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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In France, Al Kindi, the only Muslim private high school in France, is facing the threat of contract termination by the Rhone Prefecture, meanwhile, a new report published by Amnesty International has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, and in the US, President-elect Donald Trump is having casual conversations at Mar-a-Lago about tapping Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for Secretary of Defense. Our recommended read of the day is by the Middle East Eye on how more than eighty student and faculty groups nationwide are calling on authorities to investigate whether the FBI unlawfully searched the homes of two Palestinian American students last month in connection to a graffiti incident at George Mason University. This and more below:
United States
FBI raids home of Palestinian American over campus graffiti during Gaza protest | Recommended Read
More than 80 student and faculty groups from across the country, including pro-Palestine organisations on US campuses, are urging authorities in a letter sent on Tuesday to investigate what led the FBI to raid the home of two Gaza protest leaders last month. Two Palestinian-American sisters who are also students at George Mason University (GMU) in Virginia had their home raided by the FBI. The house was searched for six hours and their electronic devices were seized, according to a new report by The Intercept on Tuesday. More than a dozen police officers, as well as a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, arrived at the family home in Springfield, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC, in the early morning hours of 7 November and broke down the door. They forced the family to sit in the living room as the house was searched. Officers refused to show the family a search warrant but told them the investigation concerned spray-painted graffiti on the GMU campus related to a protest against Israel's war on Gaza. At the time, the university had publicised a $2,000 reward for information on any suspects. While they were not arrested during the raid, one of the two sisters in the home is the current co-president of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at GMU. The other is a former president, The Intercept reported. They were both banned from GMU in September, shortly after the graffiti incident, with police citing “criminal trespass”. The sisters have not been able to continue their education. The SJP chapter has also since been suspended. read the complete article
The heavy burden universities place on Muslim women students
When she used to ride the train, Fifi, a hijabi Muslim woman, would encounter people who screamed at her or refused to sit next to her. So she caught rides with friends or paid for pricey Ubers. In February, she joined a blockade at the University of California, Berkeley to protest Israel’s invasion of Rafah in Gaza. Hecklers targeted her. She was pushed, yelled at, and even approached by a man with a knife, she told Prism. The man was escorted away by the police, Fifi said, but he was still seen around campus. These are just some of the recent incidents Fifi has endured as a graduate student in California. She is using a pseudonym for fear of further violence. “I think people have this perception that Muslim women are weak,” Fifi told Prism. “[It] took a lot of mental and emotional toll, people spitting towards me or calling me a terrorist. People would come and say, ‘I wish you got gang raped.’” According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), since Oct. 7, 2023, there has been a widespread culture of Islamophobia and anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism at major American universities, including Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Michigan. These universities instigate a culture of gendered Islamophobia by ignoring hate speech, death threats, and threats of sexual violence targeting Muslim women. read the complete article
Trump Considering Most Embarrassing New Choice Possible for Defense
The president-elect is having casual conversations at Mar-a-Lago about tapping Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the highly coveted Cabinet position, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Unlike the majority of Trump’s “anti-qualified” picks to run his government, DeSantis would, at least, have some level of experience for the role. The 46-year-old briefly served as a Navy lawyer in Iraq and was part of a legal team that advised the Guantánamo Bay detention center, where he backed torture methods such as force-feeding. DeSantis was also one of Trump’s more outspoken primary challengers, sparking a bitter—if lopsided—rivalry that cast the Florida governor as disloyal to the MAGA cause. But the pair’s shared perspective on “woke” politics in the military might be enough to get him in the door. But DeSantis isn’t the only option being floated. Also on the list of Hegseth replacements is former Pentagon official Elbridge Colby, a friend of Vice President–elect JD Vance, and Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, according to sources that spoke with the Journal. read the complete article
Durbin Urges Settlement for Accused 9/11 Plotters
The departing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Wednesday to support a settlement with the man accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks, a move that would allow guilty pleas to go forward in the last days of the Biden administration. “Far too many family members have died waiting for the military commission trial at Guantánamo to start — let alone deliver justice,” Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, wrote in a letter. He said the families of those killed on Sept. 11 had suffered “two decades of delays and false promises” in the case, which has spent more than a decade in pretrial proceedings to sort out if the C.I.A.’s torture of defendants tainted potential trial evidence. read the complete article
International
Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
Amnesty International’s research has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, the organization said in a landmark new report published today. The report, ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, documents how, during its military offensive launched in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity. “Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International. “Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now. “States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide. All states with influence over Israel, particularly key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU member states, the UK and others, must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end.” read the complete article
