Today in Islamophobia: In the United Kingdom, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has urged the British government to adopt the definition of Islamophobia proposed in 2018 by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) rather than “reinventing the wheel” with a new definition, meanwhile in the United States, a military flight carrying migrants landed in Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday carrying around 10 migrants with criminal records, according to a Homeland Security official and lastly, human rights advocates across the globe react in shock and disbelief after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza strip and take control of the territory. Our recommended read of the day is a personal testimony by former Guantánamo Bay detainee Mansoor Adayfi for The Guardian on his first-hand experience at the notorious facility and how he believes imprisoning immigrants at the facility would be a “moral failure”. This and more below:
United States
I was a Guantánamo detainee. I’m horrified that Trump wants to keep immigrants there | Recommended Read
In a move that has reignited outrage, the president, Donald Trump, signed an executive order to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Guantánamo Bay, aiming to detain up to 30,000 immigrants labeled as “high-priority criminal aliens”. For many, including myself, this decision is a painful reminder of the facility’s dark history – a history marked by torture, indefinite detention and systemic dehumanization. Guantánamo Bay, a name synonymous with human rights abuses, was first repurposed in 2002 under then president George W Bush and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a detention center for individuals branded as “the worst of the worst”. I was among those detainees – abducted, shackled and transported like cargo, blindfolded and unaware of my fate. The memories of roaring military planes, soldiers barking orders and the growls of attack dogs still haunt me. The US government justified our detention by painting us as dangerous terrorists, a narrative that allowed for indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial. Now, more than two decades later, a similar narrative is being constructed. Trump’s rhetoric of labeling undocumented immigrants as “the worst criminal illegal aliens”, is a deliberate and dehumanizing tactic that opens the door to further abuses under the guise of national security. This decision is not just a policy shift; it’s a moral failure. Having endured nearly 15 years in Guantánamo without due process, subjected to torture and inhumane conditions, I can attest to the facility’s capacity for cruelty. I shared those cages with innocent men and even children, all victims of a system designed to strip away their humanity. read the complete article
Cancellation of Gaza panel prompts almost 200 Harvard affiliates to file discrimination complaints
Nearly 200 Harvard faculty, students, staff, and alumni have submitted discrimination complaints to the university after its medical school cancelled a panel featuring Gazan patients receiving care in Boston. Their complaints allege a “pervasive pattern of bias against and selective silencing of the voices of Palestinians” at Harvard, which they say creates “a hostile environment on campus for Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, as well as Jewish and other community members who support Palestinian human rights,” according to a release from Concerned Harvard Faculty, a group that emerged after pro-Palestinian student activists camped in Harvard Yard in May. The complaints — of which 36 are from students, 32 from faculty, and 30 from staff — call on Harvard to issue a formal apology to students and patients for cancelling the lecture and panel and to condemn hate speech against Harvard institutions studying Palestine. They also want Harvard to found an Institute of Palestine Studies, launch a university-wide investigation into systemic anti-Palestinian bias, and require university-wide training against anti-Palestinian bias by an organization such as the Institute for the Understanding of Palestinian Racism. read the complete article
Trump to urge universities to 'monitor,' 'report' Israel-Hamas protesters
President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at combatting antisemitism calls on institutions of higher education to "monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff" concerning "antisemitism" on college campuses. Some legal scholars say they're concerned about what this could mean for free speech on college campuses following more than a year of tension between students, faculty and administrators, while other experts noted that past McCarthy-era cases on communist activity could foreshadow the action's legal standing. "It provides like a signaling mechanism and an alibi for university administrators who ... want to crack down on Palestinian activism, and now they can point to this executive order and use the government as a further pretext for their actions, even though they're under no legal obligation to do what the executive order says," said Darryl Li, a legal scholar at the University of Chicago, in an interview with ABC News. He added that in his legal opinion, "They're not under a legal obligation to spy on their students and to report their students to the government. They need not, and they should not, cooperate with this executive order." read the complete article
Trump administration taps right-wing ideologue for senior State Dept job
The Trump administration has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official at the State Department a former speech writer for President Donald Trump with a history of doubts over U.S. foreign policy towards Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior State Department official said, a role that determines the tone of America's public messaging in the world. Beattie requires Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. Beattie's earlier social media posts have come under the spotlight, prompting a warning from Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League which said he "has no place in a role representing American values abroad." "Throughout the years, Beattie has participated in several conversations and events organized by notorious racists, antisemites and white supremacists and has continuously promoted an array of conspiracy theories, including those related to the Jan. 6 insurrection and the "Great Replacement" theory, embraced by antisemites and white supremacists," ADL said. Beattie was terminated as a speech writer for Trump after The Washington Post in 2018 reported that he had spoken at a conference attended by well-known white nationalists. read the complete article
Migrant flight lands in Guantanamo Bay as legal questions swirl around Trump plans
