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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the US, the Harvard University Police Department routinely collaborated with other local police forces to monitor pro-Palestine protests near Harvard’s campus, according to emails obtained by The Crimson, elsewhere in the US, the Pakistani government along with attorneys in Houston are calling for the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a neurologist sentenced to 85 years in prison, and in Australia, Muslim leaders say Islamophobia has become normalized in the country, describing recent vandalism targeted at predominantly Muslim communities in Western Sydney as unsurprising. Our recommended read of the day is by Chris Esdaile for Al Jazeera on the 10-year anniversary of the report on the CIA’s 9/11 torture program and how there’s still been almost no accountability or redress. This and more below:
United States
The full truth about the CIA’s post-9/11 torture programme must be known | Recommended Read
Earlier this month, we marked 10 years since the release of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s report (PDF) about the CIA’s post-9/11 torture programme, which revealed that abuse was far more brutal than previously known. While the full text of the 6,700-page report remains secret, its heavily redacted executive summary nevertheless represents the high-water mark of official US recognition of its role in one of the most egregious recent examples of systemic state torture. The report, compiled following a three-year investigation, made it clear beyond dispute that the US repeatedly breached its obligations under the UN Convention against Torture, that US officials lied about the programme, and that it had held far more detainees than previously thought. Whereas it was hoped at the time that the publication of the report would lead to a full official investigation, accountability of the perpetrators and reparation for the victims, it is to the shame of the global community – the vast majority of whom agree with the prohibition of torture – that none of these hopes has been fulfilled. Indeed, while the CIA played the lead role in the torture, personnel from other powerful liberal democracies, including those in Europe, have been deeply implicated in the abuses. The US Senate committee report provided a significant plank of the evidence which has facilitated efforts in Europe to seek justice for the role of European states in the programme, such as the cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights, including the case against Lithuania brought by a REDRESS client, Mustafa al-Hawsawi. read the complete article
How HUPD, City Police Departments Worked Together to Monitor Pro-Palestine Protests
The Harvard University Police Department routinely collaborated with other local police forces to monitor pro-Palestine protests near Harvard’s campus, according to emails obtained by The Crimson through a public records request. The emails, which document the extensive exchange of information between HUPD and its municipal counterparts, show that HUPD and the Cambridge Police Department corresponded about 32 anticipated demonstrations — including 23 pro-Palestine actions — between Oct. 7, 2023, and Aug. 29, 2024. HUPD officials regularly forwarded screenshots of Harvard activist groups’ social media posts to CPD. The Boston Regional Intelligence Center — an arm of the Boston Police Department that gathers intelligence on suspected crime, gang, and terrorist activity — sent CPD and HUPD information regarding the estimated crowd size, the likelihood of counter protesters, and potential threats of violence for at least four pro-Palestine events in the past year. The emails show that HUPD and other local police departments frequently alerted each other to planned protests. Over the past year, that correspondence was dominated by responses to pro-Palestine demonstrations — including through the formation of an “Encampment Working Group” to address the pro-Palestine occupation of Harvard Yard last spring. read the complete article
Houston attorney calls on Biden to release Muslim woman from Texas prison
Back in 2010, Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neurologist with ties to Houston, was sentenced to 86 years in federal prison after a New York jury convicted her of attempting to kill American officers and employees during her detainment in Afghanistan. While the FBI and the Justice Department have described Siddiqui as an "al-Qaida operative and facilitator," Pakistani government leaders and a Texas-based attorney have recently relaunched efforts to demand Siddiqui's release from federal prison. Siddiqui, a 52-year-old inmate at FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, filed a lawsuit in September against the Federal Bureau of Prisons and U.S. government officials. The suit alleged that Siddiqui was raped by prison staff and other inmates, and that she had been barred from visiting with her imam for more than a decade. Afterward, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote President Joe Biden to request the release of Siddiqui from the prison. In recent weeks, Siddiqui's pro bono attorneys, including Maria Kari of Houston, traveled to D.C. to ask lawmakers for help in hopes they can convince the president to grant their client clemency. "In doing this work, I've unfortunately come to learn about how horribly mistreated Muslim inmates are in our prison system," Kari, a Muslim attorney who is originally from Pakistan, said via email. "What I've seen happen to my client is a systemic issue, I believe. These sort of denials are emblematic of the systemic neglect and the racial and religious discrimination in our prison system. We're undermining not only the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, we are exacerbating the sense of isolation and marginalization experienced by Muslim prisoners." read the complete article
Australia
'Crosses the line from free speech to hate speech': Islamophobic graffiti condemned
Australia's special envoy to combat Islamophobia has condemned anti-Islam graffiti that was discovered in western Sydney over the weekend as "appalling" and "unacceptable". Speaking to SBS Arabic on Monday, Aftab Malik joined religious and political leaders in their condemnation of the incident, as police continued their investigation. "Regarding the message itself, what was sprayed was appalling, and it's simply unacceptable, and it crosses the line from free speech to hate speech," Malik said. The words 'F--- Islam' had been spray painted onto both sides of an underpass and the words 'cancel Islam' were graffitied on a nearby advertisement. By Sunday afternoon, the graffiti had been painted over. On Sunday, the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) said it "strongly condemns" the graffiti, describing it as "another Islamophobic and anti-Muslim attack in Australia". "The location of the attack is no coincidence. This act of Islamophobia was targeted at a suburb with a high Muslim majority to intimidate and threaten the Muslim population," ANIC said. read the complete article
Muslim leaders say more needs to be done to counter Islamophobia
Muslim leaders say Islamophobia has become normalised in Australia, describing recent vandalism targeted at predominantly Muslim communities in Western Sydney as unsurprising. The Islamic Council of NSW chief executive Elias Attia told ABC Radio Sydney on Tuesday that the Chester Hill graffiti was disappointing but not surprising. He said it was far from the worst incidents he had heard about. "It's like many instances of Islamophobia, they're designed to intimidate the Muslim community, to exclude them from public spaces and make them feel unwelcome in their own neighbourhoods," Mr Attia said. "There's always been low levels of racism in south-west Sydney itself and that's the places where there are Muslims." "My question is how did we get here? It's become so normalised that communities are deciding to seek safety and comfort within their own communities, and they draw resilience and strength from the structures that they already know of." NSW Premier Chris Minns condemned the Islamophobic graffiti on Sunday, saying it was "designed to incite hatred and completely abhorrent". read the complete article