reporting “risks inciting violence and discrimination against Muslim communities”. read the complete article