As tents went up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold migrants, attorneys at the Department of Homeland Security and Pentagon were still trying to determine whether it was legal to take the unprecedented step of flying migrants from the US southern border to the facility, according to two US officials and a person familiar with the planning. On Tuesday, a military flight carrying migrants landed in Guantanamo Bay, according to a social media post from US Transportation Command. It was carrying around 10 migrants with criminal records, according to a Homeland Security official. The migrants will be housed at the detention facility part of Guantanamo, separate from the current detainees, according to a US official and a source familiar. The move stems from President Donald Trump’s memorandum directing the federal government to prepare the US Naval base there to house tens of thousands of migrants. While Guantanamo Bay hosts a migrant-processing center, it has largely been used for migrants interdicted at sea, not brought from the United States. “They’d be pushing the limits of where the (Immigration and Nationality Act) applies,” said a former Homeland Security official. Immigration law applies to the United States, and it’s unclear what would happen to those moved out of the country only to be held in detention elsewhere. The source familiar with the plan said questions like how long the migrants can legally be held there, and what their rights would be while detained, are still unanswered. It is also unclear whether the migrants will have any access to legal or social services while detained at the base. read the complete article
International
‘Insane’: Rights advocates denounce Trump’s call for US to ‘own’ Gaza
Donald Trump’s call for the United States to “take over” and “own” Gaza after its Palestinian population is entirely displaced has stunned rights advocates and politicians, prompting condemnations and forceful rejections of the proposal. While Trump had been calling for forcibly depopulating Gaza he took his proposal to a new level during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, saying the US would acquire the Palestinian territory. Critics argue that Trump is not only advocating ethnic cleansing in Gaza but also proposing the acquisition of land by force in violation of the United Nations charter. In 1994, UN experts defined ethnic cleansing as “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas”. Trump said that depopulating Gaza is necessary because it has been turned into a “demolition site” after more than 15 months of US-backed Israeli bombardment. Abed Ayoub, executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), said Trump’s proposal is “terrifying”. Ayoub said the US president’s comments are “insane”, but they should not be taken lightly, stressing that it was Israel’s plan all along to ethnically cleanse Gaza. “It would go against all norms and international law. This isn’t something that would be permitted to happen,” Ayoub told Al Jazeera. “But at this point, you’ve got to ask yourself, if you look at the past year and a half: How much does the international community, including Israel, really care about international law and norms?” read the complete article
Displacement and Erasure in Palestine: The Politics of Hope with Noa Shaindlinger
American taxpayers fund the Israeli army with $4 billion per year, however, they know little about the Palestinians who live under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza or as citizens of Israel. Moreover, when Palestinians are discussed in American media or the halls of power, they are portrayed exclusively through a terrorism lens that reinforces false Islamophobic and anti-Arab stereotypes. The Humanizing Palestine Lecture Series hosted by the Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights features scholars who center the lived experiences, voices, culture and political analysis of Palestinians and their allies. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Muslim council urges UK government to adopt Islamophobia definition
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has urged the UK government to adopt the contentious definition of Islamophobia proposed in 2018 by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Muslims in comments made to Middle East Eye. Earlier, it emerged that the government is planning to create a council to help draw up an official definition for anti-Muslim discrimination, indicating it has rowed back plans to adopt the APPG definition. "The Muslim Council of Britain welcomes the government's interest in tackling Islamophobia, but rather than reinventing the wheel, we urge them to adopt the APPG definition," the MCB told MEE. The Telegraph reported on Monday night that the planned 16-strong council within the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government will advise the government on tackling Islamophobia. It will also work an official, though non-legally binding, definition of anti-Muslim discrimination. Labour was expected to formally adopt the definition upon entering government, but the decision to create a new council indicates that it has rowed back on the definition, and could aim to adapt it or formulate a new one entirely. read the complete article
Fears, anguish and frustration in a northern UK town hit by racist riots
In the middle of last year, Shazia Noor Ghani’s phone was a relentless barrage of anxiety, fear, and heartbreak. A mother of three, she found herself at the centre of a desperate crisis, managing a hotline that was inundated with calls from terrified Muslim women in Middlesbrough, as the town descended into hate-fuelled riots. The wave of chaos, which hit various towns and cities, was one of the largest demonstrations of racist violence in living memory to hit the UK. At one point in the northern port town of Middlesbrough, a group of white men set up a makeshift checkpoint, halting traffic and interrogating drivers about their ethnicity, demanding to know if they were “white” or “English”. “I didn’t get off the phone for three days,” Ghani recalled, her voice tinged with exhaustion as she relived those dark days. “I was just getting nonstop calls from terrified Muslim women asking for advice. It was so traumatic. They didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know where to go. ‘Are we allowed out? Can we go get milk?’” “I am probably one of the most confident women you’ll ever come across,’ said Ghani. “Nothing phases me. But I was scared to walk out of my house.” Muslim women disproportionately bear the brunt of Islamophobia, with those visibly identifiable as Muslim more likely to be targeted in anti-Muslim hate crimes. “It really is different when you wear the hijab,” said Ghani. “You are treated totally differently.” read the complete article