Mother of high-profile Uyghur activist allowed to leave China as part of prisoner exchange
China has allowed Ayshem Mamut, the mother of high-profile Uyghur rights activist Nury Turkel, to leave the country after striking a sensitive prisoner exchange deal, her family and officials at the White House said. The US national security council said it was “pleased Ayshem Mamut is home with her family” in the US, confirming that she was freed by China in a deal between Washington and Beijing. A Chinese national, Ms Mamut, 73, celebrated Thanksgiving meal in Virginia with her family, including grandchildren, this past weekend, reported The New York Times. “Our prayers have been answered. After more than 20 years, I am overjoyed to be reunited with my mother here in Washington. Most importantly, she can finally embrace her grandchildren for the first time,” said Mr Turkel in a post on X. Last week, China and the US brokered a deal allowing three American citizens imprisoned for years by China to come home. Their release, announced earlier by the White House, was the result of a rare diplomatic agreement with Beijing in the final months of the Biden administration. read the complete article
France
Liberte, egalite, fraternite – unless you are Black or Arab in France
Paris, the so-called city of romance and lights, has an utterly dangerous dark side, where people with dark skin or Arab origin are tormented, labelled as ‘outsiders’ and not French enough. Black and Arab individuals are frequently stopped by the French police, asked for identification, and subjected to frisking and even strip searches – all because of their skin colour and ethnic or religious background. Last year, France's highest administrative court, the Council of State, recognised that racial profiling by law enforcement was a systemic issue rather than isolated incidents. The government is yet to wake up to this stark reality and take serious measures to make its minorities feel safe. Dr. Amina Easat-Daas, a Political Scientist at De Montfort University and an author, tells TRT World that calls from international organisations such as the UN to limit racial profiling have gone unheeded. “Racial profiling by law enforcement cannot be viewed in isolation but must be understood as a symptom of larger systemic issues,” Easat-Daas says. “Evidence suggests that French racialised communities are twenty times more likely to be stopped by police.” read the complete article
France’s Only Muslim High School Faces Potential Contract Termination
Al Kindi, the only Muslim private high school in France, is facing the threat of contract termination by the Rhone Prefecture. The threat could potentially end the school’s official association with the state. According to the website Lyon Capitale, the school has been informed that the prefecture has initiated a procedure to revoke its association contracts. Al Kindi has been the sole Muslim institution in France with a state partnership. According to Lyon Capitale’s report, Rhone prefecture confirmed the procedure but no details have been discolored regarding the reasons behind the move. The National Federation of Muslim Private Education said it is concerned over what it described as “systematic harassment” of Muslim schools. The president of the federation, Makhlouf Mamech, accused the French government of taking “disproportionate decisions” and imposing “intensified controls” on Muslim institutions. 6) The Black Gate: Vanished in the Night (China) In the Xinjiang region of western China, the government has rounded up and detained hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups. Many haven't been heard from in years, and more still are desperately searching for their families. Western governments have called this crackdown a cultural genocide and a possible crime against humanity. In this episode, the first of a three-part series, NPR correspondent Emily Feng tells the story of one of those people. For years, a Uyghur man named Abdullatif Kucar had no idea what has happened to his wife and young children after they were detained by Chinese authorities. Emilly follows Kucar as he desperately searches for his family. But this story is bigger than one family. In this series, Emily also travels across Asia and dives into decades of history to uncover the massive Chinese surveillance of Uyghurs, getting exclusive interviews with the people suffering from that surveillance and the people upholding it – who sometimes are one and the same. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Kemi Badenoch as Tory leader only promises more Islamophobia
Kemi Badenoch’s election as the first black woman to lead the Conservative Party marks a significant moment in Britain’s political history. Under Boris Johnson, she advanced through a series of positions, most notably as Secretary of State for Women and Equality, Housing, Communities, and Local Government, before being renamed Minister of State for Levelling Up Communities. Now, Badenoch’s political ascension to the top of the Conservative Party marks a new era. She is not only the first black woman to lead a political party, but she could also potentially be the first black woman to lead the UK in the future. But why is her ascent to victory not filling me with joy? As Badenoch continues the conversation with Phillips about Israel, she proceeds to insinuate that Muslims are the problem, as they seem to dislike Israel more than others. Badenoch uses the example of northern Nigeria in particular - where there are more Muslims - in order to compare the difference in this religious group’s response to Israel compared to non-Muslims. Her regurgitation of the dangerous transnational Muslim subject is troubling because not only is she continuing her party’s legacy of maligning Muslims and framing them as inherently anti-Semitic, but she is also asserting what her policies on international politics could look like. Furthermore, Badenoch’s focus on Muslims and suggesting that ‘not all cultures are equally valid’ indulges civilisational ideas that require people to see some as beneath them. At every turn, we should push back against the politics this new leader has been peddling on Muslims, and migrants, as well as Palestine solidarity activists by extension. This is not just because it further cements division, but because it is a window into how the state will eventually broaden its repressive tactics towards everyone. And this trajectory is clear, just look at her jibes at the Black Lives Matter movement, or her shunning of Critical Race Theory being taught in universities. read the complete article